I want to be high everyday. No not like *puff* *puff* 'high'. But if training is a balance of breaking the body down, recovering from the stimulus, and supercompensating, I want to be at that apex everyday.
Let's take a look at this nice graph that I stole from the internet for a second. At the bottom, the red valley caused from weeks of hard training, is a drop in performance, a drop in testosterone, an increase in blood cortisol, irritability, fatigue, sleep disruptions, and other nasty things depending how long and how intense the training block is.
I've spent too much time in this block over my career. A lot of athletes have this problem, not taking the time to come out of that fatigue. So it never goes away and they never get to truly bask in the mustard coloured glory of the supercompensation curve.
Down, up, down, up, down, up.
It seems so simple, but I've seen a trend in athletes (like myself) who self-program and want peak performance as soon as possible. It becomes all about the training block and the recovery block gets completely ignored even though it's MORE IMPORTANT. That sounds cliche but it's true. The body only makes new tissue when it's resting.
If there isn't a consistent improvement in performance, something isn't working.
But isn't it more of an art than a science? Too much training, and it's impossible to recover enough to see an increase in performance without losing fitness, and not enough training and there won't be enough stimulus to improve.
Something I've been interested in this week and has caused me to wipe out the ol' exercise physiology textbook is the different kinds of fatigue athletes face.
1. Local fatigue
2. Neural Fatigue
3. Endocrine Fatigue
Local fatigue, the fatigue of a specific muscle or tissue in the body, seems to be negligible at a certain point. Well, not negligible, but if the athlete is good at monitoring their body, a lot of injuries can be avoided by reducing volume/dropping painful exercises. Obviously in high level athletes there's a lot of pushing the boundaries, but the old adage, don't train through pain, seems to be the best advice.
Neural fatigue, is something that every power/strength athlete must be familiar with. Do a 1RM squat and try to do the same thing the next day. Not happening. This has always been the type of fatigue I've been concerned with. If the nervous system doesn't have time to recover, there will be a continuous drop in performance. "But I lifted this week last week..."
Endocrine fatigue is something I've really only given thought to over the last few weeks. Things like Testosterone to cortisol levels which go down during high blocks of training and improve during the recovery phase. This is something I've suffered from when I haven't taken enough time to recover. It can be maddening, having the desire to get back on the track or gym but being too tired to get out of bed. Headaches, lethargy, spaciness. It's definitely not a fun experience.
At some points in my career, I thought I might have had "Adrenal fatigue" which was supposedly when your kidneys get so burned out that they stop producing cortisol.
Adrenal fatigue DOES NOT EXIST. That doesn't mean you can go crazy and beat yourself down seven days a week. You'll feel like crap because of high cortisol levels and neural fatigue, but as of now, there is no research that supports the idea that stressing the adrenal glands can cause permanent malfunction. Here's a link with more. Or do a quick google search. I dare you to find one peer reviewed study stating otherwise.
The take home message is there are times when being fatigued is okay and necessary.
No fatigue = no gainz.
But it's important not to get so beat down that it's impossible to recover by the end of the training block. For example. After a three or four week speed block, if the athlete is running slower than they started, it probably means they didn't spend enough time recovering. If there's no change, they probably didn't work hard enough to cause a training effect.
Some ways that I've been measuring my day to day condition are:
Taking heart rate every morning (an increase of more than 8 beats per minute is linked to training stress)
Self reporting how I feel on a scale to 1-10 when I wake up
Self reporting how I feel during the workout on a scale to 1-10
Tap-test: This is something I'm experimenting with. It's thought that there is a correlation between the number of times you can tap your finger with your level of neural fatigue. I use an app that counts taps per 30 seconds but haven't been doing it long enough to say how effective it is. There might also be a learning effect that could skew the data.
In the future, I would also like to experiment with testing testosterone and cortisol levels in my blood. This isn't something I feel is necessary for high level performance, as self-monitoring is probably good enough for most athletes, but it may worth checking for long term endocrine stress.
I like writing stories. It’s what I do for at least four hours a day. It’s
what I’m going to university to study.
But I can’t finish this story, because the narrative hasn’t been written
to completion. It’s been four years since my last triple jump PR, and equally
as long since I’ve competed at my last Canadian University (CIS) championship
for Dalhousie—I was nineteen years old.
I thought I already had
everything figured out.
Haha.
Hahahaha.
