torstai 23. toukokuuta 2013

Too much, too fast, too hard?

Like the headline tells, there's no positive thoughts or posts for today. In a way. Going to Los Angeles tomorrow! Like a dream come true in certain ways. Long weekend because they celebrate The Memorial Day here on Monday.
But then today's agenda. The common mistakes with athletes having a good work ethic, a good coach and the time to train as much as you want are mainly listed in the headline. Well I only have the two first ones... But then what I wanted to talk about is the rhythm of training I'm going in right now and slightly the effects of it. Four days a week, three days off. My coach back home always told me, and I underline him on this one. "Training tired will not produce any benefit, it's more a sign of bad sportsmanship than a proof of your will power." There's a seed of truth to that since what I've been wondering lately is: If you train tired, as every athlete will at some point do, and in a way it IS necessary, but which part of your whole body you're training at that moment?
My guess is the head, the mental strength, the biggest motor behind everything we do. But training tired for mental strength in a race? I'm not going against or for it. So think about this. You're tired from your day job, but you really motivate yourself hard and you're able to make that week to the end and then rest on the weekend. You've trained of getting out of the bed every morning and working until four in the afternoon.
But then take another challenge, what if you're supposed to work over-time on one day without breaks, does it the help that you know how to get yourself out of the bed every morning if you have to push yourself now at this very day? I honestly can't give you an answer.

I find the same thing in sports. You go to the training, you work hard and motivate yourself. You do it the next time too when you're feeling slightly tired. Still when making your way to the practice each time, even when you feel tired and you're giving it again all you've got, does it actually make you stronger in a race? You know how to work when you're tired that's for sure. But do you know how to take everything out of your system and endure that huge pain at the end of race when you're really rested?

This is what I've been thinking lately while going to the training my calves already cramped up and pissed off at the training after the first interval because I can't go as fast as I know I can.
My coach tells that training tired is about training the muscle memory. And I might have to agree, maybe pushing all those movements and all that proper technique to your spinal cord is about training so hard that you take yourself, your head and your current muscle memory out of the game, exposing the nervous system for that impossible task to work in a right manner and work efficiently when pushed to it's knees, and by that making it learn something new, at the moment when you're too tired to hold up any of that internal resistance against your own body.

Now three days off. Thanks for reading.
- Jarmo

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