Injuries, An Ultra & Adaptation

My First Ultra Marathon

The training paid off!

I completed it, despite having broken my hand two days prior and felt strong throughout the entire race.

But two things made a world of difference.

Firstly: Breath

I’ve spent the last 14 months exploring different breathing techniques with the intention of impacting my physiology.

In this regard,  I’m primarily after respiratory efficiency, Co2 tolerance and using it as a way to pace.

Personally, I nourish my spirit in other ways like journaling and meditation.

Breathing with intention in my training has changed endurance for me.

I’ll leave you with one simple and understandable point for now:

We cannot breathe deeply without an open and accessible core.

Posture is crucial.

In endurance sports your posture should be the foundational thing you think about.

Endurance is about efficiency, not intensity.

Your posture will directly help or hinder your efficiency.

Your breath, will directly help or hinder your posture.

Make sense?

We haven’t even gotten into the physiology of breathing which I’m excited to cover in some upcoming workshops.

Breath has the power to impact everything; and for me it has.

My athleticism, my ability to focus, the state of my nervous system, sex, recovery and a deeper connection with my self.

Secondly: Practice Skills

Practicing skills starts to border the world of play.

And play is not just one way to increase the neuroplasticity of our brain, but it is the fundamental way to increase neuroplasticity of your brain.

Part of my mission as a coach is to teach skills equally, along with stability, strength, mobility and endurance. If you’ve been to a class of mine or work with me privately, you know this. I often hear “that was hard”.

That is by design.

Skills require focus.

Focus is fleeting and in this day and age, a super power.

And the more you know, the easier it is to flow.

I could not have ran 50km if I had only focused on the training.

I had to develop the skill.

Additionally, training the “skill” of running provided me with a sense of enjoyment for the 5.5 hours I was running. Whenever it became tedious or uncomfortable, I leaned into the practice of play.

This skill is translatable to every running sport.

And what’s rad to keep in mind is this:

The more you practice skills, the faster you pick them up.

Injuries, Recovery & HRV

Let’s face it. Injuries suck!

One reason I have a mindful practice is to check-in  daily and assess where I’m at.

As I mentioned above, I love skills, and I enjoy them even more at a fast pace.

That fast pace will often leave me burnt out if I’m not intentional about recovery and rest. I take it seriously.

The pace of mountain biking for example is heavily taxing on your autonomic nervous system. If you continue to push with no respect for rest and recover, you will be forced to rest.

With this broken hand, I’ve been often been asked, what is the “universe trying to tell you”?

Or “what is your body trying to tell you”?

My answer:

Don’t ‘push it’ on Thursday.

Seriously… it’s that simple.

Maybe you, much like the folks asking that question, wanted something deeper.

If you know me, you know I’m happy to dive deep.

But this time, it really felt like shit luck mixed with that simple lesson.

Thursday’s are for rest.

For the last 6 months I have been more on top of rest, recovery and respecting a balanced approach in training than ever.

If we want to get into metrics, I’m proud of my HRV, resting heart rate, Co2 tolerance and sleeping patterns (all of which predictors of the state of our nervous system).

But if I go digging, I’ve found that I always have a dip in my HRV Wednesday night.

Without fail, Thursday (my Friday) always feels like I’ve emptied the tank by noon and my HRV is evidence.

This has helped me decide how to program my “big efforts” or high adrenaline rides.

So if you have access to HRV (and I will dive into this more in future newsletters and workshops on recovery), my recommendation is not to compare your metrics today vs yesterday, but rather weekly trends. How this week stacks up over last week.

WHAT IS HRV (heart rate variability)

Yes, Injuries Suck…But An Effective Reminder

We ought to be grateful for the ability to move and play freely and pain free.

Let’s not be naive. This is a gift and it is absolutely fleeting.

Nothing will remind you the brilliance of this body and it’s ability, like losing it.

And we will lose it.

There will be a time your mobility becomes less.

Your strength starts to drift.

The number one reason majority of my clients have hired me privately is to help prevent this for a little bit longer.

It could happen at 40, or at 60.

The earlier you start, the longer you can play and appreciate your body and the world around you.

Peter Attia, the author of Outlive, shares that with age we see the following decrease annually on average:

0-2% of muscle

2-4% of strength

4-8% of power & speed

Our mobility  decreases even more rapidly.

You have a choice to mitigate the rate at which your movement decreases.

And instead, enjoy your body, movement and play for more years of your life.

Adapt and Integrate

We’re constantly learning if we so choose.

Lessons could be taken from most anything; large or small.

There have never been more ways to train, play and recover.

Sometimes, it’s overwhelming.

I feel called, both as a coach and intuitively, to help and make the abundance of information digestible.

I’ve spoken of breath, recovery, HRV, skills & play and of course, training.

Only a few tools in the expansion of our experience and pursuits.

I’ll continue to dive into these subjects in more depth in future newsletters, workshops and of course offered in private coaching.

Our human experience offers a unique opportunity to adapt to our surroundings and integrate what we’ve learned. This of course is a growth mindset and takes work, discipline and  above all, awareness. None of this is possible without a foundation in awareness and a practice in slowing down.

And as always, grateful to be your coach, teacher, companion in play and friend.

- Julian