Add caption
And now it’s like those past four years have never happened. Except I’m
not nineteen anymore, I’m twenty-three going on twenty-four. Now I’m the old
guy.
I have two years of university eligibility left, and I want to make the
most of them. A fresh start. I like the idea of that. And I hope I have a few
things I can teach the rookies when I compete next season with the University
of Saskatchewan. Maybe a few things not to
do.
***
I'm nineteen. I'm young. I'm cocky. I'm feeling good, and coming off a
season I good a bronze medal at junior nationals. I’ve never medalled
nationally before, but I’m greedy for more. My physiology classes teach me about
sodium/potassium/water retention.
Through trial and error, I learn I can lose five pounds by manipulating
my electrolytes. It works. I jump a PR and break 14 meters for the first time.
I try it
again, except this time I cut my calories. I've never been this strong before.
I'm six foot, 155lbs and can power clean 265lbs. I live off 2200 calories a day
and like the way my body looks. I cut my sodium and take a dandelion root diarrheic
to thin out even more. Over the course of ten days, I taper my sleep schedule
until I’m going to bed at 7:00pm and waking at 4:00am because the jump time at
the next competition is 10:00am. It
works again. I PR again. 14.28m. I feel good. I want more. I have no idea
what's coming, the train about to hit me.
15.00m Champagne.
Our team
is travelling to Montreal. In two and a half days, I’ve consumed less than
100mg of sodium. I weigh myself in the hotel room in Trois-Rivières the night before the
meet. I've
lost eight pounds in twenty-four hours, and I buy a bottle of champagne that I scribble
"15.00m on". I post it on Facebook and it gets twenty likes in two
minutes. Validation.
The next day we're back on the bus going to Montreal. We're an hour
outside the city when the nausea starts. We get to the hotel room and I vomit
in the sink. I feel a little better and then vomit again. My roommates seem
concerned. They tell me not to jump. I don't listen.
A day after the salt incident in Montreal.
I'm at the track. The nausea is like a blanket over me. I can't see
straight. What's happening to me? I tell my coach what I did. He tries to help.
He buys me salt, Doritos, and a bottle of Gatorade. It almost works, but the
blanket is pulled over my head again and I race to the bathroom with vomit
dripping through my fingers. I can't find it. My stomach contents excrete onto
the floor at my feet. Shame.
I run away, back to the hotel and sleep for the next twenty-four or
maybe it's thirty-six hours. It's a
sixteen hour bus ride back to Halifax, and my teammates are whispering “Is he
okay?” I’m awake but pretend to be sleeping because it’s easier that way and
nobody can ask me questions. They seem happy. Some of them are drinking.
Something inside of me cracks. My confidence is broken.
I drop my calories down to 2100 hours a day and start napping in the
afternoons because I don’t have the energy to stay awake for sixteen hours a
day. Within a month, my hamstring gives out. It heals a little and then tears
three days before the CIS Championships.
I’m in Winnipeg, and after trying to take one jump and worsening the
hamstring injury, I’m watching the competition from the upper deck of the
bleachers. The winning jump is 14.50m. A month ago it seemed like such an easy
thing to do, and now it seems impossibly far.
I count every micro and macro nutrient in my food, allowing myself to increase
my intake to 2300 calories a day. My fat intake is 28g a day. I give myself a
cheat day. I eat 1kg of peanut butter over the course of six hours. I’m still
hungry.
The sharp dips in body weight are from the electrolyte experiments
The summer season opener is poor. But a month later, I jump 14.38m. The
wind is too strong to count as a PR, but it’s still a confidence boost.
I finish seventh at the Olympic Trials, within 15cm of my PR. I’m
disgusted with myself. I can’t believe how poorly it went. I break dishes. I
break the mirror in my room. Glasses shatter. There’s a hole in the corner of
my room, again, next to the bed.
The headaches start. The lethargy worsens. I refuse to eat more. I gain
weight anyway. I can’t stay under 160lbs anymore. Even when I eat food, my body
rejects it. Too much fiber? An allergy? Lactose intolerance?
Within a month of the next indoor season I tear my left patellar tendon.
I spend most of the season in pseudo-recovery mode, sleeping ten to eleven
hours a day and still not feeling well rested. The cheat days are now happening
at least once a week, often more, and I can’t stop eating food. I minimize the
damage and keep my weight down to 163lbs.
