Focus on YOU

After an 8 week rehab routine following knee surgery, I am finally cleared for full participation on my team again. Luckily, the timing worked out in such a way that I was able to get right back into the boat this week for three hour water sessions twice a day... 6 hours a day, 7 days a week of practicing can only mean one thing- Spring Training! 

We are nearing the end of our week of spring training, we've experienced weather in the teens, and weather in the 60's, but most importantly I've experienced endorphins again- and better yet, a focus. With just 7 days until our first race, the Jesuit Invitational on the Cooper River in New Jersey. 

As incredible as it has been being able to competitively train again, it has also been extremely grueling- not just on my muscles and my body- but my mentality. It is an interesting experience, coming back from injury because you have expectations of your performance based off of your prior capabilities- yet with rest your body naturally loses a certain percentage of fitness and muscular physique. As this is not my first time coming back from surgery, this did not come as a surprise to me, but having delt with it three times now, I can attest to a few helpful tips to keep your mind on track, and focused on whats truly important. 

1) You have to try as best to your ability to use your past level of performance only as motivation- and not to let it overshadow how hard your working to get back. Your fitness and skill development will be a little behind after being out of the game for such a period of time- and that is expected, so don't expect to bounce right back!

2) I started using a heart rate monitor about a year ago, and now that I have gotten accustomed to it, I wouldn't workout another day without it. While the heart rate monitor is always useful to track what training zones you are in, the calories your burning, the percentage of your workouts spent in fat burning zones vs. aerobic zones...all great information to have while training! This is especially helpful however when your training to come back from an injury- and here's why, when you are out for awhile your resting heart rate naturally becomes higher, you will notice that during workouts it will take a less intense output to reach high heart rates. As you become more and more fit- you actually see the results of your work on your wrist! Noticing that a) your heart rate is taking longer and longer to get up there, and b) your recovery time will become less and less. 

3) I find that it is really helpful to log my workouts, writing down specific details about a workout. In the sport of rowing this would either include the lineup I was in, the workout we did, how it felt (before, during, and after)- and if we were indoors erging this would include the workout, what my times and splits were, and again how I felt before, during, and after the workout. I also find that it is very useful to write down the amount of sleep you got the night before, as well as what you ate and drank that day. Once you have a couple weeks in the log book, reading back through you begin to not only see your performance level heighten, but you find patterns linking your sleeping and eating habits with your performance output. Since I workout with a heart rate monitor, I also make sure to write down the information after a training session- average heart rate, max heart rate, calories burned, time spent in aerobic zones & time spent in fat burning zones. The more information you include, the better!

I started this habit when I was rowing in High School at the Essex Rowing Club. When any athlete who rowed for Essex became fully committed and serious about succeeding with the sport- my coach would always suggest, and sometimes mandate that we keep "logbooks" of our workouts. Back then, I had a hard time seeing the patterns- but the habit stuck, and when I had my first surgery and then my first experience working back to my own standards- I found the log book not only to be extraordinarily helpful in organizing my thoughts, but my mentality was much more stable because I had legitimate evidence of my improvements. 

Coming back from an injury is never easy, and don't for a second think that emotionally you haven't been affected- because no matter how you look at it serious athletes commit a lot of time and energy to their sport- making sacrifices in their every day lives for the sheer goal of getting faster, or stronger, or better. This type of mindset is expected of an elite athlete, this type of mindset is what cuts athletes to the core when they are held back from training, but under the same lens- it's the killer motivation that we draw from overcoming our own personal obstacles that makes us unstoppable. 

Find what helps you keep focused, think about the big picture, the ultimate goal- and figure out a way to make it part of your routine. With easy tips like these to help you keep on track, your comeback could be quicker than you thought :)