Body Battery

As an avid athlete, of course I own a Garmin watch. Although it's deeper than that. I mean that my Garmin is a part of me; it's so embedded in my routine that I get phantom limb syndrome when it's not attached to my being. While my friends and family get annoyed by the incessant buzzing, I find an odd comfort in the notifications.

Now of course there have been aspects that I don't adore. For example, I feel the "productivity levels" and telling me that my hard workout was unproductive or that my 30-minute weightlifting session will take 78 hours to recover from... not very cool. Recently, Garmin app added a "body battery" section that tracks how my body is recovering, especially after a night's rest.

I noticed this new feature this morning, on my once-a-month connection that will consequently upload all of my activities/runs/lifts into Strava (shameless plug). Only this morning I saw that my body battery was at a mere 71%. 71/100. On any exam, to me, this would be devastating. If I ran only 71% of my fastest time, I would be incredibly unsatisfied. Yet to my own body, this was fine? In fact, it was the highest my body battery had been the last week. Which makes sense as to why I'm writing this in between blowing my nose, popping Dayquil, and sipping my Miel minus the coffee.

Last week I had a meeting with my coach and she asked me where I was at, mentally. After our discussion, largely which was covered in my last blog post, she told me that she knows I am a very self-aware person and that I need to trust myself. Trust the training, trust what I can do, and trust the signs my body is telling me.

Today, I took the day off. Even though yesterday was my scheduled off day from training. The day before? I did yoga as my hour cross training of choice, and I think these were the right decisions. I could feel a cold coming on, and I had a few exams to study for, so I decided that my body needed some rest in other areas. This is such a hard concept- I wished I didn't ever have to rest, but it's the reality of all our lives. We've all heard the saying, "you can't pour from an empty cup", but you can't pour 100% from a cup that's only filled 71%.

I'm doing my best to learn to listen, and to learn to trust, and for now I just need to take it one day at a time and try to rejoice in the moment that I'm living in. I challenge you to do the same.

xx

Beka