The Stress Bucket

Most of us know it whether we want to admit it or not.  Stress is stress is stress is stress.  It doesn't matter if it's physical, mental, or emotional, it's all stress.  And all of it impacts our lives and performance on and off the bike.  We often learn to live with the current level of stress and then it feels like there's little stress.  For example, you might get a new job that is very stressful with demanding hours.  After a while, you adapt and "get used to it."  Then it doesn't feel as high stress any more.  Of course it still is.  And then we just pile on more and more.

I had a teammate who talked about the "stress bucket" and how your body doesn't differentiate where the stress comes from.  It all just goes into the bucket.  And when the bucket is full, your body will win.  You might get sick, or just super cranky, or stop performing well, or worse.  Or all of the above.

We must all be mindful of the stress that can undermine our goals and our lives.

This is a super article that talks about that and how to successfully train, and REST, through it.

Check it out:

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/training-stress-vs-life-stress/

And here's another from one of my go-to podcasters, Colby Pearce:

https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/training-in-times-of-stress/

Colby's "been there and done that"; he's been a professional bike racer and gone to the Olympics.  He's also a master bike fitter and coach.  He hosts a very interesting podcast called "Cycling in Alignment" at:

https://www.colbypearce.com/podcast/

So, go ahead and take some time for yourself, maybe take that unplanned rest day, get to bed early, go sit on the beach and relax, and try to de-stress a bit.  Your body will thank you.  And you might surprise yourself with how well you perform.

Cheers,

Coach Brian