As I sit here with an ice pack on my left ankle I review in my mind where I went wrong. Two weeks ago I was starting off the New Year on a roll. I was ready to ramp up my training and have a great year on the bike. Then my ankle tendinitis, which I have been battling off and on for a couple of years, flared up seemingly overnight. There was no other alternative but to take at least a couple of weeks off the bike to get things back in order.
I’m making progress but it will take some time to get back on the road riding again. At least it is the coldest part of the year and I won’t lose too much fitness. But, I probably could have prevented this unintended break from training if I had been smarter about my health and not taken it for granted. Where did I go wrong, and what can be learned from my mistakes?
- Listen to your body- This is something I did not do, at least not very effectively. My ankle had been a little sore for a while. It wasn’t getting worse so I basically ignored it. It wasn’t that painful. I could have cut back on the time I was training, without stopping, and helped my body out. Instead I kept on going.
- Warm Up And Cool Down- When I really looked at the last few weeks I realized that I got out of my routine of warming up and cooling down from my workouts. Maybe it was the hectic schedule of the holidays. Nope that wasn’t it. I basically just got out of the habit of stretching before and after my rides. Never again will I forget.
- Increase Your Workout Load Gradually- I had a great Fall and early Winter mileage wise but when I look at it I probably increased my workout intensity/load a bit to fast. Combine that with less stretching, etc and I was asking for trouble. There is a rule that says don’t increase your workouts by more than 10% a week. I think that is a little conservative but I did increase my intensity the first few weeks of December quite a bit.
- Acknowledge Your Age And Plan Accordingly- I have to admit it, I am a few years over forty (although if you ask my wife she will say I act like a 2 year old). With age comes a certain amount of increased time for recovery. Also, injuries don’t heal quite as fast and can happen a little quicker. I honestly think of myself as eighteen but my body tells me otherwise. Getting older doesn’t mean you have to slow down but it does mean that you need to take extra precautions to prevent injury. Things like stretching, warm up/cool down are a lot more important. Pay attention and take a little extra time.
The bottom line is that I ignored some obvious signs from my body to slow down a little and prevent injury. I was so focused on working out that I failed to do the easy and simple things that would have prevented an injury. Don’t do what I did. Pay attention to your body, take time to warm up properly and workout sensibly. If you do, you will enjoy your workouts and get healthy at the same time.
OK, here are my 2008 commitments.
I am posting these so that you can get an idea what I am going to be accomplishing next year and why I have decided on these particular commitments. You have over a week until 2008 so maybe you can use my commitments a a springboard for your own ideas.
- Ride at least 4 days/week for total time of over 200 hours during 2008: Road bike riding is my primary form of exercise as well as the key way I get to satisfy my competitive nature outside of work. I have been riding seriously for almost 5 years after 20+ years of running. I really enjoy the structure of planning out each week’s worth of riding and going out after work for an hour or so really helps keep everything in balance. I ride by myself 2-3 days a week and with a group the other 1-2 days. I have pretty much decided to stop racing criteriums (fast circuit races) as I just don’t have the time to train properly to be truly competitive but I mainly don’t want to risk a bad crash like I have witnessed/barely missed in nearly every “crit” I raced. I guess I’m getting a little chicken in my old age:-) Instead, I plan on riding several “competitive” centuries this year. If I can stay healthy (see below) I may attempt a 12 hour event.
- Learn something new every day: I am reading “The Intellectual Devotional” which is 365 days worth of knowledge from 7 key areas. It should help me learn a little each day and might inspire me to try something new. I will read this book each evening before bed.
- Become more flexible: As I get older I am finding out that my body doesn’t tolerate the abuse like it used to. As a result I am finding that I am starting to get some small, nagging injuries that could affect my ability to participate in cycling, among other things. So, I have already begun a nightly stretching routine that is already starting to make a positive impact. I will probably order “Yoga for Cyclists” as it has specific routines to help cyclists become more flexible. I want to be “200%” more flexible by this time next year. I realize this might be hard to measure but I will use the flexibility of my hamstrings as the benchmark. Currently, I can barely get my hands past my knees while sitting on the floor with my legs flat against the floor. I should be able to touch my feet easily if I am doing things the right way.
