From stress to rest is what I put this last week into being. Coming into this week I had just raced in Christchurch on the Sunday and woke up early the next Monday to start my road trip home to Dunedin to make my 11am class, safe to say by the end of the trip my bum was more than sore and I was ready for the walk into class, but not the sitting obviously.
That’s one thing I enjoy about my training is that with all my studying I still am getting active outside, unlike if I didn’t. Safe to say I made it home just in time to whip together a lunch and start the walk in to university. This week started as a stress as I had just come out of finishing my chemistry mid-term and now I was coming into my cells mid term in less than 3 days.
I was already slightly behind with the study due to the total of 10 hours travel and the race itself so the stress inside me was starting to build. Getting through revision was slow but I knew if I wanted it to be effective I had to play the slow game, but honestly didn’t know if I had the time to play the slow game.
Learning how to handle my anxiety and stress is a ongoing battle for me as once I start to get inside of my own head I know I shouldn’t but I can’t get out of it. As time crept in the pressure increased, at the time I didn’t think so. Fortunately, but now I do think so that the night before the test I signed up to play in a game of volleyball against Selwyn our opposing college in the college tournament, the game only lasted an hour but I was still not happy about playing due to it taking time away from me that I felt I didn’t have, never-the-less I wasn’t going to let the team down and I am grateful I went.
The game turned out to be so much fun and we ended up winning while it acted as a full mind and mental rest, draining all the stored up anxiety I had. Coming home from the game I felt so much more ready to study and calm that I was able to complete a large amount of study before I went to bed, and completed it the next day prior to the exam with some time to do some practice overall.
Knowing I wasn’t going to have the best sleep and hadn’t for the past week I decided to push my long run till the following day to remove that as another barrier to get through, which I am glad I did, except for the fact that the weather turned torrential with the worst winds I had ever ran into, making me 99.9% sure I was going to run inside for the first time ever, which I ended up still not and braving the wind, which is reflected in my in zone score.
Moving this let me feel like there was one less barrier to completing the test, which usually training is helpful to me but in these circumstances I’m proud that I did not push through and listened to what I thought was the right thing to do.
From the hectic mess of all of that to the following afternoon after my long run, the easter weekend had arrived and my mid semester break had begun. Who knew that something so overwhelming could go away so fast. This mid semester break I’m focusing on making sure I’m well rested, fuelled, and getting enough sleep. While catching up on the class notes I missed while revising study and now starting to revise my next mid term test the first Wednesday back, not very kind of the university I do have to say to myself. But either way I have to comply so trying to get ahead of the stress and anxiety is the goal this time around using the extra time I have.
– Jessica Bray