#12 Recovering from Overtraining
I’ve mostly stuck to the ridiculous fun adventures of my experiences living abroad in my blog but today I feel like writing something a bit more personal. I love putting my thoughts on paper (or in this case, on a Mac pages document). It helps me reflect and navigate my thoughts better than keeping them all in my head. I find the same thing happens when I speak them out loud like in an audio message to friends, when it’s just me rambling on I tend to uncover things I haven’t thought of before.
So welcome to essentially my journaling self care therapy session. It’s good to have you here. The past 2 months in Sevilla have been incredible. I’m spending a lot of time with friends, I’m adventuring in nature, I’m playing the best sport in the world (rugby, duh) with a team whose culture I feel really aligned in, I’m loving my job mostly because of the connections I’m developing with clients and seeing their successes big and small really gives me such pure JOY.
Aside from all of these wonderful things I am experiencing, something still feels… off. I experienced this same feeling for a period of my time in Getxo. It was hard for me to get out of bed in the morning and I wanted to sleep a lot during the day. I blamed overtraining for my depression symptoms which is definitely possible yet it doesn’t change the fact that they were there (and are still here now). I missed my period for 4 months and finally got it back last month (woohoo!) I’ve (almost completely) stopped lifting weights and doing conditioning sessions outside of what my team here has us do during team trainings. Sometimes I still sneak in a clean form session once a week because I just can’t help myself, but never heavy. I was definitely experiencing other overtraining symptoms before my missed period but it wasn’t until I missed my period that I started taking the signs more seriously.
The last week or two I’ve had pain below both of my achilles and when I saw the team’s physio he said it was a common injury for training too much too quickly. This could have been from the quick transition from 15s to 7s - hello lots of running. I’m sure it also didn’t help that I had been overtraining and still hadn’t fully recovered before I started playing 7s. I’ve also noticed during our trainings my muscles feel achey. I start sessions already feeling fatigued and slow. Basically my body is ready for some serious rest.
Although I have these physical symptoms what is bothering me the most are the mental symptoms. It’s motivating myself to get out of bed when I don’t have a designated time I need to be anywhere until practice at 8:30 at night. It’s easy to think, Dana what the heck life is so fun right now why wouldn’t you want to get up and seize the freaking day?! And some days I do wake up excited for life, ready to sing and dance in the shower, but other days even though I recognize my sweet ass life right in front of me, I still want to just mindlessly sleep and eat.
I catch little motivation waves from different sources; some people, some books, podcasts, or gorgeous landscapes. I was searching for an old college essay to send to a friend when I came across an interview essay my college teammate and friend Abby wrote about me a few years ago. The essay reminded me of what a gift rugby has been and continues to be in my life. Reading it literally gave me goosebumps, I’m pretty sure my arm hairs grew an extra inch. It left me excited for practice again. I’ve also found motivation in looking forward to my new book club that 3 of my friends from the US and I just started! We’re reading Byron Katie’s, “Loving What Is.” Ummm growing emotionally and mentally alongside friends? What could be better? Another positive is the designated book club times will keep me accountable in doing my reading, or in my case listening, because I got the audio book since my suitcase is absolutely over 50 lbs already.
I’ve definitely found that doing things with other people increases my accountability, happiness, and motivation more than doing things alone. From my last blog post you’ll remember I started a little challenge until the end of La Copa de Reina to drink 3,200 ml of water, not drink any alcohol, and all those other thangs. Well we now have a group chat with all the girls on my team who are doing it too and it has really helped me stay true to my objectives. They make it FUN; sharing creative videos saying no to alcohol, pictures with their loved ones (water bottles), and stories like having to ask the Blabla Car driver to stop to pee multiple times since everyone is peeing more than ever before lol.
Overall I have really been feeling the connection between physical and mental health. I’ve learned and am continuing to learn what happens when you push your body too far without prioritizing recovery. I’m learning to seek out motivation and inspiration particularly when I can’t seem to find it internally. I’m grateful for the people who have helped me reflect on the harder days and those who have filled and continue to fill my days with sunflower fields, lakes, beach trips, roller coaster rides, and most importantly, company. :)
After La Copa de Reina I will be taking a long awaited rest until my body feels fully recovered again. HOWEVER, first things first, after 4 years of wanting to return to La Universidad de Sevilla to play in La Copa de Reina, I am HERE baby! And I am going to empty every bit I have left in the tank out on the field with my amazing teammates this weekend.
Keep an eye out for the link to the games on my instagram page: @go4wardfitness
Hasta luegoooo :)