- Make time to visit out of town friends: We have very close friends (two different couples) that live, now that we all have moved, in two different cities than us. We have a great time when we are together. We have made a point the last few years to get together for at least a long weekend. This is a major goal for us this year as we don’t want to break that tradition.
- Obtain advanced investment management designation: I am going to begin work on an advanced investment planning professional designation. There are 2-3 courses of study available and I will need to investigate them to see which one best complements my current experience. I will have narrowed the field by the end of January and I could be done by the end of the year if I pursue one or by the end of 2009 if I pursue the other.
As part of my commitment to myself, and everyone else who reads this, I will update my progress each month. For better or worse, I will let you know how I am progressing and if I have had to make any adjustments along the way.
There you go, I have laid my 2008 commitments out there for everyone to see. There is nothing earth shattering, just some things I would like to improve on. Hopefully they will give you some ideas for your own. To develop your own, follow the outline I had in my last post.
Everyone please have a happy and safe holiday!
Sleep, or lack of it, is one of those things that many of us struggle with. Some of us deal with it…every…single…night. I have been one of those people many times myself and it is not fun.
Lack of sleep, both in quantity and quality, is a serious problem. Many of us stumble through our days half-awake. Our productivity at work suffers, but maybe more importantly, our personal life suffers. We miss out on so much because our concentration and attention span is damaged due to lack of sleep.
How It Happens
There are many reasons for sleep disorders, some caused by legitimate medical conditions, but much of the problem is our own fault. We push ourselves to get more and more done each day. We take on additional responsibilities and tasks in order to be more productive. We all know that there are only 24 hours in a day yet we try to squeeze more and more into each day. The one area it seems we think we can “gain” some extra time is to cut back on sleep.
What Can Be Done
The obvious answer is to sleep more. Research shows that most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep each night. What we actually get is another matter. I have some friends who swear that all they need is 4-5 hours a night. I went through a phase early in my working life where I averaged 3-5 hours a night for nearly two years. I can definitely say that those years were some of the worst as far as enjoyment of life was concerned. If I wasn’t working I was sleeping or eating. There wasn’t time for much else. Once I got back to a more normal sleep schedule It took me a solid 10 years to totally readjust. I now know that I am one of those people who needs 7-8 hours a night and I do whatever I can to make sure I get that amount.
How To Improve Your Sleep
If you are getting less sleep than you need you probably already know it. But how do you get more sleep without completely impacting your life all at once. The trick is to do some small things to at least improve the quality of sleep that you are getting now while you work on the bigger issues like freeing up additional time to sleep. Here are some tips:
- Plan to sleep-Get in the habit of having a pre-bed routine. Don’t just shut off the TV or put down your work and jump into bed. Take 10 minutes to unwind. Turn off the TV, reduce distractions as much as possible and just focus on relaxing. Let your mind clear. I will often do a little gentle stretching for 5-10 minutes. I find it helps my mind settle and slow down.
- Go to bed at a consistent time- The more consistent your bedtime the easier you will find it to get to sleep quickly. Our bodies get used to patterns. Pick a time that works for you most nights and then stick with it. When I was struggling with getting good quality sleep I experimented with bedtimes based on counting back 7-8 hours from the time I needed to get up. For me that means 10 to 11PM.
- Watch what, and when you eat- Eating within 2-3 hours of bedtime can impact the quality of sleep. It’s hard to get to sleep with a full stomach. Also drinking alcohol or caffeine before bed can disrupt sleep patters and result in less effective sleep. If you are one of those people who exercises after work, as I do, it might be hard to eat before 8PM. To combat that I try to eat some good quality food a couple of hours before my workout and then follow up with a light dinner afterwords. It seems to work for me as long as I don’t eat too much.
- Set the right sleep environment- Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and at a comfortable sleeping temperature. Many people like to have the bedroom a little cooler at night. If you have a TV in the bedroom I would suggest getting rid of it. A television in the bedroom can be too big a distraction to sleep. If you must watch TV before bed watch it in another room then take a few minutes before bed to clear your thoughts.
Start Tonight
If you are having trouble getting good quality sleep try some of the suggestions I have outlined above. These are all simple things you can do without a lot of effort starting tonight. Use them as the first step in improving your sleep. The next phase might include more drastic steps such as adjusting your life to allow more time for sleep. I will address some of those issues in future posts, so stay tuned. In the meantime, Get Some Sleep!