When I ran my first trail marathon and only a week later rode 220 miles in a 12 hour race my mother bought me a small stuffed Energizer bunny. I was 21 at the time. I was pulling double course-load in school, keeping a steady girlfriend, and training my arse off. Fast forward through my sixth year of college and I was pretty much still going with the throttle wide open.
Looking at present day: While I patiently waited for my left ankle to resume full strength and durability, I realized that the "down time" would be great to work on many more career-oriented tasks. Working 10-12 hour days then putting in study time on top of what I would consider "lighter" training (only 8-10hrs/wk) on the bike and rower while my injury heals up. It is now apparent that the stresses of real life are far more damaging than that of any academic savant and should be managed more carefully.
I've already admitted on this blog that I don't sleep an excessive amount--always falling on the low end of the recommended hours to get in a night. I often attributed that to my workload and my feelings of ambition and the "relentless drive forward" that has consumed me for most of my 20's to today.
ambition, it seems, got the best of me.
I recently was befallen with a viral acute tonsillitis. Basically, I fried my immune system and made it possible for the Epstein-Barr Virus to get into my system. By tonsils were swollen, painful, exudate ridden, nasty-looking hot messes of reality hitting me in the face. I put too much on myself and suffered the consequences of undoing months of training.
I will not digress into my work-related stresses, but I can tell you that I am not happy with my main "bread winning" job. My side projects and on-call contracts are much more meaningful to me--and take up what many would consider needed down time to recharge. Changes are on the horizon and I anticipate feeling much better about my job within this year (*fingers crossed*).
One of the ways I battled this virus is obviously resting more. Easy to do when you're too wiped to even spin light gears on your bike. Humbled, frustrated, and emotionally pained are the three descriptive I would use to describe the situation. I could feel myself atrophy on a daily basis. While I was resting and on steroids I made sure my diet was locked-down tight. Nothing that could raise my inflammation. I stopped drinking (easy to do when you're on Prednisone) my glass of wine at night.
Luckily my nutrition sponsor, Hammer Nutrition has some products that help fight off viral infection and keep me feeling better than I might otherwise:
Super Antioxidant- Grape Seed Extract, Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), Glutathione are featured in this product. While I was skeptical of external antioxidant supplements (SOD & Glutathione are utilized in our mitochondria) I have been impressed with the results in repairing my immune system.
Tissue Rejuvenator- Turmeric, Quercetin (found in apples and onions), Yucca Root, and the
highest enzyme blend in any Hammer Product make this an effective to
lower overall inflammation in the body. I really enjoy this product and have used it with good result.
Additionally, I doubled my basal Vitamin D dosage and have increased the amount of omega-3s in my diet-- Overall, I focused on getting higher amounts of quality fat in my diet.
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I am now healthy enough to start gradually resuming my normal training load and my ankle I feel has resolved enough for some steady road mileage. I will be starting with overall strength gains then returning to churning out larger mileage and steady threshold efforts for anticipation of returning to competition in the Fall after several months of consistent training.
The goals have obviously changed for the season with later-year racing on the mountains showing an appeal to me as well as some 12-hour bike racing.
Now go get some sleep.
P.
