Bergtrek Friday

We are moving on from last week’s Fartlekless Friday, and it probably seems a bit tortuous to try to get some continuity in the post titles. I have resorted to German, but I suppose it is in keeping with my little foray into Latin in an earlier post!

It may also seem to some that categorising the post under “Training Log” is a bit of a stretch because there was no running involved. I of course take a wider view of training. Having a glass of milk instead of wine before bed is in my book a form of training – an action that moves one closer to desired goals in terms of performance and wellbeing. We need to strive to ensure that our goal-oriented actions and choices outweigh those that hinder progress towards our goals.

The kind of activity I undertook today would come under the category of cross-training in the elite athletes’ lexicon. It was a little mountain (aka Berg) trek in the Eastern Rhodope mountains in Bulgaria. The return trip was around three and a half hours. Our destination – for I was not alone – was the famous Utroba cave, partly created by the tumultuous actions of nature/geology, and then honed by the ancient Thracians a few hundred or thousand years BC. The concept, if you will excuse the pun, is that the cave represents the uterus. I took a lot of photographs from inside, probably more than is healthy for a psychologist, and signifying deeper psychodynamic issues. The fact that my brother-in-law was with me and took a selfie of us both only complicates the picture, something I do not wish to dwell upon at the moment.

Anyway, this is starting to sound more like a travelogue than a traininglogue. The training benefits included some good cardiovascular work, stamina development, a good workout for my inherently unstable ankles, a bit of a wake up call for my glutes on the steeper bits of the climb (the more positive inclines), and technical bits I don’t fully understand around utilisation of energy resources because I had a carbo deficit due to my minimal breakfast.

My holiday is nearly over and things will soon return to normal. The opportunities for further mountain treks are scant in Northamptonshire, so it will be back to my favourite villages.