I think it comes down to one thing...NAPS.
Naps are expected for pros. It's part of the job. Galen Rupp explained this in his March Competitor Radio interview that I listened to this morning on my run.
Naps are indulgent for age groupers.
Naps are an asset for pros. It is expected that they nap as part of their recovery because they can only train as much as their recovery allows.
Naps can be a liability of sorts for an age-grouper, especially one with family/kids. As if it wasn't bad enough that I took X amount of time away from the family to swim/bike/run, now I have the gall to tack a nap onto that? Time spent napping is time spent NOT doing something else.
I don't nap often, but this ended up a rare double-napper weekend. I trained early to leave the day open for the family, but could not fight the pull of the post-workout, post-workout-meal, post-shower nap.
These were not epic, nap-deserving workouts either. Saturday was a 43 mile bike ride (photo above; Solar bike jersey blasts past the coal cars of the non-moving train!), and today was a 10.5 mile run. The resulting naps were the half comatose sleeps where you don't move, you don't exactly sleep, the brain is busy thinking of all the things you should be doing, and you wake up feeling worse than when you laid down. Ugh.
Most weekends I can go and go and go but every once in a while I get one of these. I give into it, figuring I need it. I'm trying to take it easy. Tomorrow is a day off.
Note to self: GET TO BED EARLY!!
