In our fast paced world it is easy for athletes to get run down many
things outside of training itself. Living a balanced life and at the
same to reaching your potential in athletics is a challenge.

Many athletes:
- need to work fulltime or study full-time.
- live in Cities without a variety of trails on different surfaces to
run.
- face many opportunities to socialize at times that challenge the
sleep needs of training.

Reaching your potential means producing over a long period of time
maximail adaptation. To do so means performing consistent high quality
training. We all can relate to days where we have trained badly in the
afternoon because of draining activity earlier in the day.

So OK what can we do about it. What follows are just a few ideas.
People may like to email me more stevebn@...

Sleep
-Have a consistent wake-up time. If you have a late night which should
not be very often. The best way to aid recovery is to have a 30min
snooze early afternoon and get a slightly earlier night. Researchers
have found that sleeping in more than an hour is bad for sleep rhythms
and is counterproductive.
- You should be aiming for at least 8hrs sleep each night but more
ideal would be 9hrs. Joaquim Cruz and Jose Luiz Barbosa whose training
plans I have seen had their bed times specificed as 10pm bed and 7am
rise.

Massage.
All athletes should aim for 2-3 massages a week on at least the key
areas. Learn how to massage effectively by paying for some professional
massages for as long as budget lasts. Then train your own support
people to help inh this area.

Diet
All athletes should have their diet studied and optimized. Consuming
too small an amount of Carbohydrates is common and can leave an athlete
fatigued through muscle fuel depletion.

Recovery
-Go easy on easy runs they are performed to speed up recovery not to
add more fatigue.
- Swim for recovery - you do not need to swim for fitness just have
afloat around.

Physiotherapy
Visit physiotherapists and learn techniques for maintaining muscle
looseness from them. A popular area now spreading is the use of
accupressure triggers. I find that this is a great way to loosen tight
and sore areas.

Scheduling
make sure you have easy weeks regularly and allow more recovery than
the usual.

Live-Work-Training
It makes the most sense to live-work-train as close as possible.Talent
can be found in difficult circumstances but I am sure the World Elite
have it pretty simple in this way.


Conclusion

Training harder when already tired is of no value. To gain maximum
adapatation an athklete needs to train vety hard when fresh enough to
perform at high quality and then rest really well so that this process
can be done again and again. Resting is always a race the quicker you
can recover the harder you can train and the closer to your absolute
potential you will reach.

Good Luck in 2000

Steve Bennett
Oztrack Athletics Bookstore
http://www.2000athletics.penrith.net.au/athletics.htm

Sports Massage for Peak Performance
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060951672/sydney2000trac00
American professional athletes have been using sports massage for more
than two decades now, and the technique is considered effective for
precontest warm-ups (to increase circulation and flexibility),
postevent cool-downs (to relax performance-tightened muscles), and
between-contest body maintenance (to keep tissues loose and maintain
posture). This straightforward and well-illustrated book shows you how
to perform sports-massage techniques on yourself or a partner. It also
includes flexibility exercises and offers sport-specific advice.