Oh oh ….

On Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and it continues today so I officially consider myself sick. I’ve had the “sniffles” for some days now, a sure sign the body is stressed and the immune system is down, but had hoped since my workout schedule expansion was over I could ride it out until my body adapted. Now I clearly have a bug. I’m hoping this weekend will provide enough rest for my body to recover sufficiently to ward off anything more serious. All I have scheduled for today is one morning weight session and a yoga session tomorrow morning before I swim Monday evening – almost two full days without anything truly stressful. Today I take easy and get lots of sleep.

The possibility of getting sick was not entirely unexpected. In competition the name of the game is pushing yourself to your limits – and you won’t find where they are until you exceed them. In youth one's ability to recuperate allows more aggressive training, and this combined with naturally higher metabolisms means faster times, higher jumps, and farther throws. The advantages an increased ability to recuperate gives to an athlete are enormous, and why steroids play such an insidious role in sports – not for the muscles, for in very few sports are exceptionally large muscles an asset, it’s the increased training loads steroids allow which makes them such exceptional performance enhancers. As someone on the wrong side of forty and recuperating from a serious injury to boot pushing hard will eventually cause some sort of breakdown but I do need to find where my limits lie. The key will be how quickly I can recover once I find them.