Phantom injuries

So far I've remained remarkably healthy through all the training. I keep waiting for the "phantom injury" to show up, but so far so good.

Early on in my athletic career I realized that I always developed some mysterious illness or injury in the weeks leading up to a big event. Knee Cancer, Phlebitis, A Really Bad Hangnail. Whatever. There was always some physical malady to obsess and lose sleep over. Once the gun started and the race was underway these mystery illnesses and injuries just disappeared.

I thought this was just my own personal neurosis, but after being around the scene for awhile I realized that just about every endurance athlete has the same experience. Why? Who knows? I would guess that it's our brain's way of trying to talk us out of doing something extreme and potentially dangerous. It's actually pretty humorous listening to the whining coming from my endurance sports friends in the two weeks before a major event. You'd think we were all slowly dying.

For whatever reason I've had none of that so far. I'm basically completely healthy. I'm even sleeping well. I don't know whether to be happy or concerned. Maybe that's my brain's latest trick -- reverse psychology. If I think I'm healthy then something must be wrong. OK, good. Now I have something to obsess about...