Life of an Age-Grouper

How I fought and (potentially) won against fatigue 1. REST. I made every effort possible to limit my everyday activity. At work I did my best to stay seated at me desk. When getting to and from work I made sure to take every elevator and escalator possible. When I was home I made sure I was sitting with my legs elevated. I believe that elevating one's legs when they are sore or tired is a huge aid in the recovery process, I used to underestimate its significance. 2. ACTIVE RECOVERY: I have mixed reviews of active recovery or doing very low impact, low intensity, short duration efforts. I understand that its purpose is to promote blood flow in order to get fresh oxygenated blood to the muscles and transport toxins away however I believe that it should  be utilized at specific points in time during the recovery phase. It should be used the first few days after a race or after an intense training session. I'm skeptical to say that it useful when dealing with heavy fatigue. ...

As an endurance athlete you can expect to deal with some level of fatigue throughout your career. The level of fatigue can bring your dreams crashing down or simply sideline you for a few days. Hopefully it's the later. I'm currently dealing with an episode of fatigue. Yes, once again in my triathlon career I'm dealing with fatigue. Fatigue, a result of over training, prematurely ended my season last year. That event has embarrassingly traumatized me. I have now become hyper sensitive to my body and the feelings associated with fatigue. After last year's episode with fatigue I vowed NEVER to go to that place again yet, here I am. So what went wrong? In order to ensure that I never went into the fatigue zone I hired a coach, Matt Wontz, head coach of Organic Endurance. He has laid down a training plan that would ensure that the correct steps were taken to improve my fitness and help me achieve my goals in a healthy and efficient manner. I have kept a pretty r...

As a teacher I have the luxury of long breaks from work.  As a triathlete I can't imagine there being a better job, other than being a professional triathlete of course.  I can't tell you how much I look forward to these breaks because they present me with an opportunity to act like a professional triathlete.  My only concerns during breaks are to eat, sleep and breath triathlon or at least until 4:45 when my wife gets home from work.  The Spring break that just concluded was 10 days long and I wasted no time jumping into my training. Leading up to the break Matt put together one hell of a "staycation" training camp. Each session was new in every sense of the word whether it be a longer distance, longer duration, greater intensity, unique format etc.  I looked forward to every session and to see how I would respond to the new, unique, physical and mental shocks to my body.  Despite having been disappointed about my two prior training sessions before this ...

There are only a few things in life that get me really pissed off and in a bad mood. The first is being stuck in traffic. It makes me go crazy and think horrible thoughts. I could be in the best mood ever but the second I hit traffic my mood does a 180 and I'm ready to rage on anyone or anything. Secondly, I hate being sick. While I'm sick I'm only thinking about how much fitness I'm loosing and that I can't train, exercise or do anything productive. Here is the worst, most annoying and aggrevating feeling in the world, being tired. I'm not talking about feeling tired because you stayed out all night partying or because you had a bad night sleep. I'm talking about being physically tired to the point where you can't hit your marks while training. I hate, hate, hate having to rest or having a recovery week or having to, dare I say it? Take a day off. I want to be able to go as hard as I want, for as long as I want, when I want. It pisses me off when my b...

For the past 3 weeks Matt has been asking me the same question, "Are you feeling any fatigue?"  My response every time has been an emphatic, "NO", followed by some phrase like, "that's all you got, bring it, don't hold out on me, I feel great, Let's goooo, etc, etc"  Looking back I should have asked him why he was asking me that question so often?  Oddly enough when you are feeling great and making progress there is little proper reflection and critique.  In reality one should be looking even closer at those sessions that you nail to the point of over analysis. So taking some of my own advice, here is my reflection of the past two months: For the past two months I have trained hard 7 days a week.  I figure that I have hit 95% of my training goals and without a doubt have improved my fitness and knowledge of triathlon.  Within the past 2 months I have only had 2-3 scheduled days off (I trained anyway) and have only missed 1 training session ...