Journey to Kona Day 181: Integration and Assimilation

This blog is not about politics or sociology. I was at hot yoga class today (another 90 minutes of Kona preparation) and the instructor spoke of using the terms "integration and assimilation" instead of "recovery." He said that recovery makes it sound like there's been an injury, whereas the concept of integration and assimilation speaks to absorbing the impact of stress that we place on our bodies.  I connected with this concept.  In fact, I feel like I did a good job of doing this in the past week in response to my race.  Pushing too hard, too soon, could have had untoward effects on me.  Instead, I let myself absorb the useful stimulations from last weeks race, and I do feel like I've integrated and assimilated them into my system.

Hot yoga is already becoming my new favorite workout.  There is no question in my mind that training myself to do a 90 minute hot yoga workout will prepare me for the heat and humidity of Kona.  My plan today was to run after the workout, but my wife wanted to go to lunch.  I went to lunch, came home and took a short nap, and then did a 40 minute run in the heat of the day.  I felt fine!  This feels like a really good start for my Kona preparations.  I'll have to decide how many time a week I should do this, but I'm thinking at least twice.  One of the interesting things that has already happened is how my body responds to the sweating that I do.  During the first session that I did, I didn't drink beforehand, but took in three bottles of fluids during the session.  Today, I drank some beforehand, in addition to swimming for 80 minutes, and then only needed two bottles of fluids during the session.  I've continued to hydrate the rest of the day, especially after my run, where I sweated a bunch more.  I'm beginning to see the challenge of scientifically determining one's sweat rate and how to deal with it.  In fact, I believe that doing more hot yoga, as well as workouts that cause me to sweat, will help my body prepare for Kona.  I'm absolutely certain that a single "sweat test" would be of limited value, because as the body adjusts, circumstances will change accordingly.

Here I am, 9 days after the Santa Rosa 70.3.  I think that I've integrated and assimilated the effort.  Nearly 3 1/2 hours of training today in Kona-like conditions tells me that I'm ready for a solid week of training!