Week 22 - Some words about recovery

This week was a recovery week, with less training than normal. I cut down some trainings in the beginning and in the end of the week, to make sure that I would be ready for the upcoming hard trainingweeks.

Even though I trained less than normal and theoretically should be feeling more fresh, it's not always how recovery works. Often it takes some days with reduced training before you will actually feel that you are recovered, and sometimes you won't even get the this feeling. Of course you should react on how you feel sometimes, but sometimes your feelings in your body is not giving the true picture of how you are. I can often feel a bit restless and even less motivated for training in my recovery weeks, but I know that I need this little physical and mental break to be able to train hard later on.

I don't do much different recovery in my recovery-weeks compared to other weeks, just more of it. I aim to sleep between 8-9 hours every night, which often means I normally go to bed between 22:15-22:45, because I get up around 7:15-7:30 in the morning. I don't take a nap during the daytime, because I normally don't have the time or need for that, but I know that many other athletes do.  

Besides the sleep, the nutrition is an important part of my recovery. I'm not fanatic about what I eat and drink, but I'm very aware of how much I eat and to vary it, considering what I train. I know this from many years of experience from nutritionplans and own experiences. I use my morningweight every morning to check if I get the right amount of food or if I should adjust. The weight is also an important tool for me during the last months before the important competitions, trying to hit my "competition"-weight. My weight can very up to 2-3 kg from winter to summer...

Right now I'm on my way to Spain on a 2 week trainingcamp with the national team. I'm looking forward to this camp, as I think this can boost my motivation for training, which has varied a bit the last couple of weeks. The most important goal about this camp is not to break a rib, though, which has been the case the last two years...