Been a while now that I’ve been struggling w what docs would call “chronic fatigue.” In a single word, it: sucks.
From having convos w so many of you, I know there’s a big group here that can relate. And while it can get frustrating that the most mundane tasks, we should be able to do w/o thought: cleaning the house, doing laundry, waking up to an alarm – feel like carrying boulders, there’s a silver lining to it all.
I believe I’ve shared this anecdote before, but the great, long-time Michigan St. bball coach, Tom Izzo, has a story on him in the book “Bounce, The Science Behind Success,” by Matthew Syed.
Izzo (when the book was written), would hold walk-on try-outs & always take the best 7-footer he could find, onto the team. Why? He’d run drills in practice, where his starting 5 would have to go against a 5 man defense, w this 6th man, a 7-footer, ALSO parked in the defensive lane.
In bball you never have to play 5 on 6. You also never have to worry about a 7-footer parked in the middle of the lane, not moving, just there to block shots. Izzo makes his team practice against something harder than they’ll ever have to face in a game, so that when the going does get tough in competition, his teams have faced much harsher conditions.
Now, w these large backpacks, I don’t think any of us would CHOOSE these life scenarios, where things are exhausting. But, what I’ve found is embracing the difficulty, IN the moment 1) makes the difficult times pass sooner, 2) helps me enjoy the days/stretches when I feel lighter & have more energy, that much more!
Same thing has happened recently w my darn back. I shared that I absolutely destroyed it 2 months ago, doing deadlifts w the worst form on the planet. The month following was misery. I’m still in pain, but my pain pales in comparison to that first month. When I walk now, & it’s maybe a 4 instead of an 8 on the pain scale, as weird as this sounds – I APPRECIATE walking w only the 4 now.
Bottom line that I hope helps, on a Sunday where waking up was hard: try not to dwell on what sucks & doesn’t work/feels awful. You’re training. And you WILL once again enjoy even MORE!