I used to weigh myself every day. The red lines are meet days.
The first time I compete is in January, in Montreal. The only reason I
have enough energy to warm-up is because I took 400mg of caffeine. Even still,
I cut the warm-up short to save energy. It’s not a terrible jump, but nowhere
near my PR.
My knee doesn’t get better, lacking the protein it needs for recovery.
On more than one occasion I skip practice or cut practice short because I don’t
have the energy to finish.
At the conference championships, I’m a meter off my PR and fail to
qualify for the National Championships. It’s the first time I haven’t qualified
for a National meet since I was 14. I’m now 20. A woman who expects me to
celebrate gives me a bronze medal. I drop it in the garbage can on my way out.
When I get home, I eat an entire jar of peanut butter off a spoon. I eat
anything I can find, and don’t let my roommates see me eating so they don’t
know that cracks running through me are turning into gaping holes. My body
weight goes from 163lbs to 178lbs within a month. The headaches stop.
I have trouble triple jumping in practice. My knee still hurts from my
injury the past fall and it gets worse through the summer. I am supposed to be
peaking for Canada Games. It’s a national U23 Championship held every four
years. And four years ago I made it my goal to finish top three, ~14.70m.
My knee hurts. I can’t jump anymore in practice and I’m not accustomed
to all the extra weight. It feels like I’m wearing a weight vest all the time.
I’m worried I might tear my hamstring again or the sinew of my tendon will give
out.
I spend all my training time in the weight-room, squatting. It’s a
mental break for jumping. I like it. I squat 405lbs on a knee that feels like
it could give out at any moment. Somehow I’m still disillusioned enough to
think I can jump close to 15m.
My teammate does jump
over fifteen meters for the first time and beats me by two meters.
2013 Canada Games - Sherbrooke, Quebec
I open the season with low 13m and end the season at 12.80m. I feel like
I’m falling apart. I re-injure my knee at least every second week. At Canada
Games, the day before competing, I do a one rep maximum power clean because I
want an excuse for not doing well. My final distance is “No distance” because I
purposefully fault all three jumps. It’s a miserable trip even though it’s
something I’ve been looking forward to for four years.
I’m miserable. My misery manifests itself in my interpersonal
relationships. I think people can tell that I’m miserable so they avoid me. Or
more likely, I’m avoiding them.
Maybe I’m just going crazy.
My last year begins. Training used to be something I loved to do, now it’s
a chore. I jump at one meet. It’s 12.80m and my knee still hurts. I tell my
coach that I think I should take the year off. He agrees.
I spend the winter mostly doing rehab. I’m happy because I’m not
training. I go to the gym every night from 7-10pm. My roommate tells me that I seem
happier.
I’ve lost my identity. It’s not entirely clear who I am now, but I don’t
hate myself quite as much, and my knee starts to get better. I set goals for
myself. I power clean 300lbs. I feel good about myself. I ease into training again.
2014 - Last competition before Korea
I graduate university and decide to teach English to children in South Korea. I compete in the summer season before I leave
and jump over 14.00m for the first time in two years.
My life is flipped upside down. I fly across the world and two days
later I’m standing in front of a classroom filled with eight kindergartens
expecting something from me. I’ve never even talked to a child before, now I’m supposed
to teach eight of them?
A student (Kate) drew our kindergarten class
The work schedule is intense, some days ten hours with few breaks
between classes. I continue going to the gym about five days a week, but the
work-outs are jammed in the last hour before the gym closes. I go to the track
a few times but it’s too far to go every day. Even though my last competition
was less than a month ago, it seems like I’m stuck in this routine and that I’ll
never get back to training. I’m locked into a one year contract at work and
need the money.
I’m “Retired” from track and field. My only training is squatting 3-5
times per week and jogging on the treadmill. My body composition changes. My
weight stays about the same, but I’m losing muscle.
I start dating for the first time in a long time. I like her. I travel,
go to China and Sri Lanka.
Riding the train in Sri Lanka
Work is stressful. I’m exhausted and only sleeping six hours a night.
The fatigue never goes away. For eight to ten hours a day, I’m working a job I
have no passion for. I like the children I’m working with but they’re draining
my energy. I love living in Korea, but I never have time to enjoy it. I think
my coworkers sense that I don’t want to be here with them. I don’t even think
they want to be here, but they’re better at faking it than I am.
