Weekly News Number 19

Between Frustration and Patience

Last week felt a bit like my favourite Haribo mix — Starmix. You never really know what you’re going to get. The only difference is that with Haribo, at least you get sugar. In real life, things are not always sweet.

After taking the weekend easy, I honestly thought I was slowly getting fitter again. But pretty quickly I realised that wasn’t really the case. So I found myself once again dealing with fatigue and the feeling that I still hadn’t fully recovered from being sick.

In moments like that, I sometimes almost wish I were a normal office worker with a well-paid job where it doesn’t really matter if you only give 70% instead of 100% for a week. Payday still comes anyway.

But for those of us whose body is both our tool, our capital and our passion, it feels different. When movement and sport are such a huge part of your life, phases like this become frustrating very quickly.

Still, frustration never really helps. Even if this time it took me a little longer to reset my mindset. In the end, what matters is giving yourself enough time to actually get ready again. Because usually, the body tells you pretty clearly what’s going on.

That’s also why I organised a doctor’s appointment at the end of the week to get my blood checked again. And as always, you notice how much easier these things are when you’re back home in your normal environment. Here, even organising a doctor’s appointment somehow became a mission. But if I’m going to do it, I may as well do it properly.

So I booked the appointment and what exactly happened there is probably a story for next week. Let’s just say: the stories and stereotypes about doctors here definitely confirmed themselves. I may actually need to ask Roland if he knows a proper doctor who understands athletes.

The small things that help

Still, there were also quite a few positive moments this week. One of them was once again my gravel bike. I jumped on the bike three times this week for easy rides and simply cruised around.

Even though I mostly use it on the road at the moment, it’s honestly such a great bike. You sit comfortably, you can ride over gravel and rough roads without worrying, and you never feel like cars are flying too close past you.

I’m already looking forward to the next few weeks because I know now that most of my long rides will happen on the gravel bike. Probably still mostly on the road but just having the option to turn onto gravel paths whenever I want is perfect.

Another positive part of the week was Pilates. I genuinely enjoy stepping completely outside of my normal sport bubble twice a week and doing something with completely different people.

Normally, you spend most of your time training with extremely fit athletes, and after a while you lose perspective of what “normal” people actually do or feel physically. That’s exactly why I enjoy Pilates so much right now. Everyone simply gives the best they can in that moment. And because everyone is doing the same exercise, you can immediately relate to how the person next to you feels especially when they’re making exactly the same painful facial expression as you are.

Steak, conversations and perspective

Another positive story even if it’s maybe a slightly unusual one. But as you can probably tell, even when things aren’t running perfectly, I try to consciously focus on positive things so I can slowly get myself back into a better mindset.

And one of those things was once again the grill.

I bought a pretty thick piece of steak and, as you know, I’m slightly obsessed when it comes to trying to perfect cooking meat properly. This time I think I learned something new again and already know what I want to try differently next time.

This time I seared the meat hard on both sides first and then slowly finished it at around 160 degrees. The result turned out really good again. But I’m starting to think that with such a thick piece of meat, the hard searing at the beginning might not even be necessary. Because the steak stays on the grill long enough anyway to develop a proper crust. Logically, I could probably just sear it properly at the end if needed.

My coaching tip of the week is also something I constantly tell my athletes and hear from other professional athletes as well:

If you’re not feeling 100% no matter in what way do something completely unrelated to sport.

That’s exactly what I did on Friday. I went to the beach with a friend I’ve known here for a long time, and afterwards we grabbed something to eat and had coffee together.

Sunrise Beach

And honestly, things like that help so much. You suddenly gain perspective again and realise what other people are actually thinking about or dealing with. It makes you notice that maybe things in your own head are not nearly as dramatic as you sometimes build them up to be.

Looking ahead

Anyway, enough grill and philosophy stories for this week.

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to share a bit more again from actual training and of course also what came out of the doctor’s appointment. Don’t worry though: everything is fine. Most importantly, I feel motivated to train properly again.

One thing I’d also really like to do is create a Reel with a voice-over on Instagram so I can take you a bit more into my training block here on the other side of the world.

But one thing always stays the same for me: training and coaching come first before everything else during the week.

We’ll talk again next week.

Cyrill