Jeremy C Kester

With my absence for over a week, two things certainly did not happen: writing and exercise. Now coming back, there is a definitive difference in how I am responding to both as I struggle to get back into routines.

First, I will discuss the exercise. When taking just a week off, I often come back performing at least as though I haven’t left the gym. Prior experience has given me similar insights. In some other cases, I either improve a little or am set back. Typically, it is correlated to the style of exercise. In cardio exercises, such as running, I fall back. In strength training, I improve.

For instance, after this last break my deadlifts, lunges, squats, and other strength exercises went up in either weight or reps. Running on the other hand… I lost half of the distance I covered per run in the days prior to my leaving.

While I see either a gain or a loss, it is easy to jump right back into. The first day I went back to work I went to the gym as well. It might have been a little painful waking up after a vacation. But it was no more painful than when I have a poor night of sleep.

Next, my writing. Consistently in my experience, any time that I take a vacation from writing, I fall back. It takes me at least another 2 days to get the wheels greased enough to start writing again. On top of that, it’s a sputtered start.

I would love to write on my vacation. I love writing. It isn’t work like one would view work. The efforts, no matter the levels of anxiety I feel due to them, are always worth it. Vacation is supposed to be relaxing. Writing also is that for me.

The problem is that my vacations seldom ever include writing. It’s just not something I have much luck at right now in combination of all things I do. It is something I try harder and harder to manage though as it comes with so many benefits. Like endurance training though, if you don’t keep up the momentum, you lose it. Stamina: gone. Inspiration: gone. Motivation: gone. I struggle normally to get started again.

Like many writers have said before I was even born, creativity comes more from continued persistence. You keep training. Sure, you can write almost anything and it could still be half decent or even good with sporadic, disconnected writing sessions. But writing every day does so much more. You can’t run a marathon by just deciding one day to do so. Writing is not that much different.

That is where I stand. I am trying to build back up my writing and running stamina while my strength training jumps in as though no time was lost. Boy it’s going to be a tough few days getting back into things.