The bad news: I was hoping to report on the first full week of training in NZ, but instead I just took 4 days off due to sickness.

The good news: I only took 4 days off due to sickness.

This kind of sickness — coughing up phlegm, no energy, and totally laid out — usually lasts a week or more for me. The secret to fast recovery? Read on to find out …

To kill time while sick I stopped to smell the flowers … (Thanks for the pic Dan Tartaglia!)

 

My rest and recovery followed an “Eastern Meditation” theme. I watched “7 Years in Tibet”, “A Year in Tibet”, (that makes 8!), and a few Jackie Chan action movies. I also read about meditation and did a group meditation in a cool yurt down the road from where I live.

I bought this book, too, to learn more about mindfulness and meditation and why it matters.

 

Jon Kabat-Zinn has done some amazing things to help people overcome pain, suffering, and illness with his Center for Mindfulness in Massachusetts. But his approach is useful for anybody looking to reduce stress and improve well-being.

His approach is basically this: the mind is a terrible thing to waste. And we waste it everyday by filling it with useless thoughts. If we can calm our mind, then we can better handle and react to the events that life throws at us (e.g., sickness that prevents us from training or, more seriously, cancer). I don’t have all the answers yet, but I’m keen to explore this a bit more …

 

What does mindfulness and running shoes have in common?

The western world suggests humans have 5 senses: see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.  The practice of mindfulness (which can be traced to Buddhism) suggests we have a 6th – the awareness generated by the mind. But this one takes some training.

But recently, western scientists suggested we have at least one more sense:

Proprioception is the sense of knowing and feeling the body’s position in space – both statically and in motion.

Here is where running shoes come in. Lots of running shoes today aim to improve a runner’s “proprioception” by allowing the athlete to better feel the terrain under his/her feet. With the right training and conditioning, the athlete can run more efficiently with “minimal” style shoes (where efficiency = highest speed at the lowest ‘cost’ of energy).

Inov8 (which happens to be one of my sponsors … ) was one of the first companies to push the idea that re-designing the traditional “big cushion” running shoe would allow runners to use “all their senses” when running on trails. (Remember the book Born to Run? The author Christopher McDougall wrote a letter to Inov8 giving the company props for “being on to the minimalist shoe” before he was. Read more here).

Wayne Edy, the founder of Inov8, launched the shoe company “from scratch” in 2003 and is now celebrating 10 years (see video below). One reason for their success is their “minimal” shoe design.  Wayne believed so much in the first shoe design — the MudRoc 290 — that he took a huge risk and ordered a whole container of them. The bet paid off, as the shoe sold well.

And now its offspring (like the X Talon 212’s) can be found in 60 different countries, where they are equally common among ultra marathoners and Scandinavian orienteerers. (they seem to be just as popular here in NZ as they are in Sweden).

Inov8 helps me develop my sense of proprioception, but it can’t help me with mindfulness. In fact, both of these senses require a lot of practice if you plan to develop them well.

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The secret to recovery

So how did I get well in just 4 days?

Answer 1:  Chinese medicine

Answer 2: Michelle Craw, Chinese Acupuncturist in Diamond Harbour, where I live.

Michelle Craw is not only an incredible healer but one of my top supporters here in NZ. When I landed last week, Michelle and I created a treatment plan for my 12 weeks of training before the Coast. The focus was on my biking, running, and kayaking muscles. But then life got in the way. We had to revise that plan this week and focus on my sick lungs instead.

Michelle threw herself 100% behind the “revised plan,” telling me to show up at her place every day and she’d take care of me. I obeyed and I benefitted. Needles, oils, Chinese herbal teas, and massage to stimulate the respiratory system. On Tuesday I was bad, Wednesday even worse. But I turned the corner quick and by Saturday I was running (40 min) and biking (60 min). Sunday I may have pushed it a bit too much with a 60 min paddle (my fault, not Michelle’s…) But regardless, this has been a quick turnaround. And it’s not the first time Chinese medicine has helped me to heal myself.

It’s also not the first time Michele has been the key instigator. She was critical to my victory at the 3 day stage race last March here in NZ called the Gold Rush (read more here). She re-charged my body with acupuncture and massage and had me ready to go the next morning.

One of the 3+ hr MTB rides in the heat of Central Otago on NZ’s South Island.

  

 Jogging in the plains

Michelle’s daily post-race treatment.

 

So there you have it. If you get sick, call Michelle … or your local acupuncturist 

Get Needles.  Train Smart.

Scott

PS While I was out biking Saturday I ran in to these nut cases:  Downhill skaters without helmets or shirts on “chip n’ seal” asphalt at 40 km … and people think multi-sporters are crazy J

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGKkRCr9FGw