Unlike what I find a typical endurance athlete to do or be -- I engage pretty seriously in the team sports as well. Playing both in a competitive volleyball league and a basketball league over the fall/winter/spring. Best part about being an endurance athlete & playing those other sports (provided you have at least a moderate amount of coordination & skill....which mine is certainly on the modest side) is how much more effort you can put forth than most of the people you play against. When you've trained your cardiovascular system to a pretty high level it's kinda amusing how fast you can make other people you play against run out of gas.
However, both of those leagues are wrapping up here at the end of March. In volleyball, the team I sponsor, is close to closing in on the 5th or 6th league title in past 7 years, really fun team to play with. Basketball is on the other end of spectrum, not the worst team but the winning percentage is certainly below .500.
Playing the other sports, beside for the enjoyment & challenge of it, has seemingly helped maintain my overall flexibility & mobility. I'm not just one dimensional with a bunch of over developed and corresponding underdeveloped muscle groups that endurance sports can do. I never felt like being a "robot" -- and knock on wood I've had little in the way of injury as a result of doing it... besides, I've never seen a sprained ankle stop a person from biking.....
Something of interest to share -- in the past I've talked about how adamant I am about other forms of cross training, be it core training, lifting, flexibility training or stretching. Core Performance and Resistance Stretching have been a big reason if not for an improvement in my cycling performance but at least in injury prevention and chronic pain management. Show me a serious cyclist of a certain age that doesn't stretch and do some form of flexibility training and I'll bet you they have plenty of chronic aches and pains. However I came across another seemingly worthwhile read & program for pain relief -- It's called "Pain Free" written by Pete Egoscue, an exercise physiologist (if I recall correctly), with a decent track record of helping both professional athletes and couch potatoes from chronic pain issues and problems. He's adament about what he believes and has to say, so if that doesn't turn someone off too much I've discovered a few truly valuable routines & philosphies from what he has to say that have addressed some nagging issues I couldn't rid myself of with other programs. Betcha can find the book on Amazon.com for $10... could be entirely worth it, if you've ever had to deal with a chronic or ongoing pain condition.
Other than that I'm coming off a couple week break, had some sleep issues to get resolved and managed to have an instant weight loss program last Friday in the form of a stomach virus. Ah heck, I was getting too heavy at 168lbs anyways, had to get back to the 163lb fightin' weight.... never been too patient in getting it done the long way so why not do it in a day or two.
Got on the bike again this week and the intervals were on target without really any unnecessary hurt & suffering so it looks like a good 6 weeks of training to go and then it's off to the races. Probably the best part about this year is the baseline fitness I'm settled in at is already very competitive to my standards. I don't necessarily have do any special prepping or peaking early on to probably race well (of course I say that with crossed fingers because one never knows until things get settled out on the racecourse). That way I can enjoy the early races and continually build to peaking later in the summer & the fall. Feels like a good place to be right now.
Next post up......... Less gears is better? ..............Stay tuned.
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