I quit my job after six months, or they fire me, it’s not entirely
clear. It takes me three days to find another job. The new job is in a
different part of the city. I like my new neighbourhood. There are bike trails
along the nearby streams and the weather is beautiful. I find a new gym—it’s a
70 minute subway ride away each way and is the only gym I can find that will
let me do Olympic Weightlifting without having to sign up for classes.
The membership is $250
a month, closer to $300 when the Canadian dollar drops.
I can’t justify the
expense, but I continue training there. One day I find a Vertec for testing vertical
jump. I use it. It’s only a couple inches off my PR. The man who works at the
gym tells me about a new gym opening that will be much cheaper. I join the new
gym, and my wallet thanks me.
The World University
Games are being held in Gwangju, about two hours away by KTX train. I go to
watch. One of my former teammates from Dalhousie University is high-jumping. I
watch her jump. I watch the long jump, too. The winning jump is 8.20m—it’s the
first time I’ve seen a jump over eight meters.
Gwangju 2015 World University Games
After taking a weeklong
trip to Japan, I realize how much I miss competing and training for triple
jump. I haven’t jumped in exactly a year.
There is only one rubberized track in the city
of 28 million people that I can find with a jumping pit. It takes 80 minutes
each way by subway from my apartment and I work until 7:30pm every night. If I
change my clothes at the office, I can get to the track by 9:00pm and get home
by midnight. I have to alternate track days and weight days except for on
Saturdays. The full trip from home to the track, the gym, and home again, is
three hours on the train.
I do this for four months. My testing numbers
are the highest they’ve ever been. I start imagining competing again.
In December the weather
gets too cold and I have to take three months off from the track. Track days
become plyometric days at the gym. I meet the Olympic Weightlifting coach who
works there. He’s friendly and my weight days become Olympic Weightlifting
days. He encourages me to compete in a citywide Olympic Weightlifting
competition. I do. I have a lot of fun and it’s a great experience.
By mid-February the
weather is warm enough to train outdoors one day a week. I focus on jumping
again but am getting grinded out by the nonstop schedule and long days
teaching.
I apply to the MFA
program of five universities, and I get an email from the University of
Saskatchewan with an offer of early admissions. I accept, and two weeks later,
I get another email saying that I’ve been awarded one of their most prestigious
scholarships, a Dean Scholarship. I accept their offer without hesitating.
Waiheke Island, New Zealand
I plan to go back to
Canada in June to compete in the summer track and field season but take a trip
first. I go to China on my way to New Zealand. I try to use the track at the
University across the street from my hotel. The guards are incredibly rude and
won’t let me onto the campus.
I maintain my training
schedule in New Zealand while visiting friends. It’s a beautiful country.
Afterward, I go back to Korea for two more week en route to Halifax. I get
engaged to my girlfriend. It occurs to me for the first time that I’m an adult.
Espoir 2016- Faulted jump ~14.45m. Best of the day 14.16m.
I compete at a handful
of meets over the summer and my best jump is 14.16m with signs that a big PR is
coming in the near future. All the stress and disappointment that used to come
with training is gone. For the first time it feels like I can enjoy training
and competing.
Everybody has to go through their own trials and tribulations, but in
the end, we come out stronger because of it. The past four years have taught me
the true meaning of perseverance, and maybe I’m no further ahead than I was in
2012, but I wouldn’t trade in all those life lessons for anything. I just want
to keep pushing forward and enjoying the sport and the time I have left.
Aileen Meagher 2016, Halifax
It’s not about jumping
anymore, it’s not about the distance, it’s about evolving, and proving that I
can do something that I had given up on. I hope that’s something everybody can
relate to.
I don’t know how this story ends.
It’s still being
written.
Even if I never make a National team, never win a national championship,
or ever jump farther than 14.38m, it’s a story I want to finish.
I am feeling good these days. but knowing that training is only going to get better makes me very excited...
But I want winter to be over.
I hate, hate, hate, winter.
But Seoul winter beats Canada winter. 안 춥다 :)
Seven degrees today, but daily low of -10...
This week in brief...
Monday- core circuit
Tuesday- My body and head were beat down from jumping last week. Cut the OL session short
Wednesday- rest ~ 12 minute jog and mobiit
Thursday - Very good OL session. Caught 8/10 Snatches at 189lbs.
