Work, School, Skating, Social Life…A body can only take a tight schedule for so long before it starts breaking down. Once the break-down starts, good luck getting back to “normal”.

…I know it has been a while since my last post. But I broke my body with over-scheduling and even though I am better, I am still paying the price.

Here is what happened:

My main job is seasonal and the main work has to get done by the end of the season before the new season begins. Don’t understand? Usually end of June-August is considered an ‘off-season’, September-early June is the ‘on season’… So in other words I have about a week to wrap up one and open for another…

Okay, think this is harsh? This happened right in the middle of mid-terms (for 1 class), finals (for 3 classes) and the “first day” for my fifth class of the summer. Remember, summer is condensed which is 2x the work per week, per class….

Add this in with all the time I am at the rink coaching and skating. Off season has transitioned to on-season. Which equals more time at the gym, medical appointments and more ice time.

However, two weeks ago the pain got so bad that I was affected physically and mentally and took it out on EVERYONE. Nobody was safe…

So before I continue, I want to apologize to everyone I did take it out on. I over-schedule every year at the same time and I never seem to learn from this mistake.

On the ice, everything was going wrong. I was in the worst pain of my life. I walked off a few times on my coach(es). My jumps were off, spins were off and I was moving but without going anywhere. I broke down every day at the rink after each session… And I knew something was off.

My main coach left for a vacation so I only had one coach…and during that week my execution was steady but my body was still off. Drained more like it. That coach then went on vacation and I had the choice of continuing to push myself with no breaks (last time I took time off was end of Dec/Jan) or take a week off and let my body break a bit and be ready to build up.

A week off it was, not a hard decision either. I knew with my stress level I was beyond the breaking-point. It was much needed.

This past week I’ve had a lot of time off. Most of it was just to let my body recover. But you know when you are run down and feel like you’re getting sick…but you keep pushing and the moment you stop you get sick? That’s the same thing that is happening to me but with flare ups. Even though right now I’m still severely flared…I am starting to feel better mentally.

How do I explain this? I have been living off of adrenaline (on and off) since January. At a certain point adrenaline becomes toxic. Sometimes you have to do anything to let the toxic part out in order to fully recover.

Now with time off I am ready to start the new phase.

But the lesson is: take care of yourself.