Anger, Training, and the Fourth Discipline

Amazing what a hard workout will do to dissipate anger. I was beyond livid on Friday. Let’s just say that Hubby made a Mistake (notice the capitol M) and I was not feeling even close to be ready to forgive. Unfortunately, Friday was my day off from training so working up a sweat was not an option. Instead, I bought shoes, ate out, went to the tanning bed, got a pedicure and a bottle of my favorite wine. Doesn’t get a lot better than that. By the time I came home, I was feeling at least ready to talk without throwing things. So there was a discussion and a truce but not much else. I still slept on the couch. No “make up” anything.

So Saturday comes, and I am ready to pour on the effort – I had a 70 min swim and a 2 hour bike scheduled. My goal was to swim 2500 yds, including a continuous mile (the farthest I’d swum before Saturday was 1500 yds). I was a hundred yards short of my goal of 2500 because I somehow got it in my head that 6 laps equaled 250yds so my warm up was only 150 and I couldn’t bring myself to do a 350 cool down after swimming that mile. Still, it was a good swim

My first hour on the trainer passed quickly – I had recorded CBS’s coverage of the Xterra World Championships. That was so amazing. Melanie McQuaid just rocked the bike. Damn. The second hour was much harder but I got through it, watching Forensic Files on Court TV. A funny thing started to happen up there, on the bike. As the sweat poured out of me, so did my anger. And something else was creeping back in. Thoughts of what I wanted to do when I got off the trainer began getting more and more colorful. . .

So I got off the trainer after two hours and . . . went for a run. It was the strangest thing, and its happened to me before, the longer I was on my bike, the more my legs wanted to go run. It did feel great to stretch them out, to feel the cold fresh air in my face after being stuck inside for two hours. The moon was full, it was ultra quiet except for my breath and I felt great. I’d forgotten to be angry, I remembered how much I love my husband and I was soooo ready to go home and into the shower - and I did not want to shower alone.

Later, Hubby and I were joking about an article I read that said triathletes should increase their sexual activity to help prevent overtraining. So, in our house at least, we’ve decided that sex is the fourth discipline – that’s one aspect of training that Hubby is ready and willing to help out with.