Friday- Depth jumps, Step ups
Saturday- 30 meter sprints, standing bounds (15.90m), three step triple jump (~11.70m)
Sunday- Rest :)
My knees are a little sore :/ But nothing serious.
Ice, ice, ice.
Lost my head a little bit. Next week I'll start focusing on technique. Sacrificed for distance. Still fixing sprint form. ROFD terrible but max strength great.
You had to travel halfway around the world to realize that the ability to rationalize happiness was with you all along...
18 months ago I moved to South Korea.
20 months ago was the last time I competed in a track and field meet
Four years ago was the last time I jumped a PR.
Jumping used to be everything. An obsession, a narcotic, Life. But now, a "jumper" is not who I am. It's something I love to do. So I will do it, and love every minute of it.
I've been training outside for two months. The weather went up to 15 degrees today! And it's still February :) I love Seoul.
In three more months I will move back to Canada. In July I will compete at the Canadian Olympic Trials and I will set a personal best.
I've never felt better, Mentally, Physically. Spiritually.
We all seek SELF IMPROVEMENT to push our limits. To learn about ourselves, to understand the world. And once we conquer our psyche, we are limitless.
Well it's been one hell of a rollercoaster ride over the last few years. In the summer of 2012 before my knee injury my last four meets were: 14.38m, 14.13m, 13.78m, 14.30m. Since then things have gone downhill at an alarming rate. I injured my patellar tendon in September 2012 and took most of that indoor season off from competing. I open the season at the end of January with a 13.67m jump and things only got worse from there. I ended the season off at 13.30m and I didn't think things could get any worse. They did. I open the outdoor season with a 13.65m jump which wasn't bad for an opener but the decline continued as my knee continued to bother me and grew worse. At Canada Games in August, which was supposed to be when I was peaked, I jumped 12.90m in the prelim and scratched the final because of the injury.
I was so melancholic and depressed that I even considered giving up the sport. In the fall I decided to train part-time as an Olympic Weightlifter and even considered becoming a competitive athlete in that discipline. Due to the extreme volume of weights my nervous system was pretty taxed and I went to the season opener, and ender, in November with a 5.90m/12.70m slash. It was a long way from jumping 15.00m. I didn't feel like myself, I wasn't having fun, and my knee was still bothering me as much as ever. I wanted to quit. I decided to take six weeks off to rehab my knee and try to get my health back. During this time I did a lot of strides, light weights, and high rep squats. By the end of January I was ready to start training again. I hit 13.27m in March at an indoor meet I went to in Moncton. I was happy with the result. It was a long way from where I wanted to be but at least it as a step in the right direction. After a six week power block, in which I hit a 300lb power clean and 305lb full clean, I went to an early season meet to shake
out. Long jump went okay, low 6.00m but a couple faults in the 6.40m range, but triple jump was awful. I took one jump and it was 13.00m (but in all fairness it was a one day meet). I switched to a 7 step approach to at least get some technical work in, and they actual went pretty well. I got one of the jumps up to 12.65m.
For the rest of the season I continue with the pattern of doing short approach jumps at meets. In the three weeks leading up to nationals I went off 9,11,13 steps. I jumped 12.98, 13.30, 13.51(with a 13.65m fault). At Nationals the next day I hit an okay jump of 13.87m for a seventh place finish, which I was still relatively happy with it, because it was a long climb back from how far I had fallen the year before. This weekend marks my first time hitting 14.00m since the injury (14.01m +1.5m/s) and I know I still have a lot more left in me. I was jumping on a very sore ankle and only took two real jumps. My importantly than the distance, it gives me hope for the future. I feel like the "fire" has returned and the passion which had left me during the injury is once again burning in full force. I think that after a year of healthy, focused training I can hit 15.00m next year.
But here's a curveball. I am moving to Korea in six weeks to teach English. I'm not exactly sure what the training set up is going to look like over the next year but I'm sure I'll find something. I'm going to be living in Seoul so by the looks of things there will be a track and weight-room pretty close by.
With one more meet left in the season, in three weeks time, I am excited to try to jump a pb. Even if I don't I know that it's been a long journey and the best is yet to come. I am very excited to see where I'll be this time next year.
At the bottom, the red valley caused from weeks of hard training, is a drop in performance, a drop in testosterone, an increase in blood cortisol, irritability, fatigue, sleep disruptions, and other nasty things depending how long and how intense the training block is.
