The Debt Crisis

Danny: The Dow has already dropped almost 600 points today. This occurred after Standard & Poor downgraded U.S. debt  and created worries about domestic and global growth combined to push stocks to their biggest one-day losses since December 2008. The US debt crisis, and to a lesser degree the Europe's, was a contrived crisis. Politicians rangling for upcoming elections, or delayed responses from certain EU countries to bail countries out have been attributed to much of the mess the stock markets are currently in.

Amber: Wait this is not an economic blog!

Danny: That's true but this forced debt has implications on endurance athletes as well.


Amber: Because they're not going to be able to afford to enter races anymore?

Danny: Maybe so, but I was thinking more in the sense that endurance athletes often put themselves in debt unnecessarily by racing or training too often and not giving themselves a chance to recover.

Amber: Oh! Like when you got a stress fracture from running 25 miles with me on my birthday and then the Flying Pig Marathon that Sunday?

Danny: Well, err, yes but also in more insidious ways.

Amber: Insidious is insidious.

Danny: Yes indeed.

Amber: You're right. Athletes often times don't like at all the microtraumas that they cause, not only to their muscles and bones but also hormonal and enzymatic changes. That's why it is so important for me to fully recover after an Ironman.

Danny: Amber- it's been three weeks, I don't need to carry you everywhere anymore, do I?

Amber:In another week or so, in the meantime can you bring me to the fridge, a Skinny Cow is awaiting.

Danny: Grumble, grumble... Anyway, making sure that your body goes through the entire cycle of tissue degeneration and regeneration requires that you not only do the activities that degenerate your body(i.e. exercises) but also allow yourself adequate amounts of regeneration and proliferation where the benefits of your exercises can be seen(increases in: muscle fiber size, intracellular mitochondria, the number of capillaries, total blood flow and total oxygen-consumption capacity).
Amber: Let me stew this over and get back to me more about this.
 
Danny: Alright, tomorrow I'll talk about the importance of rest within a training week as well as the larger training cycle throughout the year.