Just as the weather is turning a bit nicer, I have had the good fortune of being bought a second hand road bike by the Guernsey Sports Commission for training. I didn't have a bike before, and it is my first road bike so I am totally in love with it!
I arrived at the lake, and slowed down to stop, forgetting I probably needed to take my feet out of the toe covers before I actually came to a stop. I then waved hello to a friend and said, 'look at my lovely new bike!' or something like that, then in proper slow-mo style my feet tried to wriggle out of the toe covers, failed, and with a bit of a girly yelp I saw the ground rushing up at me. I was on thick gravel so luckily only my pride was wounded!
In other news...
Training wise, the past week hasn't been great for me. We have to be very aware of our bodies with the amount of training we put them through, and to keep on top of our health we do a fair bit of 'morning monitoring'. This can be noting down all sorts of things from urine colour (hydration) to coping level. The main ones I regularly note are resting and standing heart rates, weight and body temp. These are all taken first thing in the morning so ensure consistency. The morning monitoring helps us to pick up problems before they stop you training. Often, before you get sick your resting heart rate will increase as it tackles the bug, so if you spot this in your monitoring you can reign in the training slightly and let your body fight the infection more successfully, before it becomes an issue in full blown sickness.
We take resting and standing heart rates; resting is taken lying down in bed as soon as you wake up, and standing is when you stand up out of bed, stand still for a minute and then take it. Resting heart rate generally tells you whether you are well or not, if your body is fighting something it will raise your resting heart rate. Standing heart rate tells you how your body is reacting to 'work', a simple task like standing up. If you are under recovered your body will find it harder to adjust to this simple task and so your standing heart rate will be higher than normal.
About a week ago my standing heart rate suddenly shot up, and backing off training has not seemed to have any effect on bringing it back down to a normal level. Also, I know what heart rates are normal for me when exercising at different intensities and my HR has been going up much too fast at much too light an intensity when trying to train. So, I've been on one light session a day which has been driving me a bit mad as I feel absolutely fine until I start to do anything like a real session.
As backing off training has not had the desired effect I am having to see doctors and specialists. I've seen the GP, have an appointment with a GB rowing doctor next week and have heart scans and blood tests booked for next week. I'm sure it will be fairly easy to sort out but is just very frustrating at the moment! Rowing is an exhausting sport and as we only get the odd day off training once every three weeks or so it can feel like a huge effort to motivate yourself fully for every session. Sometimes it's the last thing you feel like doing! Especially when the winter is intent on doing it's best to discourage you by being dark, rainy and freezing cold when you're meant to be getting up and going on the water.
However, when you are not allowed to train for whatever reason, be it injury or illness, it is the most frustrating thing in the world. All I want to do is to be able to go and train properly. Training is constantly tough, exhausting and demanding but it is also invigorating, rewarding and satisfying. I miss it!
Pray for my speedy recovery please!
x
