RECOVERY

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. Coincidentally (or not), I virtually “attended” a conference on sleep and recovery over the weekend to finish some continuing education credits I needed to keep my Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification active.

Anybody who knows me well knows I have a hard time relaxing. Even if you don’t know me well, it’s not the first time it’s come up on the blog either. I’m better than I used to be, but allowing myself to rest and recover is difficult. And in that regard, the sudden lifestyle changes due to COVID-19 have gotten old.

I’m “tired” of not having a set schedule. I want to work and advance my career. I don’t want to sit around wondering when society will find some normalcy again. I don’t want to wait to see how all of this will affect the retirement accounts and all of the adulting stuff that starts becoming a concern after consistent losses since March.

How will we all recover from this?

I don’t like unknowns. I try to be smart and make wise decisions with a futuristic mindset. It’s annoying when something outside my control is capable of derailing (hopefully temporarily) a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

Again, what does the recovery look like?

I know I’m whining. It’s probably fair to say we have all whined about COVID at some point. Whining doesn’t change anything, but the frustration level is definitely there for me by now. I got quite annoyed at the grocery store this weekend. A woman got visibly irritated at me (eye rolls and audible sighs) when I accidentally went the “wrong” way down an aisle. This is new for all of us, lady. Sheesh.

I don’t want this masked stranger to be the new normal. When we come out of this, I hope this is not what our “recovery” looks like.

This weekend, the speakers made some interesting observations about recovery, and I feel like some of it could be applicable outside of the fitness spectrum. There was a heavy emphasis on stress and what that can do to the body.

In a nutshell, the more stress we have – physically, emotionally, mentally, etc. – the longer we will need to recover from the stress.

That makes sense in an exercise standpoint, right? If we are a conditioned human, walking one mile yesterday might not result in a lot of physical stress or soreness today. If the same person ran a marathon yesterday, he or she would likely need substantial recovery time due to the increased stress placed on the body.

Here’s the other interesting concept discussed this weekend that’s common sense but maybe not verbalized or pondered as much as it should:

The benefit of exercise comes from the RECOVERY from it, not during the exercise itself.

When the speaker first said this, I immediately thought, “That’s not entirely true. It feels good to sweat. Exercise clears my mind, and that happens DURING the workout.”

But that’s more of an acute mental benefit from a workout. What the speaker meant was that we have to overload the body (shock phase) to start a more chronic transformation. Whether the goal is to get stronger, go farther, go faster, or become more powerful, we can’t get there by doing what we’ve been doing. We have to train, and training starts by putting more demands on our bodies than we’re used to in order to elicit the adaptations we desire (goals).

We don’t get stronger or faster or more powerful without recovery. One speaker even argued that recovery might be more important than the workout, yet it’s often talked about the least in the fitness world. We use generalizations to talk about rest and recovery. Get enough quality sleep. Eat healthy foods. Stretch every day. Stay hydrated. Meditate. It’s the HOW surrounding these habits that jams us up; at least that’s the case for me.

Last week, I couldn’t fall asleep. My solution: drink a glass of wine and take some Zzzquil. Did I cut corners? Yes. Did I finally fall asleep? Yes. Did I feel more rested after cutting corners? Nope. Did I address the real issues behind the lack of sleep? No.

Maybe we just don’t know enough about rest and recovery. I learned this weekend that part of my problem might be that I need to do a “brain dump” as bed time gets closer. The new COVID-19 lifestyle has increased my screen time a lot. I’m more “stimulated” late at night than I used to be. Before, I wouldn’t browse the Internet right before bed. Another reason might be that I put in a lot of running miles last week, and my legs felt achy, especially at night. I hadn’t been stretching or doing much active recovery because I was overtired.

The last couple nights, I tried a nighttime meditation (via an app) and took a calcium/magnesium supplement, both of which were discussed briefly this weekend. The meditation did a progressive relaxation. I don’t remember the end of it because I fell asleep. I guess that’s a good thing, right? Maybe I’m on to something for myself there because I woke up feeling more refreshed.

Sleep is where the body is most still. Other than basic bodily functions, the body is able to rebuild and recover during sleep because there aren’t any other demands/stresses placed upon it. You can’t really rush the recovery process, and it’s easy to be impatient when positive results take their dear sweet time appearing.

With proper recovery, you develop a new stronger/faster/more powerful baseline to continue to build on. Failing to prioritize recovery means we’re depriving ourselves of improvement.

I am impatient about recovering from COVID-19’s social and economic stressors. I have been lucky enough to stay healthy through the pandemic. Sometimes I have doubts that we’ll adapt and come out with the better baseline to build from. It’s tough out there.

The reality is this: (unfortunately) it will take time to recovery from this. And no matter where you stand politically or personally with this, recovery needs to be a big priority. This has been a beast of a stressor. And like the soreness that lingers after a really tough workout, there might be some more tough times as we try to recover.

Mindfulness is a buzz word I’m hearing a lot lately. I’m not always mindful or tuned in. Sometimes I feel like I’m the little kid in church who can’t keep her eyes closed during the prayers. I’m focused on too many things, overloaded with distractions.

Here’s the way I see it. I don’t know everything about recovery when it comes to COVID-19 or health/fitness, but I’m choosing to be mindful of its importance. What I do in recovery affects how I adapt and improve (or not). For example, science is saying that “active recovery” like dynamic stretching is likely better than static stretching and definitely better than just sitting around doing nothing when we’re awake.

I think my daily activities from here on out need a mindful purpose. Recovering from COVID-19 has already started. Being passive and depressed about things doesn’t lead to recovery. Being active in strategic and purposeful ways helps me stay on track. Maybe I need to figuratively, literally, and permanently trade the Zzzquil for the magnesium and meditation.

