How To Cheat The Cheat Day
The alarm buzzes a little differently on Sunday mornings. I wake up with the awareness that Sunday Morning Joe is already on its way to you. Then, like that, I’m out of bed.
Sunday around here might be quite similar to your Sundays. I look forward to a rest day. And maybe a rest day that could include a breakfast that is different from the usual — for example, maybe pancakes instead of eggs. (Ok, not “for example,” but explicitly pancakes.)
Sundays by design call to the spirit of rest — a step back or a slowed pace. After an exhausting week in every facet of my health, I am ready for this kind of Sunday.
Rest days are nothing new in the pursuit of performing your best. Your body and mind need a break. Require a break. Demand a break. More often than not, this “rest day” becomes “cheat day,” a day of indulgence and consumption commonly associated with excess guilty pleasures and laziness.
My Sundays start out the same as my regular workdays. I finish my Small Steps Daily Practice — the morning practice I do each day which includes yin yoga, meditation, idea-listing, and journaling. And then coffee with my wife.
But on this Sunday, something unexpected happened. I was tricked by a mundane task.
I grind coffee beans, pack them into the basket of the stove-top espresso maker, and let the coffee pot perform its magic.
I head over to the laundry area. I open the dryer door and pull out clean clothes to fold. First, my red dry-fit running shirt. Then the shorts, socks, and my running cap. Each item feels good and smells clean and fresh.
I place these clothes on top of the dryer and head back to the kitchen, where the aroma of coffee has enveloped the kitchen and is floating down the hall.
And that’s when the unexpected happened. I was pulled towards the laundry. The freshly folded running clothes would be better on me than sitting on the dryer.
As the last bit of coffee percolates, I take one cup from the cabinet, pour in a little milk, and then the coffee. The coffee falling into the cup is the hardest part, because this cup is not for me. Mine will be a reward that comes later. This cup is for Lisa. It’s my “I love you” gesture.
I place Lisa’s cup on the table next to where she is still sleeping in bed. Or was… coffee aroma.
“Running?” she asks.
It’s not a matter of *if* I’ll do this run.
“Yup,” I say.
Since a workout for today wasn’t in the plans, I opt for a short and intense run — five intervals of three minutes each as hard as I can.
Workouts like this dig into the highest end of my capacity and are usually more painful than a slow and steady run. But, moving beyond the threshold of normal will sometimes generate feelings of exhilaration.
On this morning, it’s more of the latter. I feel really good as I close out the fifth and final set and suddenly, a question pops into my head:
What really gets cheated on a cheat day?
When I recall my own peak performances, it’s rarely been about the training plan or the ratio of hard training days to the easy ones. Rather, my peak performances seem to come when I was faced with the unexpected urge to change things up and dig more deeply.
To get better at working with the unexpected means being available to practice unexpectedly — to spontaneously accept the challenges and discomfort that weren’t in the plans.
As soon as I finished my run, I came home and wrote this post. And made another pot of coffee… my reward.
Pancakes and laziness will have to wait another day. So will certainty.
With gratitude,
Joe
Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medal performance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
The best way to interact with me is though Sunday Morning Joe, my weekly newsletter that explores the art of improving performance, overcoming challenge, and aligning with purpose for Sunday readers in search of more depth and motivation. Subscribe HERE for free.
