WORTH IT…Kevin Cassidy realises the sacrifice was worth it

SOMETHING rare happened to me over the Christmas holidays and I have been thinking about it ever since.

When I started taking Gaelic football seriously, say around minor age group or thereabouts, I always loved the playing aspect but the training got under my skin at times.
When you are in good shape then you really enjoy and look forward to the training but it was the process of getting into shape that used to turn my stomach.

I remember travelling to county training sessions with my club mates from Gweedore Martin Coll and James Gallagher and, in later years, the two McGees and I wouldn’t speak a word the whole way there. All I could think about was the feeling you get after one of those long lung-bursting runs when you don’t know whether you need to be sick or just to lie still at the end of it.

It is presumed that being part of a county set up is healthy and it leads you on a path towards living a healthy lifestyle. All of that is true and even when you take the big games in Croke Park etc away from it then it’s still is a really a positive environment to be involved in.
You have a schedule, a training plan, a diet plan and you don’t really consume any alcohol so therefore you are in a positive frame of mind and the body feels great.
Being involved in that environment for a long period of time results in your life becoming dependent on it. Players become accustomed to being a certain weight and feeling a certain way.

I remember one training session we had early one Saturday morning. It was around two weeks before an Ulster final and we had a heavy enough session. As we made our way from the pitch covered in sweat Damien Diver, who was a ferocious athlete, turned to me and said “Cass is there any better felling in the world than this?”

The body was pure the mind was fresh you felt that you could take on the world.
My problem is that unfortunately we can’t go on forever and there comes a time when we just can’t do it any more so the question is how do we cope when that is taken away?
Since I finished up playing with the county I have probably trained harder in the off-season than I did all those years when I was playing. As I said, you are used to your body and mind being a certain way and you do what it takes for you to get to that place.

Nowadays I train at least six if not seven days a week, not because I want to but because I kind of have to in order for me to feel good.
I trained all during the Christmas period but towards the end of it and before we went back to school I had a lot on so I missed maybe four or five days in a row.

Christmas was great with quality time spent with family and friends but since I missed those few days of exercise I could notice a change in my mood and I felt a bit down. I couldn’t put my finger on what was up until it hit me.

Thankfully I have never experienced depression in my life to date but what I felt over those few days came pretty close and I came to realise that I need exercise and my body craves it in order to keep my level, if that makes sense.

It got me thinking about the hundreds and thousands of men and women who devote their whole life to the sport they love and when the final whistle blows how do they fill the void left by that? Thankfully I’m young enough to continue training so one or two sessions in the gym and I was back to normal but what happens to those who become too old to train or have to stop due to serious injury? How do they replace that felling of being physically and mentally fit?

For me it just showed how big a part exercise has to play in our well-being, when we exercise the body releases a chemical called endorphins which triggers a positive felling in the body.
I always said from an early age that once I played my final game for the county I would park it and move on, little did I know that it would be the physical training that I would miss as opposed to those big days in Croke Park.

Over the last few weeks I have come to realise that the training I used to dread going to as a player is the same training which is a huge part my mental well-being.
One of the hardest things to do is to get back training whether you are a high performance athlete or simply someone who likes to keep fit. The benefits are massive so for any of you out there who may be felling a little like I did then get back on the horse you won’t regret it.

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