Taking a Break

So I guess this is the perfect time to write and say that I think it is a good idea to give your body a break now and then. A break from diet, working out, and a break from life. 

This is not a free pass to go crazy. I just believe there are times (like vacation with your family) when trying to find a healthy place to eat, workout every day, and get in all those protein shakes and supplements falls second place to spending good quality time with your family.

(Huffington Post)

The Truth About Recovery Is That You Never Really Recover To understand how this works, it helps to know a core truth about all athletic training: We don't actually get fitter at the gym or on the road or in the pool. What we really do in hard workouts is apply a stimulus that elevates our heart rate, breaks down muscle fibers, causes the adrenal glands to secrete the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol and generally tells our body that the status quo won't cut it anymore.

The "getting fitter" part -– the body's response to that stimulus -– comes afterward. While you eat and rest, the body gets to work repairing tissue damage, strengthening the heart and other muscles, restoring depleted fuel reserves and getting better at transporting oxygen throughout the body, making itself a little more efficient and stronger than before. Then we go out and do it again.

By training carefully and modestly -– stressing the body to stimulate change, and then letting it recover and adapt -– we stack up these little adaptations one on top of the other until, lo and behold, we find ourselves fit enough to run a marathon, lift a heavier weight, or play the best basketball of our adult lives. The problem is that we usually don't completely recover between workouts. Some of the fatigue stays with us, gradually accumulating during long periods of intense training dedicated to our favorite sport. Even as we get fitter and fitter, the mechanisms of recovery and adaptation begin faltering, putting us at risk for chronic exhaustion, difficulty sleeping and loss of motivation, evidenced in part by declining testosterone levels and increases in creatine kinase and urea.

"Your body has only a certain bank account of adaptive energy," says Alan Couzens, a cycling and triathlon coach with EnduranceCorner.com, based in Boulder, Colorado. "It will keep responding to training for only a certain period of time before that bank account goes into the red."

Make The Most Of Your Time Off Taking a long break doesn't mean getting overly friendly with the couch -– you don't want to fall completely out of shape, and you certainly don't want to add pounds that will be hard to shed later. But steer clear of anything even remotely resembling a training plan, don't consider lung-busting interval workouts, and, most of all, stay away from your primary sport. Instead, look for sports that either build up some attribute useful in your main sport or keep you in similar shape but with a different mental focus.

This was a much needed break for me. Family time, me time, refocus, recharge, and mentally get ready for what's to come (only 5 months to go).