I spent this week with a hurt back. It started last weekend--the result, I think, of spending all Saturday afternoon standing up at an event. I was in some fairly severe pain Sunday morning. I did paddle Sunday, and actually felt little pain in the boat, but everything else--walking down the ramp to the dock, lifting my boat off the rack, and stuff like that--was a real ordeal.
I was all but laid up the rest of Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday I was starting to move around a bit more and by Wednesday I was stretching gingerly and doing abbreviated versions of the strength exercises I've been doing. Though not pain-free today, I'm feeling significantly better, and this morning I went down to the river to paddle.
Once again, my back felt fine in the boat. But the paddling session felt terrible. It felt as though I hadn't been in a boat in months: sitting upright and taking good strokes was an incredible chore, and I felt somewhat out of breath the whole time even though I paddled easy. Very odd, considering that except for the back issue, this week of training wasn't much different from what I've been doing for the last month.
The body is a funny thing. When I was young and competing as a distance runner, I remember that in training I felt good about fifty percent of the time and terrible about fifty percent of the time. As I got older I gained a better understanding of the roles that good nutrition and hydration and full nights of sleep play in one's mood and energy level, and these days I'd say I feel good out paddling about nine times out of ten. I guess I would chalk today's labored session up to the physical and mental disruption that my back ailment caused me this week.
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