REST

At the first National Para-Rowing Development Camp I attended, we had a really interesting talk from GB Para-rowing Head Coach, Tom Dyson. I still have the notes I made at the time. The session was on 'Training Programmes', and the idea was to give us suggestions about how to set up training schedules which were appropriate for us as individuals with different disabilities.

"Now, have you all filled in your training diaries, monitored your RHR and analysed your weekly calorific input and output?"

A lot of what was said is of relevance to people without disabilities too, and it certainly doesn't just have to apply to rowers. Since, last week, I made a complete balls-up of managing one of the most crucial components of a successful training programme (rest!), I've been going over my notes and trying to figure out how I'm going to proceed from now on. It occurred to me that since the talk contained useful advice for all sports people, I could try and summarise the key points here, which would also hopefully be a useful exercise for me in planning what I'm going to do with my own training.

Here goes!

First, you have to consider two important things: where you are now, and where you're going.

I would also add, 'how are you going to measure your improvement?'

In setting up a schedule which works over a number of weeks/months, you need to think about tapering, an ebb and flow of weekly effort, and taking into consideration everything else going on in your life. For example, at training camps people can train more intensively because they are not required to do cooking, cleaning, and so on. This means that when you're not on a training camp you need to remember that even activities like housework need to be factored in to your total amount of work performed.

Look, it's a man doing housework! Only took a short while to find on google images...

Another important element of GB Para-rowing's training is a balance between rowing and cross-training (which also includes weights). That said, we were warned against unnecessary cross-training that does more harm than good: apparently, they tried to do some stuff with GB canoeing which involved doing tyre pulls along ropes, and ended up with the two squads having a significant proportion of their athletes out of training due to injury from that one activity - some even needed surgery! 

When planning sessions, you need to remember that not all sessions are equal. Things that vary include:

- intensity

- type

- length

- modality

We were warned against doing two intense sessions in one day: i.e., ideally not two long ones and certainly not two long, heavy ones. It is OK to have a session which is both short and steady in pace!

The next bit I have in my diary is called 'Perils of foolish training!' which is probably the title I gave it myself, but that's a pretty accurate description. Here is what you are aiming for with a successful programme:

The peak after a workout is your body learning to adapt to a higher level of demand ('super compensation'). Ideally, you time your second session so that it fits in with the peak of this adaptation. Obviously, it's not just a case of balancing time as one variable, since different types/intensities of workout will leave you feeling more or less tired. The green line (workout 3) would of course continue in the same wavey pattern as the others.

If you manage this bit right, you find yourself on the correct trajectory below:

Obviously, the red line is the desired result of training (progression in fitness over time). The green line is flatlining - caused by pushing again too soon, or by not doing enough in the first place. The blue line is trouble! There is not enough recovery.

Monitoring recovery time is a tough one. I have been trying to get it right for years and still haven't. With my ridiculous body, getting it wrong will put me in hospital, which isn't good for me and should, really, be preventable. The trouble is that I cannot easily learn how much to push myself because my condition is very unpredictable, and one day's really productive session will be enough on another day to land me in hospital without much warning.

Here we go again...

The first thing I have had to accept (and which all athletes should accept if they want to do well, whatever level they are at at any one time) is that you can't do well without rest. I'm quite happy with that, and will come to what is meant by that shortly. What is very hard for me (and, I think, for a lot of people I know, naming no names!) is working out just how much rest is required from day to day, given that this quantity/quality of rest will vary over time. Fortunately, Dyson had some good suggestions for monitoring all of this too.

The first thing to know is that when your body starts to get tired, there will be signals that this is happening before you actually cotton on to it. For example, your resting heart rate (tested each morning) may rise and your body weight may fluctuate (in particular, it may drop if you are overdoing it). You may also be more susceptible to silly injuries and little aches and pains, as well as minor illness like colds. These things will probably precede you feeling tired through poor sleep quality and poor waking recovery, and if you monitor them carefully you should be able to tell how well you are doing at managing your training before you get to a really low point.

"My, my, Lizzie, your ears are very long and furry this morning..."

Now, I'm not very keen on monitoring my weight on a regular basis and although I have tried doing resting heart rate each morning I find that even on waking it fluctuates so wildly from day to day that I was getting nothing useful out of the data. Instead, I have another mental checklist:

1) How strong are my heart palpitations? (I can check this one lying down motionless.)
2) How stiff are my joints? Can I lift or turn my head a bit and move my arms/legs and hands/feet? (don't need to sit up yet.) If I can't move easily, what's preventing me - pain, stiffness, weakness, fatigue, or a combination of these things?
3) How much does my head swim when I sit up? Can I get all the way up to sitting in one go or do I need to rise slowly? (don't need to stand up yet)
4) How steady am I when standing? (don't need to try and walk anywhere yet)
5) How dry are my eyes? Can I see clearly? (vision not essential for locating bathroom!)
6) How easy is it to brush my hair? (involves lifting arms up, which can be a real struggle)
7) Co-ordination checks - brushing hair, washing hands, eating breakfast (manipulating cutlery!), etc.

"I'm awake...I just...can't...move..."

Depending on how easy it is for me to do all of these things, and on how long it takes for me to do them (and the above process can take hours on a bad day), I will have a pretty good idea of how I'm feeling that day. It isn't a perfect system; it doesn't give me the early warning that I would like to have a few days in advance, but it's better than nothing.

As well as these physical things (however you choose to measure them), you should make a note of what exercise you do from day to day. I have a terrible memory, so I do this at the end of each day rather than worrying about yesterday's sessions in the morning. I try to be specific, noting down what I did, how long it took, how far I went (if applicable), how it felt, if I had any unusual niggles, and how much rest I had otherwise during the day. All of this is part of the diary that I keep dutifully which records as many of my symptoms as I can manage: pain, weakness, fatigue, seizures, heart rate/blood pressure, blood sugar, sleep quality, any sickness (colds, vomiting, etc.), and so on.

Yeah, I've given up on using people in pictures now.

Here is what is meant by rest:

- sitting or lying down

- not doing anything

Most people are terrible at this, because it means not watching television or reading a book. You literally do nothing. I think it's a bit of a stretch to expect people to spend large quantities of their waking lives not doing anything at all, so I do stretch this a little bit and let myself read, if I'm up to it (to be honest, I'm usually not!), or do something very mindless but still vaguely physical (nothing more energetic than colouring) or just slob about and watch TV. That's the best I can do for rest before I start getting frustrated. The important thing is that you aren't taxing your mind too much (academic work is not rest, however still you are) and that you are keeping the body relaxed.

Feeling positive? Try wobbling through all of that and see how you feel after 5 minutes...

So, all of this bit of the talk we had at the rowing camp was about the importance of including rest and not overdoing things. The next section was about getting the most out of the sessions you do do, and I may come back to that in another post. For now though, I counted the number of times I wrote 'rest' or 'recovery' in my notes - 12 times in one page. I think there's a message there...and now I have one thing to help me learn it: Mr Bump. For those of you not acquainted with the Mr Men, go here and be enlightened, and look for some videos online. The rest of you:

Mr Bump knows a lot about getting into various scrapes, but is always positive despite his penchant for accidents. I am allowed to cuddle him when I've been good about pacing, or when I'm feeling bad and need a sympathetic cuddle from a small blue spheroid.