I just arrived back in New York for a week break in-between training camps. My first camp went very well but it sure is nice to be home for a week! I trained a total of seventy five hours in the last four weeks so I am using this week for a bit of recovery time before we pick up the pace in July. You can make training plans as complicated as you want but the bottom line is that you need to push your limits and then recover. Without proper recovery, your body will never compensate for all of the training so recovery is my goal for this week.
So far my training seems to be working very well and I even set a personal best in one of our hardest physical tests last week. The time trial was designed to test both upper body strength and maximum oxygen uptake. To test these two areas, our coach chose a very steep hill that we raced up on roller-skis, using only our upper bodies with ski poles. The race took under six minutes to complete but at an average heart rate of 192 it was pretty taxing. I beat my previous best time by 15 seconds, which is pretty substantial in race of this length. This was a good indicator that I am on the right track but it is also important for me to remember that I have a long way to go until racing season.
My week at home has been a nice break but we still train a fair amount even in these recovery weeks. I head back to Maine on Saturday to resume training with the team. I need to return fully rested because I have four 20 plus hour training weeks waiting for me in Maine. During July we actually train more hours than any other month of the year. After July the focus changes from total hours to intensity; our overall hours drop but the intensity of the training picks up quite a bit.
Once again my hips are handling the training very well. I often forget that just three years ago I was told by multiple doctors to reconsider my Olympic aspirations. If I am fortunate enough to be traveling to Italy for 2006 the Winter Olympics, I am sure that a few bottles of Syn-flex will be making the trip with me.
I hope all is well.
My Best,
Tim
The author's statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not provided to diagnose any disease or to suggest that liquid glucosamine and chondroitin will treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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