As I stare out the window at the pine covered hills of Northeastern Arizona, I find myself struggling with the reality that I will not be spending any time in the saddle (bike saddle, that it) this weekend. That's not to say that my plan was not to ride...oh contraire mon frere - and cheri!
That's the extent of my French.
You see, my wife and I have had plans to take a weekend trip to the Northern Arizona pines, visiting some close friends, for some time now. "How perfect!" I thought. It would give me the opportunity to get in some much needed high-altitude training - you know, the kind that let's you know that you might be in pretty good shape...for a flatlander...but not compared to the mountain men!
I went back and forth, trying to decide whether to mountain bike or road bike. There are some very nice mountain bike trails in the area, and at one point I had settled on mountain biking. The decision then was "which bike?" Would it be a nice soft, cushy full-suspension ride on my Ellsworth Evolve, or would I choose to go ultralight and fast with my Ellsworth Enlightenment...hmm...decisions, decisions.
By the way, those are shameless plugs for Ellsworth Handcrafted Bikes...an amazing bike company who has provided me with a great deal of support. Thank you Ellsworth Handcrafted Bikes!
I then decided, due to the hilly and mountainous terrain, that it may be more beneficial for me to bring the speedster...my super-lightweight, super-fast, all carbon Trek Domane 5.2 road bike. Which by the way was purchased, at Swiss American Bikes...another shameless plug for my local bike store!
Yep, the decision had been made...and I was sticking to it. I knew the weather would be cold, so I had planned out my winter riding attire, as I was not going to make the same mistake I had made the last time I decided to venture out, and ride in sub-freezing weather. Check out the story on my previous blog Getting Race Ready.
As the day drew nearer, it became evident that Old Man Winter was not ready to give up for the season, and was planning to dump a few inches of snow on the beautiful Northern Arizona forests.
Great.
That meant that not only would I not be getting in any altitude training...I would not be getting any training in. Surely, that would cause me to fall way out of shape...right? You see, not only would I not be getting any riding in over the weekend, I would be going right back to work when I returned. That meant another 48-hours of no riding. All I could think was just how bad this was going to be...because, as you all know...my ride is just right around the corner - in October.
"Yeah, get over it John. You still have many months of training ahead. Besides...a little R & R will be good for you."
"Whatever" I thought. "What do you know?" Then I realized I was actually talking to myself, and my self actually knows a little something about training, and the need for recovery. Scary huh?
I know what you're thinking..."it's about time we got to the meat of the subject here!"
That's right, this post was supposed to be about rest and recovery...not just a place for me to talk about my issues of indecisiveness and crazy self dialogue.
So let's get to it...REST!
Rest and recovery are necessary for sustainable high performance. Our bodies are not designed to be constantly battered by physical and emotional stress. We can go on for quite sometime...some much longer than others...but eventually, the repetitive and cumulative stress of training will take it's toll on us. This toll is often paid through injury or a sudden decrease in performance levels.
This is over-training.
So...rather than feel sorry for myself because I would not be training this weekend, I feel blessed that I have been provided with an opportunity to get some much needed rest and recovery...which will certainly pay large dividends when I get back on my bike next week and tackle some serious mountainous terrain.
Time for me to go get some rest. Do you have some rest and recovery time planned this weekend? If not, how about during the next week?
If your training seems to have plateaued, maybe what you need is to get some rest, rather than add another set of intervals, or increase your number of reps and sets.
That's what I'm doing this weekend!
Yours in Health and Performance,
John (a well rested aging athlete)
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