As a lightweight rower, I’ve always been aware of my food intake. Sometimes I wouldn’t care so much about the taste as much as I would about the amount of carbs/protein/fat the food contained. I could eat horse food if it contained the good nutrients to help keep me strongJ. I remember a few years back getting made fun of for eating beans and tuna, or peanut butter and eggs. You know you want to try those combinations now, haha..YUM!!
However, I tried something new in the most recent weeks. As you can remember, I mentioned that I was juicing quite a lot, and I was adding ginger to every juice I made. In addition, I was buying raw ginger, slicing it, and putting it in hot water to drink throughout the day. On top of THAT, I was taking natural pills with ginger for helping keep the immune system strong. Well, needless to say, I had a bit too much ginger. I thought I was helping keep my body strong and doing one of those typical “laura’s ingesting crazy things again”, but the amount of ginger I was having was so much that my body slowly started to show strong negative effects. People can react differently, and for me, I started to get incredibly exhausted. It felt like I had mono again (I had it back in high school). I went home at lunch a couple of times just to nap, I also missed practices because I needed to sleep and couldn’t stay awake, and this past week-end it escalated during a workout I was trying to do (8x250m), where I started shaking and burning up with a fever during the workout. Being a doorknob, I continued and finished the workout, but then right after my last stroke, I crawled straight to bed and slept for the rest of the afternoon. Usually after an intense workout, you feel like you can fly and take over the world…I was dreaming about that insteadJ. Now, I am not 110% it’s the ginger, but I’ve gone to get my blood checked and everything was normal (I only show high WBC which means I am fighting something, and the docs couldn’t explain what).
So my non-medical advice is to take things in moderation, and also track how you react to new things you try.
With all that said, I want to turn to mental toughness. As you may know, this week-end is the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships in Mississauga – woo hoo! I am usually not excited for it, but this year I am. Why? Well, I’m excited because I think it’ll be a really good event overall (fun for athletes and spectators), and it’ll be a place where I could evaluate how my training is going. This competition means nothing for National trials or Provincial funding, but it means something to each individual participating. Today I decided to take the day off work to try and get my energy back…it has definitely started to help, and I measure this by how my training goes (as well as heart rate). I did 2km pieces back to back at fixed stroke rates, and for 2 of them, they were both in the 7:30’s. I know I can’t race at a low stroke rate, but at least I can trust my body now.
So how did I get to this point of trust? I think it’s through training and building mental toughness.
I’m reading a sports psychology book that defines mental toughness as the following: consistently remaining determined, focused, confident, and cool under pressure. This idea could be taken into your everyday life and training. In training, strengthening your mental toughness can be done by simply finishing a workout. As I’ve learned, some days you just can’t be 100%, and so to simply hit the stroke rates alone can be a success. There are times when an athlete goes out to fast and they can’t sustain that pace for the remainder of the workout or race, but if they are mentally tough, then they will hang in there and finish (even if it’s in last place). Every time I finish a workout or push beyond my own limits, I know that I am further strengthening my mental toughness.
So this Sunday, if my body fails me, I will remain calm, cool under pressure, confident, and at least trust that I’ll finish (even if it’s in last place). However if you ask me trusthfully I would have to say that I am going on a mission to break that erg and get put into a stretcher after my raceJ. I'll have just a few hours then to recover before I take off to Boston for work the following week.
Below is a great video - if it weren't for mental toughness I'm sure these athletes would have just given up before reaching the finish line.
Bring on the taper week!
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