Disaster Day 2020

Oh, Disaster Day.

I don’t know who came up with this unofficial TrainerRoad holiday, but I’ve done it for the last two years. I started with the -2 last year and decided to do the -1 this year. Maybe I can do the full next year, who knows.

All I do know is that it’s a straight up torture fest on the trainer … and I kinda love it, and I kinda hate it.

It really just brings me to wonder … why do we like to suffer? Why do we choose to suffer?

My partner has told me about this concept before of there being two types of fun: Type 1 and Type 2.

Type 1 is the obvious fun stuff — a birthday party, a concert, a day at the water park. Those are clearly fun things to do and they are immediately gratifying.

Type 2 fun is stuff that is not satisfying in the moment, but then when you look back on them, you are like, “Yeah, that was crazy, wasn’t it?” And you just feel good, accomplished, about what you did. These are things like training for and finishing a marathon or a century ride, getting a college degree, prepping for and competing in a bodybuilding competition. You know, the stuff that people look at you from the outside and go no thanks.

This was definitely a Type 2 kind of day. It was hard. It was, well, basically pointless, in that we weren’t really trying to get anything out of this “workout” … other than just to finish.

But do I feel incredibly accomplished today?

Hell yeah, I do.

I’m not as sore as I thought I’d be. Going down stairs yesterday was no fun. My knee was a little achy, my muscles tight. But I’m definitely surprised I’m not hurting more. (It’s still a rest day, though.)

I also slept for 10 hours. On top of a 1 hour nap yesterday afternoon.

I burned 1,600 calories in 3 hours and 20 minutes. On top of that, I did Sprint in the morning, and even though I tried to take it easy, I still burned about 300 calories there. So I can’t even tell you how hungry I was last night, it was insane. I was just crushing food left and right for the entire evening.

After I got off the bike, I went to change, and shower, and get dressed, and I looked at myself in the mirror and was incredibly proud of this body. This one, with all its imperfections and stretch marks and blemishes and dry skin and razor-missed leg hair — this body did something incredible yesterday.

Amber, on the TrainerRoad podcast, once said (and I paraphrase) that when you win, nobody is going to remember how skinny you were.

There’s so much more to our bodies than just the spots we don’t like. I used to not eat a lot, and pair that with fasted workouts that I didn’t know if I’d get through. To be quite honest, I was never losing weight then, I was just suffering.

But now I’ve grown more comfortable with making sure I have the fuel I need to do what I’m asking of my body, and I’ve noticed a huge change in what I’m capable of now.

So, what did I accomplish on Disaster Day, aside from a crazy amount of suffering?

A new-found appreciation for my body, a whole lot of love for my partner and the TrainerRoad community who were cheering us along on Discord, and another reason to keep on pushing toward the next crazy thing.