{"id":9122,"date":"2014-02-19T15:27:52","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T14:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/?p=7433"},"modified":"2016-04-30T10:31:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T09:31:04","slug":"one-lesson-i-have-learned-is-that-more-more-more-is-not-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/19\/one-lesson-i-have-learned-is-that-more-more-more-is-not-best\/","title":{"rendered":"“One lesson I have learnt is that more, more, more is not best”"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Rachel Joyce <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Sleep \u00a0<\/strong>
During heavy training I have learnt that if I can\u2019t sleep for 2 or 3 nights in a row despite feeling really tired when I go to bed it is time for a lighter day of training (or maybe even 2).\u00a0 I recognise the feeling of my mind and body \u201cbuzzing\u201d, that is indicative of my having high cortisol levels as a result of the training stress.\u00a0 Blood tests I have had whilst experiencing this show that this feeling is indeed caused by high cortisol levels.<\/p>\n

Mood \u00a0<\/strong>
Generally I am a pretty cheery person and quite emotionally steady. This definitely changes if I am over reaching for a sustained period in training.\u00a0 I become more emotional, my motivation isn\u2019t as good as normal and I kind of cease to be objective about how I am feeling.\u00a0 This is when it is good to have third parties to recognise the signs: my partner Brett will remind me that I feel like this when it is time to back off a little in training, as does my coach and some close training partners.\"rachel-ronnie_D4S4012\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Muscle soreness \u00a0<\/strong>
When my fitness is good I can feel it.\u00a0 I can put together several weeks of hard training and my muscles absorb the load, I recover well between sessions and I can reproduce hard sessions.\u00a0 I am not always like this. I now recognise that as I am returning to training after the off season I need to build up to be able to do this. Also after an Ironman my recovery is 2 – 3 weeks before I can get back into proper training with intensity.<\/p>\n

Last year of racing Ironman Texas my motivation was very high to get back to training. My enthusiasm to \u201cget back to it\u201d meant I didn\u2019t want to read the signs that my body was giving me. I tried to launch myself back into full training:\u00a0 my muscles felt heavy and ached during the session and even more after the session.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t feel stronger fitter after training:\u00a0 just more tired and more achy and my sleep patterns were terrible.<\/p>\n

\"rachel-ronnie_D4S4183\"<\/a>
Thankfully I had a blood test to just check everything was okay and the results showed that I was in no way recovered from Texas. The blood test was an objective result that told me and my coach I needed more time so I had another week of very light, recovery sessions. When I did return to training I was fresh and my enthusiasm was sustainable!<\/p>\n

Since taking up triathlon in 2005 I have gotten much better at reading these signs and I will listen to my body usually\u2026 not always but more often than I did. One lesson I have learned is that more, more, more is not best.\u00a0 Your body can over reach in training for a period\u00a0 (and needs to, to get fitter and stronger) but at some point you have to take your foot off the gas so muscles can repair so you are ready to go again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rachel Joyce Sleep \u00a0During heavy training I have learnt that if I can\u2019t sleep for 2 or 3 nights in a row despite feeling really tired when I go to bed it is time for a lighter day of training (or maybe even 2).\u00a0 I recognise the feeling of my mind and body \u201cbuzzing\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2293],"tags":[1601,524,1617,85,27,1331,1508,1133,730,1263,754,1134,1032,852],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9250,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9122\/revisions\/9250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biestmilch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}