Training as a World-Class Athlete...

“If there’s magic in athletics, it’s the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you.”

I am hurting… this is the phase of training I love and hate at the same time.  I love it because I know I will reap the benefits of it during my season and hate it because it is grueling, intense and painful.  Generally, I train for 11 months of the year, 6 days a week on a 4 week cycle.  My training sessions can vary from 1 hr to 5hrs a day, depending on the time of the year.  And right now, the volume of training I’m involved in can feel like I’m living at the track.    These are definitely longer voluminous sessions with increasing intensities.  Just this week, I’ve come close to seeing God...  or something of the sort (a side effect of this phase of training).   

Why is training so hard???  Well, it’s not one thing in particular that breaks you down.  But, it’s the accumulation of each day’s training.  My training (and track and field in general) centres on a periodization training program.  Track & Field is a sport constantly testing maximal efforts and to support a season of maximal performances, a solid training program is necessary.  Without it, performances will start to plateau or injuries may be close at hand.  A very good training program should be methodical accounting for various factors (such as hormonal changes, recovery, psychological factors and so on).

I’m currently in a loading phase, my least favourite form of training.  The volume and intensity is large.  Essentially my body breaks down a lot in this phase and builds itself back up.  It’s a growing phase…. And my body feels it.  You must train smart, and yet there is no going halfway in training.  Each day you’ve got to bring you’re “A Game” and trust that what you do now will pay off later. 

It’s funny for as long as I’ve been doing track, this phase of training never gets easier.  I’m competitive and the performances I display in training I desire to outperform previous training results….  A video camera needs to follow us athletes during this phase of training to really bring to life what it means to be a world-class athlete.  Today as I finished my week’s worth of training I found myself thinking “if it was easy everybody would be doing it.”

Oh, how I must love track & field!

Nicole