The temperatures have plummeted to all time lows and work, as a result, has a been quite dynamic. This has led to a distinctive lengthening of the work day, shortening of the training opportunities and even less time for recovery from the sessions. Stress levels of this unwelcome start to the new year has also played havoc with my body's ability to rebound.
Seemingly unrelated, mother nature has led, as perhaps with many amateur athletes, to a certain amount of over-training, or as is more appropriate, under recovering. It's been preached on here many times, the importance of emphasizing recovery. However, it is often very enlightening to experience how hard it is to practice what you preach. Yet again I have found myself run down and excessively. It's easy to think that only running an hour, or strength training for an hour or spinning for an hour is not the fatiguing. What has been fatiguing is the intensity practiced during those sessions, experimenting with different style of workouts that can be incorporated in to the upcoming training season. However, by doing so, a continued high intensity 60 minute session following a long work day, will lead to under-recovery. Becoming caught up in the fun of experimenting with these new found hour workouts is easily blinding to such a result.
Yet, as the story of David and Goliath has taught many generations of school children, the weakness of a situation can easily become a strength. Having taken three days in a row off - one dedicated to sleep. One to ensure I recovered and an additional day for good measure – the body has bounced back as it invariably does, allowing me to enter the final phase prior to beginning training well rested and somewhat fatigue free. Additionally, it has also reaffirmed my commitment to Dr Maffetone's method of training for endurance. You must train within yourself if you are to arrive wel rested and race ready. That requires a disciplined approach to controlling your impulses and not always reacting to your peers when training. As I seem to read more and more these days, in numerous articles in activity related glossy print, recovery is key, whether you are a pro or amateur. It's senseless gaining that extra yard and then arrive at the race injured or fatigued. It's been occurring for decades. It is frequently sympathized with that so and so didn't make it because they are injured, but perhaps a more appropriate statement would be “why is so and so injured and not able to start?” Injuries frequently occur as a result of the athlete ignoring their bodies and pushing beyond their daily limits. “Daily” because to often each day's limits will very greatly. We are naturally driven to train for ultimate performance, however a time for that attitude is race day, to push the limits. Training is to ensure that you arrive at that on that day ready to perform to that extreme. It isn't to try to discover that ability everyday, although when training with Napoleon, or any of the other reprobates that are nice enough to keep me company during the season, it can be hard to resist the pull of the competitive drive.
This blog serves the purpose to enable experience based learning. There is a popular phrase in my profession that can be well used here. We hope that our bag full of luck doesn't run out before our bag full of experience is filled. As we age, that bag of luck becomes lighter and lighter and we must dive in to the bag of experience to ensure we call on the bag of luck less and less.
Good luck to us all!
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