Yesterday after a week away I got back in the gym at Green Mountain Rock Climbing for my weekly session with Steve. We have been in the recovery and building mode for the past couple of months and today was the day to start to kick up in my training.

This year we are trying something a little different, last year I went too hard too soon for too long and found myself burned out before my competition season was even over. This year with my eye on a certain race in September we are gearing my training around that event. Sure I have many races before that but putting my race schedule in prospective and prioritizing it is important thus a shift in our approach.

So today was the day to start to kick it in. I got there and the first thing Steve said was I looked calm. Oh what a week of vacation can do for a person! We warmed up bouldering around the gym then went into the workout. Today it involved a rowing machine, jump rope, and burpees. As we got into the first set and the first 1000 meters of rowing my stomach started to feel off. This was no good. I pressed on through the first set through 100 jump ropes and 10 burpees something that shouldn’t be terribly hard. At the end of the set I found myself dashing outside feeling as if I would see a meal for a second time. After a few minutes outside nothing was happening, false alarm.

On to the second set, things were not getting much better. I was sweating my ass off on the rowing machine as my stomach twisted itself into a absolute knot. Jumping rope on a sour stomach made for an interesting time. Steve saw the pain on my face and I think he was surprised. Second set over I went running to the bathroom. It wanted to come out! I had just misjudged it’s direction.

After clearing out my system, I headed back out onto the rowing machine to finish the last two sets. I wasn’t sick, I wasn’t dying, and I had just flushed out my system so we pressed on. After finishing the last two sets with an added bonus of 250 meters on the rowing machine in under a minute I was drained. I felt pale and found myself in a daze.

Steve said we should stop there for the day and do two sessions next week to make up for this one being short. Funny how we kick it up and sometimes our body for whatever reason has it’s own agenda. I left the gym still in a daze and had an interesting time picking up groceries while in town. However, this morning the stomach is back to normal. I am feeling good and glad we were able to shock my body into what is in store for the next couple of months.