I am getting to near meltdown point and need to make some time to get in tune with my body and mind so I can figure out what is going on. I am very tired and sleepy, nearly at the point of needing to take naps under my desk at work. I am hungry all the time. I feel like my body composition is going in the wrong direction and I am getting soft. I am overwhelmed by my training schedule and don't have mental freshness going into the workouts. It feels like a grind and is more work than fun.
I know this is all part of Ironman training. If all I had to do was train and rest, it wouldn't be so bad, but work also has to fit in the picture. I'm thinking of the 20 week Ironman training plan like a 20 mile run: one week of the plan = one mile of the run. It's mile 8 right now and I am tired, but still have a lot left to go. This is the time to pull out my mental strategies to make it through. Time to recalibrate, refocus, and freshen things up.
Here are a few things I'm doing to help:
1) take a complete day off - no work or training. just rest and fun. that's tomorrow.
2) log my food for a couple of days - find out if i really am off track or just feel like it
3) go to Fredericksburg this weekend for my riding - new scenery, new people
4) do some journaling to get even more clarity on things
---
Today:
Run 5 miles easy
[44 minutes]
Yesterday:
Swim 3800yd, 1:10
Main set: 7x300
Strength Session
3 rounds (1 minute each):
Bosu pushups
Single leg step up and press with 15lb med ball
Plank to pushup
Plank side-to-side jumps
--
20 walk out pushup and walk back, to shoulder press
10 V-up and arm row
15 walk out pushup
5 V-up and arm row
2x10 renegade row
3x10 leg press
30 assisted pullups
Hi Margo,
ReplyDeleteRemember the comment I made to your blog about how it wasnt a good idea to mix Crossfit with our training plan? This is me, saying it again, and I think your body is backing me up. You describe classic symptoms of extreme fatigue and overtraining (desire to sleep under you desk is one, I've been there) and that is just part of Ironman training...actually, it's not. None of our 400 athletes inside the Team, using the same plan, describe the same fatigue you do, because they are Ironman training, not Ironman + Crossfit.
I say again: not a good idea.
Rich Strauss
I have a history of hip and knee injury due to a weak core and Crossfit or "Crossfit-like" workouts have made a huge difference in making my body stronger. The fact that I am injury free right now and getting faster is HUGE!!
ReplyDeleteYou'll notice that I have cut out all heavy and Olympic moves and am mostly only doing body weight exercises now. I don't get sore from these strength sessions and think it would be very unwise to cut them out completely. "Crossfit" is for sure a very loaded and controversial term, but I use it loosely here because I wouldn't say I am doing the sessions 100% Crossfit style.
I think I am tired because I push myself hard on all the intervals within the swim-bike-run workouts. I believe I need the Advanced not Intermediate EN plan that I am on and have been making the workouts a bit harder/longer. Also, I didn't take a rest day after my race and followed it up with long bike and long run on subsequent days. Maybe not ideal, but necessary for life scheduling reasons. Next week is a rest week.
Thanks for the feedback Rich.
Margo