Actually, there were 2 of them.
A very young fella who is just getting back to training 2 weeks ago.
The other an *cough* adult *cough* who weeks from graduation should know better. I’ll talk about him since he’s older and an adult. They tapped out for the same reasons.
So, let me set the scene for you.
It’s a BEAUTIFUL Wednesday right at noon. Coach Khyla and I decided to go up to Schenley Oval to go get some sprints in. Happens to be that some of our teenage track athletes also had the same idea.
Said adult child was really proactive in putting together their workout for the day. 6x600m repeats!
A tough one. And to make it tougher, it was a 150m jog and 50m walk for rest.
Not a workout I want to do. At all.
Khyla and I did 5 40m sprints and made some videos for Tik Tok instead. A good day in the books
So, we’re watching them go around, and around, and around and commenting on how fast they look.
Then, on rep # 6, one of them goes down hard. I mean I think he had like 200m to go and his body said “THERE WILL BE NO MORE OF THIS!”
Of course Khyla and I run over to tend to him, especially because he has other reasons we were concerned about with him suddenly falling out.
He’s grabbing his side, cringing terribly hard. He says his heart is pounding really hard but his breathing wasn’t particularly abnormal. It was a gradual feeling of a hard cramp in his side.
After a minute he slows down, and I’m pretty confident he’s not about to pass out. So, time for the tough love:
Me: “When was the last time you went to pee?”
Kid: “Yesterday”
Me: “Oh so you’re definitely dehydrated because it’s 1pm and you haven’t gone to the bathroom yet. Ok so what did you eat today?”
Kid: “I didn’t eat today.”
*another kid shows up with his water*
Me: “Oh so you didn’t eat or drink today at all. So you decided to do the workout without any care for your health. You’re 18 years old, you’ve been told this for years. You should - you do - know better than this.”
Kid: *drinks water*
Me: “Oh, and your water has times on it for drinking enough! Bruh!”
I’m not kidding. His jug says 7am, 9am, 11am…. It was 1pm but the jug was still full at 7am. Letting off of the gas a bit while he combated his lightheadedness, muscle weakness, and abusive heart beat, I decided it was a good time for a lecture for all the kids.
- You can’t do interval workouts fasted. Not effectively at least. Often this is why anyone throws up from working out.
- You can’t do anything dehydrated. You can actively end up in the hospital playing with this. I went to school with a guy who played college basketball who died from dehydration mixed with heat exhaustion. Extreme end, yes, but is very real.
- Your pee must be clear at all times.
- You need to eat a meal 2 hours before training or at least something light within the 60min leading up to the session. Even an apple or a sandwich suffice.
Hopefully his fallout has taught him. Or at least you.
Be nice to yourself. Drink water and eat food so you can workout and not fall over and cause scenes.
Remember, self care and self love are doing the good things your body needs, like eating quality food, sleeping enough, doing work matters to you, not simply sweets, Netflix, and getaways.