Learning to Chill Out

So I've been taking the "no pressure" approach to my workouts all week long, and it is surprising what it has done for my attitude already. I'm certainly not being lazy about my workouts - I'm even pushing myself pretty hard. But, I'm enjoying it. I'm going in to the gym with an attitude of "fun" and I'm not looking at previous times/reps/weights. I'm doing what feels "good" and I'm trying not to worry about the rest.

Granted, that is not super easy because my tendency is to want to constantly push myself to go, go, go!!! But the difference here is that I'm trying not to push myself to HAVE to do better than the last time. I'm going at it hard, and I'm working hard, but I'm not locking myself in to some self pre-determined "requirement" of what I think that I should or have to be doing.

Goals are a really great thing and I've always had them to help keep me going and focused. What I never really thought about or realized was the downside to fitness goals - when that's all you focus on and never stop to just ENJOY the fitness. For the last few years I've focused on marathon after marathon. 2 per year, with about 4 months of training for each one. I always had a couple of months in between training schedules to just run for fun. I've never really gone a whole year solid, non-stop pushing myself hard most days of the week.

With the running I would feel burned out at times, but then it was time for the Marathon and I'd get my couple of months of easy running. I haven't had those built in rest periods since I began CrossFit, and it hadn't really occured to me that I wasn't taking any real rest periods. Rest days are one thing and are totally necessary, so I was taking those. But, what I had forgotten was the rest periods....times of more relaxed pace working out...time to mentally chill and allow the body and mind to recharge.

I forgot how good it feels to just chill and stop loading myself with stress. I think that in another couple of weeks I'll set some new goals, and make plans for my next major goal, but then also makes plans for the "chill time" too. Maybe I'll try something like 3 months hard, 1 month easy. Obviously, not only does my body need those rest days each week, but my mind needs some rest too.

For now, I'm just going to keep enjoying this no pressure attitude and just have fun!!