REAL LIFE

September 2, 2007

The basic principal of training is a simple matter of stress and recovery. We train ourselves as hard as possible, recover from it and subsequently become stronger... Ideal is the case when the entirety of that stress comes from sport specific stimuli alone. But alas, real life always seems want to have a say in my plans.

For the past few days I have been moving. Our lease was up and we (my girlfriend and I) wanted to find a new place to live. When the end of the month came, there was nothing left to do but leave... Easier said than done. A solid ten hours over two days of carrying furniture, boxes, you name it, up and down several flights of stairs is not exactly restful.

Thursday alone involved 2.5 hours of rollerskiing, several hours of hiking with the PE class I work with and a good 5+ hours of ‘weighted stair walking’.

By the time Saturday rolled around, I felt as though I had been run over by a truck. There was no more room for training this week.

I’ve never been a fan of changing my training plan midway through a week but sometimes there is nothing else that can be done. It is often difficult to have the confidence to simply not train but that is in fact the only way out of feeling tired.

Today I am resting, catching up on some emails that I have missed over a few days and trying my hand at furniture arrangement. Thus far the evidence suggests that I am a far better cross-country skier than interior decorator...

July 15, 2007
For the majority of my athletic career I have been told the value of stretching, easing into the training season and the general care for one’s body aside from the usual stress and recovery cycles of my sport… I have never really listened to those warnings. With great luck, I have avoided injury and illness for many years… That was until I resumed my training this spring. I didn’t bother easing into running or rollerskiing, I just jumped right in with several two-hour workouts; couple that with a brand new weight lifting plan that left me hardly able to walk after the first session and I was just asking for problems.

When I went out for my second run of the week on Wednesday, my knee was really sore. I chose to end the session early to avoid aggravating it too much. The following morning I went rollerskiing. My elbow, unused to the impact of asphalt after a winter on snow, started to act up halfway through the workout.

When I got home I called my coach right away. He quickly informed me that I am just getting old and that I finally ought to start listening to his advice…

I backed off a bit and eased back into normal training over the past week. My joints have been adjusting and I should be back on track in no time…

One of these days I’m going to figure out what stretching is all about.