Still feeling 'low energy', so just went easy again. Averaged 130 HR at 7:00 pace. Ended up being a nice run. It's been a while since I've felt really relaxed, with easy breathing, legs feeling light and fluid, etc. As good as I felt every day over the last two weeks or so, I think I need a mental break as much as anything. There's definitely a physical component to whatever is going on, but mentally I'm sensing a need to recharge and put a bit of a cap on the base phase before moving on to the last 16 weeks of specific training.
Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury
6 comments:
All right, this is going on four days now. I'd like to blame this all on crummy weather, darkness and having to split your runs up with time on the treadmill. It also seems like you're kicking a bug of some sort.
When I've felt like this people generally start talking about having bloodwork done to check for low iron or other deficiencies. You're such an internally driven guy that I wonder if something like this or a low-grade virus is to blame.
Could be training intensity--how many days\weeks of higher volume and faster pace? Are you working on cycles? 10-day\3-week,every other, etc.
What's your 16 week start day?
I ran out of some of my vitamins over a month ago, and stopped taking them, so the beginnings of something like anemia could be. I doubt it though. I eat plenty of red meat, and although my diet could be better, my wife sees to it that it is pretty well balanced.
So, I don't know. I'm willing to give it a week because I can see from my logs, both recently and from a year or so ago, that I am training on a completely different level now. Last year, I could do *one* 20 miler ten seconds per mile slower than this year, and it would take me three days to recover. Now I can do that same 20, ten seconds faster, followed by a 62 minute ten miler, followed by a 6:30 pace 15 miler, then take a *single* rest day, and do it all over again.
So, knowing where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going, that I would need a week like this to recharge the batteries is not a concern. What I am concerned about is going into the harder stuff having pushed through this 'low energy' thing without giving it some attention. I've had periods like this in my college days, and when I came through the other side of those...wow.
In a way, I'm looking forward to feeling a little 'off' for a few more days. The tingle means it working...=)
Sixteen weeks out starts on January 28. The race is on May 19.
I'm not really working in cycles, although if I went to the logs and plotted it out, I bet I would find a three week on, one week off kind of thing happening. Volume has been consistent, but intensity has been consistently high the last several weeks. Basically a two days on, one day recovery, repeat cycle for three weeks or better.
"...I think I need a mental break as much as anything."
It is true that sometimes, as runners, we tend to ignore this important aspect of training(or at least not give it the proper attention).
And, even beyond ignoring the mental aspect, we tend to regard mental lapses with some disdain, referring to them as 'wussing out', 'slacking off', 'whinging' (for my UK readers), etc. I know I've been hesitant to admit to those days when I just wasn't feeling the desire to train at the level I would like to, and even more hesitant to put it into words here on the blog. Really, that can only hurt me when I go back to reference the logs, and it further reinforces the common attitude of 'recovery bad, hard work good' to all six of the people who read my blog.
Looking back over the past few weeks and months, I can see I am due for and deserving of a mental break. I seem to have adapted and have recovered to the physical pressure just fine based on various different numbers, but that consistent physical effort had a mental component as well, which apparently requires a different kind of recovery. I think this is where varying the terrain, the efforts, the courses, and such can effect some of that kind of mental recovery. And as far as that goes, I've been running the same courses every day, with little variation in terrain, at a consistent and moderate to high level of effort, in the cold, dark, and often windy January mornings. Still reading? Depressed yet?
Thanks for the comment, Marc. Very insightful.
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