Go for a hike!

For those of you following me regularly, I'm happy to report that I performed much better at this weekend's tryouts than last weekend.  Overall I felt more intense and ready to roll.  What was different?  I made more of an effort to ease up on my training in the second half of last week.  I was also determined to redeem last weekend's lacklustre performance.  So was it a physical or a mental issue last weekend?  Who knows.  Are the two ever really separate? This is a good question to keep in mind for those of you tapering for nationals.

To recover from a weekend that included a hat tournament and tryouts, I chose hiking instead of a formal recovery workout.  Ok, so I went hiking mostly for fun.  That it's a good recovery activity is just a bonus.

  mental and physical recovery are important for your training

Why is hiking a good recovery workout?

• hiking at a good pace uses a larger hip range of motion than a stationary bike or slow running
• inclines are like dynamic stretching reps for your calves
• declines are dynamic stretching for the hip flexors
• uneven surfaces mobilize and activate everything around and related to the ankles
• scrambling over rocks, jumping over streams, etc requires movement in multiple planes and opens the hips
• it's fun!  mental recovery is just as important as physical recovery (I need to practice this principle more often actually)

I hope your training, tapering, tryouts, and recovery are all going well!

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