A rebuilding week for me, plus a bit of workoutus interuptus. My rest week last week did a ton of good for me. By the beginning of this week, I felt bouncy and fresh again. Of course, the trick then was not to dig myself right back into a hole, meaning don't blast your workouts just because you feel perky. I was pretty good about running my workouts under control - especially Friday's tempo, where I took special care to keep the workout aerobic.
Of course, despite all this care, I ended up getting a tight calf on Saturday. Nothing horrible, but definitely one of those things where I could either take a few days off now, or risk it developing into something longer term that I'd be battling for months. I've gone down this road before, and I've learned that when a calf is tight, I can take 2-3 days off and fix it. If I keep pushing it? Then I get plantar fascia/achilles tendonitis issues that take a lot longer (connective tissue heals slower than muscle). So, I ended up doing my Sunday long run in the pool.
In connection with this, I had a revelation of sorts. Essentially, I tend to be a bit type A, with a tendency to compulsively do workout X or mileage Y NO MATTER what.
[my type A-ness is NOT the revelation, BTW]
Sometimes, I'm worse about this, at other times, I tend to be more relaxed and chill and willing to back off on a workout or cut it short or skip a day. So, why am I able to back off or take a few days off sometimes, and not others?
Deceptively simple. Overtraining/reaching has many symptoms, including emotional. I think that, for me, one early warning sign that I'm pushing too hard is that I start getting OCD about my workouts. When I'm not cooked, it's a lot easier to chill about only doing 3 repeats instead of 4, etc. When I'm in a hole, I get tunnel vision, and an unwillingness to pull the plug. If I'm really fried, then being told that I need to shut the workout down infuriates me, while a more rested me is better able to accept guidance and patience.
So simple, and also so evil. Because it's a bad cycle. The more I overreach, the harder it is for me to back off, and so I push even harder, which then results in....a deeper hole.
So, big lesson here is: the more emotionally important it is to me to do a certain workout/mileage/etc (and the harder it is for me to listen to others), the more I need to give serious thought to backing off (and to heed the advice of others).
Dailies
Monday: In the morning, 50 minutes of easy pool-running for “5 miles," plus some upper body strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.
Tuesday: In the morning, 12.5 miles, including 6 hill repeats - nonstop circuit of up a hill for about 2 minutes, a 90 second easy jog, a stride, and then some more easy jogging to the bottom (whole circuit takes ~5 minutes). Followed with injury prevention work and 20 minutes of shakeout pool-running. Foamrolling at night.
Wednesday: In the morning, 11.5 miles (8:15 pace), followed by yoga. Foam rolling at night.
Thursday: In the morning, 6 miles very easy (9:01 pace) plus drills, followed by some injury prevention work and upper body strengthwork. Foam rolling at night.
Friday: In the morning, 12 miles, including a tempo workout of 2x3200 plus 1600 (split as 13:11 (6:42/6:29), 12:59 (6:33/6:26) and then 6:07). Followed with injury prevention work and 30 minutes shakeout pool-running. Foam rolling at night.
Saturday: 11 miles easy in the morning (8:10 pace); upper body strengthwork and injury prevention work plus foam rolling in the afternoon.
Sunday: In the morning, "14 miles" in the pool - 2 hours of pool-running, including 2x20minutes at marathon pace effort, plus a sequence of 12x45 seconds very hard, 30 seconds easy. Followed this with 1000m of swimming breathing drills, and then my fingers and toes were completely shriveled. Yoga and foam rolling at night.
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