Connecting the dots

Sometimes after a yoga class, a student will comment to me about struggling through class. I think I wrote about this in an earlier post but it bears repeating. Upon further discussion, I usually find the student has either not eaten well recently, been through a change of some kind, hasn't been sleeping, is increasing their running frequency and distance, just added a new element to their fitness routine or some such change. We often don't see the connection between things we do but when you're in training, you're always trying to connect the dots. Good run? You think back to what you ate, how you slept the night before. Bad run? You run through the same list.

So today, my first long run since July 6th (9 miles) I started out feeling great. After about 6 miles or so, my arms were killing me. I could barely hold them in position. My legs were fine; but my upper body was shot. I scanned my memory.... no, I hadn't been lifting.. no, I slept ok last night.. I ate well yesterday.. then it hit me. Bingo! I spent all night on Thursday night cleaning out my basement. I was lifting, moving heavy items, packing garbage bags and then Friday morning, I lugged 10 bags of garbage to a trash receptable. That must be it.

This concept works well outside of athletic endeavors also and there are lots of parallels you could draw. But as it relates to athletic performance, always remember to connect all the dots, even the ones that are not so obvious.