my dual blogs and current measurements

I have two blogs: this one and myspace blog. Although I generally try to use this blogger as my "fitness-related" blog, I sometimes find myself blogging about my workouts in my MS blog. Tonight I'll cheat and I'll copy and paste the blog I wrote on MS tonight. (If anyone is bored and curious to see what kind of other stuff I blog about, here's my MS link: http://www.myspace.com/cyclist06)

(Oh yeah, I haven't done measurements in a while so here goes: Quads:56 cm, Calves 38 cm)

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According to Wikipedia, microtrauma occurs to your muscle fibers whenever you engage in weight training or some other strenuous activity. Your body then tries to compensate for this muscle damage by replacing the damaged tissue and adding more muscle tissue (thus, the bigger muscle appearance.)

Fret not, I won't be blogging on the intricacies of weight training. I begin my blog with this tidbit of information because it was this physiological visual that came to mind while I was working out today and going over my physical and mental state this past week.

During the last three days, I was bedridden with extreme fatigue. I felt like I couldn't get enough sleep or enough rest. Mentally, I wanted to shut down. There were moments when I experienced frustration because I wanted to be out doing my regular workout routines but I just couldn't muster the energy.

I'm not sure whether I can attribute this fatigue to a build-up of insufficient sleep or some weird flu. Whatever the reason, I can now look at these past three days as a necessary "breakdown". Maybe I needed this "breakdown" period to re-evaluate my mental outlook; maybe I needed it so I can get enough rest to come back harder to my training.

I feel that I possess a fair amount of mental and physical toughness. However, I have athletic friends who are mentally and physically much stronger than I. I don't envy their toughness as much as I admire it and aspire to match it.

I want to have the grit to ride strong when I'm riding with a stronger group of cyclists.

I want to have the discipline to hit the weights after I'm exhausted from my cardio workouts.

I want to have the fortitude to push myself harder when I want to ease off.

After experiencing a few days of metaphorical microtrauma, I now feel re-energized and with a renewed sense of determination. Here's to a stronger body and a stronger will! Booyah!