After a run of a few months of near-weekly 70 minute soccer games, I took a break for 6 weeks. I remember how it felt toward the end of that spell – I was getting through the games with ease and had plenty left in the tank. There was a game where I spent over 20 minutes in Zone 5. No problem.
Getting back today, however, was brutal. I was feeling out of breath within a few sprints. It took a while to feel any semblance of flow or fitness. It served as a great reminder of just how quickly things can degrade.
Everything degrades. Even a piece of software that is just supposed to run the same piece of code degrades over time. Nothing runs in isolation – something changes with a dependency and the whole system comes down in time.
Our mental health definitely degrades over a period. Vacations/scheduled breaks are a great way to get the required amount of maintenance in.
Our fitness degrades too. In this case, I haven’t been away from exercise for 6 weeks. I’ve just been away from long bursts of high-cardio workouts. The speed of degradation caught me off-guard.
It is important to periodically take stock of the speed of degradation of the things that matter to us. That way, we can get ahead of rapid degradation and ensure we’re running maintenance regularly.
Especially important when it comes to our health.
