Stress

Recently I have been attending Chadwell Center for Health (highly recommended!) where Tony reviewed my supplements and ensured the treatments he gave me still held. After a busy week (…month, year, etc) one of the things we had been working on is restoring my depleted body, hence ensuring my supplements were working for me. Unsurprisingly the question of how much I was training came up. I answered 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day, but on further thinking that didn’t ring true.

When I signed up for the Carlsbad Half Marathon and the Stagecoach Century a few weeks ago Alan and I sat down to design a training plan for me. Since the events I have entered only involve running and cycling it would make sense for me to drop the swims in order to give myself more time to recover and focus my efforts on the upcoming events. It surprised me that I didn’t even manage to finish making the suggestion to drop swimming for the time being before Alan told me in no uncertain terms that I should definitely carry on with the swims. The reason was not related to any kind of training benefit I would get.

Alan has been out with me to the Cove where I swim in the mornings a few times. He has been sensible enough to stay warm and dry and practice his photography skills that morning. Each time he has seen me emerge from the water with a HUGE grin plastered on my face. For me those swims are not a training session, they are stress relief, fun and I definitely miss them when they are cancelled.

Alan has had similar experiences with his Iaido. He is so happy and relaxed when he returns from a hard training session. The difference in his mood is very noticeable one day to the next, especially when he needs to miss a session due to us teaching a workshop on a Wednesday night.

We often think of stress as being an emotional or mental thing. It makes us jittery, short-tempered and can disturb sleep. What we often forget is that stress can have a profound effect on our bodies too. When stressed we can’t recover from training as well, come down with more colds and injuries. Have you ever noticed that when you go on an active holiday, even if you are hiking, cycling, running, paddling, sightseeing etc much more than you could handle back home your body feels great? All those aches and pains that you live with day in day out are gone, and they return as you step off the plane? That is a pretty good indication that you are being affected by stress and it is taking a toll on your body.

The best way to deal with the stress is obviously to remove the source. In reality that can be very difficult. Often in life we have things we need to get through in order to get to a better place. These may include job related matters, relationships, moving house and many more. In these cases you then need to find a way to cope, to provide stress relief and make you feel better. For me that is swimming.

When we were learning massage we learnt how to advise people on ways to relieve stress. We learnt to rattle off the standard list of relaxation tapes, meditation, yoga, long walks and of course massage. For many people these work, for others, like me, we need to find other ways.

Training is a stress on your body and needs to be managed. Doing hill reps, intervals, tough strength workouts and a whole host of other nasties that are very necessary for performance improvements take a toll on your body and increase your stress levels. However, exercise can also be very relaxing, Yoga is the perfect example. In fact any form of exercise that is low enough intensity that your body doesn’t get too exhausted and that you enjoy to such a degree that you really look forward to the session can be a form of relaxation.

So the next time you get stressed ditch the training session and go and enjoy yourself instead. Ride your bike on some beautiful forest trails and watch the wildlife. Go for a run with a group of friends and have a good chat. Or swim in the ocean and watch the sun rise over La Jolla Cove whilst the sea lions play in the water. That type of “training” can sometimes do you a lot more good than whatever was on your training plan for the day.

Corina