Rest and rePOSE

Rest is as important as training. Anyone will tell you that, but just how much rest you need is obviously specific to you. I found that out last week. I've stepped up my training to 12-15 hours a week recently and rather naively assumed I'd be ok keeping everything else about my routine the same (as in meal sizes, amount of sleep etc). It's not exactly rocket science, but if you increase the stresses your body is placed under you are going to have to increase the amount of time it has to rest and recover proportionally (at least until it gets used to the new load). Sadly I am not a rocket scientist (although when you think about it, the principles of rocket science are about as simple as they get), didn't increase my rest and paid the price. By the end of last week I was dead on my feet, it took going to bed at 9pm on Friday (living the student life to the max!) and sleeping until about 9:30am on Saturday, and then repeating something similar last night to get me back to feeling human. 


The interesting thing was I didn't feel like the fatigue was necessarily impacting on my training (although I did end up not doing a session on Thursday-probably a direct result looking back), I was just generally feeling like I needed to curl up and snooze. I find it ironic as over the past few weeks I have been saying to a few people who have asked for advice on training etc just how important rest is! I do think the best way to learn is through experiences such as this, I pay very close attention to how my body feels during training sessions to try and catch signs of over training but now I know I also need to watch how I feel inbetween sessions to make sure I'm recovering enough generally! After all, it's no good going into a race with fresh legs if you're struggling to stay awake...

I think I may have to re-acquaint myself with the tried and tested 'cyclist nap'. I'm not sure how a 'cyclist nap' is different to a normal nap. Maybe we just have a better excuse.


Also, I'm now training with a Powermeter and using the Golden Cheetah analysis software which has a rather nifty Performance Manager feature built in which gives each ride/session a stress score and then plots those scores over time. Should be interesting to see how that develops over the next few weeks...although at the end of the day, I don't need an algorithm to tell me my legs are fooked and need a break!






Anyway. Enough of the serious stuff. Onto another 'Things That Grind My Gears'. Today it's FreeWeightRoomGymPosers.


Every time I go to pilates (don't laugh, try it first) I have to walk past the free weights room in the gym and every time I do it is FULL of the Tank-Topped-Milk-Bottle-Skin-Never-Does-Exercise-Outside-Poser grimacing away while they watch themselves lift weights in the mirror. Purlease. I am a traditionalist you see and believe that exercise is best done outdoors. I am sure gyms are fantastic. And yes, I can see that in order to 'buff up' you probably have to lift weights (why you couldn't just go swimming I don't know, has the same effect if you do it hard enough!). And of course, you are welcome to then wear tight tops to show off the 'fruits' of your 'labours' as having muscles for people to admire is quite obviously the sole reason for you spending all this time and money-nobody will think anything less of you honest; but please go about it in a way that doesn't make me think POSER. Don't swagger around campus feigning fatigue (as I can guarantee that unless you've stepped outside of a gym you don't know what true fatigue is) and taking large swigs from a rather inconspicuous protein shaker as if to say 'Hey look everyone! I just worked out so hard my body needs help recovering! Aren't I Manly!'


And whatever you do, do not walk past me saying loudly to your mate 'Oh man I did 20 minutes cardio in the gym yesterday and it KILLED me.' As I will slap you very hard in the face and tell you to man up and do some real exercise. (this happened today, just minus the face slapping. I did nearly spit coffee all over the offending brute though it shocked me that much. If I'd had a monocle it would undoubtedly have fallen into my cup.)






Fin.