Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Final Countdown - Peak Week Exhaustion





Seems like everyone I know is gearing up to get on the competition stage soon and show off the results of months of strict dieting and training.  Enter: peak week.  The week before the show that may or may not involve dietary, water, and training changes.  Regardless if you deplete and load, or just stay the course, people are typically very tired, grumpy, angry, irritable, and completely EXHAUSTED. 

People as me why?  "Why am I so tired?"  "Is it normal to feel this exhausted?"  "Shouldn't I be more excited?"  "Why am I so weak?"

It's simple.  Your mind is done.  It's a few steps ahead of you.  I relate this to marathon runners crossing the finish line.  If you've ever watched the finish line of a marathon, you'll see these runners in perfect stride for miles and miles.  And then they can see the finish line, and that beautiful stride gets broken.  The powerful legs turn to jello and get shaky.  JUST from seeing the finish line.  Their mind says "There it is!  We are SO done!"  Nope, still have some distance to run.  So the body starts trying to relax and recover before the race is even complete.

That is what peak weak is.  In your mind, you can see the stage.  You see the finish line.  Your mind says "Score!  At this time next week we're done with this diet, lets start recovering now!"  Nope, still have a week to get through despite your body's insistence that you're done and ready to relax.

So yes, it is normal to feel like complete and utter roadkill during peak week.  And ummmm... if you're getting ready to compete for the first time, I'm just kidding.  It's all sunshine and daisies and shitting rainbows.  :-D