14 Days of Nothing

Thursday (Thanksgiving) will be the official start of my “14 Days of Nothing.” It’s my 2 week off-season where I’ll rest sore muscles, nurse minor injuries, and basically do as little physical activity as possible.

My self-imposed rules:

• No strength training. I’ve had a sore spot behind my right shoulder blade that flares up a bit when I lift weights, so hopefully some rest will help.

• No swimming. Again, for the sore shoulder blade.

• No biking or spinning. Cuz it sucks. ;) And my lower back is still sore from spinning so hard at the indoor tri.

• No foam rolling. That could be just a little too much during “complete rest” for my legs. Editors note: I've changed this one. I'll foam roll a few times a week to help "work out the kinks." I don't think that's overkill, right?


OK, I can’t just do ABSOLUTELY nothing for 14 days, so here’s what I’m allowing myself:

• Some core work. Doing core exercises has never really “hurt” anything else, so I figure I’m pretty safe doing some balance ball sit-ups, planks, Andrea’s exercises on the Bosu, etc.

• Some gentle stretching. This will be 3 days a week at the maximum. And it won’t be that intense.

• Maybe some lunges, leg presses, body-weight squats, etc. Again, this won’t be too much, but I might feel the need to do something more around days 10-14. And definitely NO calf raises because of my sore heels.

• Get a massage. Oh, that'll be a tough one... ;)

• 1 easy 2-4 mile run. No watch. Just nice and easy.


How does that look? Is that “off” enough? Do I need to rest more? Or should I throw in another easy run (or swim)? I’m new to “time off.”

So this will all start tomorrow (on Thanksgiving). Technically, since the indoor tri on Sunday, I’ve only stretched and foam-rolled once, so it’ll practically be 17 days of nothing once it’s all said and done. Today, I’d like to stretch and do a good core workout before starting “nothing” tomorrow.

Then, once the 14 days are over, I’ll ease back into it over 10 days or so. Then it will be time to be ramping up my miles in training for the Winter Carnival Half Marathon in January!

I’ll report back everyday with what I’ve been up to while I HAVEN’T been training.