Recovering, figuring it out as I go, and, as always, embracing the typos till next Monday-ish,

Mel

March 15, 2021

The MySpace Series: Part One

Last week, I was searching for an email to prepare for a podcast interview. The keyword search produced a handful of emails, one of which had the subject line “myspace blog posts” and myself as the sender/recipient.

Apparently, a few years back (or eleven), I copied all of my old MySpace blogs from college into an email (probably before I deleted everything on MySpace). I don’t remember sending this email, nor do I remember writing any of the posts.

As I read through them, I realized I’ve matured a lot since then, but I also realized I might need to revisit some of the “wisdom” my young adult mind was spouting on MySpace.

I guess I’ve been blogging badly longer than I thought.

March 8, 2021

The Way Up

Well, I’ve had to make some more big changes in my life. For the last month and a half, I’ve been burning the midnight oil, stuck between finishing up the old and getting started with the new. For the first time in a long time, I fell behind on the things that matter to me a lot, and it’s not like me to let that happen. The Type-A in me was (and still is) horrified.

January 11, 2021

The Little Things

Last week was quite a week, wasn’t it? I found myself saying aloud, “What is happening?”

What is happening? A lot, to say the least, and enough to leave anyone in a state of sadness and despair. What a mess. An important, troubling mess that needs sorting and fixing. Anyone on all sides of the table can probably agree with that.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s to come, both for me and for the country. I think I, like many, secretly hoped for clarity and change as the New Year rolled around. A clear path to the future.

When I know I need to make a change, I delay the decisions and hope for a “sign” that it’s the correct one before I make it. I’m sure many can relate to that. Big decisions are scary. Change is scary. But risk is necessary sometimes. Like I’ve been saying for a long time, I can’t move forward without getting uncomfortable.

But a sign would be nice, sometimes.

I suppose clarity and answers are often present if we stop and listen long enough to see them. There’s something to be learned everywhere, even if it’s in the little things.

That’s what I want to share today… a few little things.

December 28, 2020

Notes to Self

Last week I went through my Book Box, a big decorative box I used to store book drafts and ideas when I was writing Agent Innocent. Talk about a trip down memory lane. Wow. Those early book drafts were rough, not to mention very angry and depressing.

I was happy to send most of the contents of the box to the shredder.

I had forgotten, however, about some of the random contents I’d tucked away in there.

Sprinkled throughout the Book Box were post-it notes with quotes in my loopy cursive, torn pieces of paper with scribbled quotes from movies or television shows, and torn pages from magazines with quotes on them.

As I read these, I smiled, picturing myself in my little one-bedroom West LA apartment scribbling quotes and notes in the wee hours of the morning. The night owl in me was alive and well those days.

In my final Bad Blog of 2020, I’m going to go back to those late-night notes and share a few of them here. I remember the circumstances and reasons for some of them. Others I don’t. Either way, it was good for me to revisit them, and I hope some of them are encouraging to you as well.

Here they are!

December 14, 2020

12,000 Steps

“Why are we like this?” Ah, we’ve asked this question many times.

I thought about the days of old, the ones before Apple Watches and activity trackers came into my life. I thought of the college days when my pink flip phone took crappy pictures and I had to hit the 7 button four times to type an S when sending a text. I trained for half and full marathons like this and had no idea what my pace was during these long runs. I just made a route ahead of time so I knew I’d gone the distance and didn’t worry so much about pace. It was about the experience, not the inner competition with a watch.

November 23, 2020

Throwing Stones

As a kid, I liked to collect pretty rocks. The shinier the better. The more misshapen the better. Sometimes I’d even find a dull looking rock and crack it in half with a hammer to see if the inside was shiny. I’d be delighted if the insides sparkled.

Today I still have pretty rocks, and, to some, random rocks around my house might look a little peculiar. But, then again, I’ve never claimed to be “normal” so perhaps visitors chalk it up to my eclectic taste in décor.

I came by some of these stones while living in West Los Angeles. Others were picked up after I moved to the Midwest.

The new rocks are healing stones.

(Now relax, family and friends. I have not taken to worshipping inanimate objects and I’m not delving into devil worship.)

November 16, 2020

Character and Characters

I’ve decided to write a novel. Well, perhaps I should rephrase. I’ve had a trilogy “planned” for about three years now. I just haven’t done anything about it. I recently figured out why that might be the case.

I’ve had this grand plan to write an exciting story with the “usual” Secret Service assassination (or assassination attempt), complete with a complex execution plan and a hyper-observant batch of agents saving the day at the very last millisecond. Also, it wouldn’t be complete if the first book didn’t end on an extreme cliffhanger where someone has died and we won’t know who until the second book.

I had a general outline of the story for each book. I just needed to write it.

But I didn’t write it.

Every time I sat down to write the story, I failed.

November 9, 2020

September 12, 2001

This election was the first time I voted at an actual polling location. Since election days were usually travel days for me in the Secret Service, I was always an absentee voter. This time, I participated in early voting at a local shopping mall. I was excited as I stood in line. It felt like my first time voting. I sat in the little booth smiling like a little kid as I filled in my bubbles, smirking at the fact that Kanye West was actually an option on the ballot. I thought it was joke when others mentioned it. Guess not. I grinned from ear to ear as the lady stamped my ballot and handed me the “I Voted” sticker. #American

“I don’t want to talk about the election. I stay away from political topics.”

This is usually my answer when people ask me about politics, and, specifically, this election. I think this country has morphed into a place where those conversations are unlikely to remain civil, especially if they occur on the Internet where anyone and everyone behind a keyboard can become a rude, sniveling pile of hate to one another.