Allostatic Load
In physical fitness, the training load is not just the volume and intensity of the workouts, the training load also includes all the various slings and arrows that life inevitably supplies. While I’ve long known this, I recently experienced how increased allostatic load drains the proverbial fuel tank. As many of you may know, my adoptive mother recently passed away. In the months leading up to her death, daily workouts were precious time to process the myriad emotions, to de-stress and to converse with the trees, rocks and streams of Blue Mound State Park. While workout time was a daily priority and supportive of mental health, objective performance measures declined steadily over the past few months. Only in hindsight do I fully appreciate how much energy emotional labor required, and the necessity of factoring this into training load calculations and expectations of performance. More than likely running 3-minutes/mile slower this past Summer than in previous Summers is not indic