Training at 50% capacity after surgery. Huge ego hit but working through it.
42M. This Monday i start two weeks of isolation in an apartment. I'm getting radioactive treatment for my cancer, and it's been a rough 3 months.
In april i was training six days a week: 180 mins of zone 2, weights 3-4x, golf and tennis on weekends.
Then it all went to hell: found out i have thyroid and throat cancer. After a roller coaster ride, i've had surgeries and outcome looks as good as it can look for cancer, but it's been rough on my. my body and mind. i'm on a pre-treatment diet now that strips my energy, and my engine runs at about half what it did just 3 months ago.
this problem isn't specific to cancer. plenty of people hit it for completely different reasons: surgery, injury, a bad illness, brutal work stretch. It reminded me of how my own life changed when my kids were born. capacity falls off a cliff and every session turns into a referendum on how far you've fallen.
three things that worked:
Cardio: i train by the talk test now, not by numbers i hit in april. same effort means much slower. i know it will take time to rebuild. i tried chasing april's paces and almost passed out (no exageration).
lifting went first, the aerobic work stayed. on limited energy i couldn't do both honestly. strength rebuilds fast. the aerobic base took two years and i wasn't handing it back.
stopped comparing weeks, started comparing months. week to week in a bad stretch is noise. but it was brutally demoralizing. the monthly view showed i was improving even while individual sessions can sometimes feel like i was going backwards
What i got wrong for the first month was treating reduced capacity as a detour to push through. training at 50% beats burnout, injuries and staying at home feeling sorry for myself.