Week 12 of Endurance Phase - Blaahhhhhhh!

After the race last Sunday, I decided to give myself the normal complete day off. Thank God for that because when I got up that morning, I just felt drained. After a half marathon, one should give themselves at least a good week off but I could not afford that luxury in my training plan. Forge on I said to myself. I took it easy all day sleeping on and off and did a bit of stretching to ease the stiffness in my calves and hips. I slept long and hard that evening and when morning came along I wanted to keep on sleeping. But gradually my mind said "Get up you slug" Time to get going. Reluctantly I crawled out washed the cobwebs from my head but still did not want to go out. I put on my heart rate monitor and confirmed my feelings. I was almost 8 BPM more than normal. This was not going to be a good day I thought but was hopeful for feeling better once I got going. Eventually after a light breakfast, I donned my shoes, and went out for my tempo run. Did I say tempo? It was more like a slugo! I could just not get my legs turning over but I did my best and crawled back home with my tail behind my legs. So much for that workout! Maybe tomorrow it would be better. I showered and ate and slept again until it was time for me to go to work. The evening shift dragged on with my tiredness getting the best of me and I was glad to head for home.

I flopped into my bed as soon as I got home and slept till 8:00 the next morning. Again I took my heart rate and it was the same. Elevated but I was not feeling sick. Just drained of energy, and lacked the desire to go out again. However I knew that I would have to reduce the intensity of my bike ride that day. But I went out and slugged it out for an hour anyway. As the previous day there was just no zip in my cadence but made it up my long hill home again. The next day the same, except I decided to stay home and do a workout on my spin bike because I had no energy to take most of the strain on my legs running. It went no better than my previous days.

On Friday my heart rate was still elevated and I still was not sick but feeling very drained with no desire or motivation to get out there. But stubborn as I am I said to myself, OK just go out there and have an easy day, I went out for a 10k run, which wasn't exactly a run but a slow jog. As in all my runs this one ended going up my long hill and I was just shuffling. It was so bad that two girls were running ahead of me and one was pushing a baby buggy up the hill and I was not even gaining on them. I did manage to catch up to them and commented to them how amazing they were to run up the hill with pushing a baby buggy. They tried to return the complement about me being pretty good also for my age doing the same thing. I said thanks but inwardly I knew different. That's it! On Saturday I decided to give myself another complete day off any workouts. I volunteered for an extra shift at work to take my mind off things.

On Sunday, Bang! I woke up feeling completely refreshed, and wide awake. Gone was that tired feeling and felt completely re-energized. I took my heart rate again and WoW! It was right back down to normal. How could I feel so different from one day to another? But I was not going to complain. I got into my running outfit and took off for a proposed 18k long run. I did not know whether I could go this long after this terrible week, but sure was going to find out. I make sure I had a good breakfast and hydrated properly and took off. Slowly at first but mile by mile I felt good so increase my pace. By 3 km's I was in a good stride, drinking every 2k and at my turnaround at 9k, took a gel and continued on a fairly fa st pace. I was not petering out whatsoever and kept it up till I got home. I fed my stats from my Garmin watch into my computer and was amazed to see that I had averaged my run at a 5:30 pace with an ave. heart rate of 152-3 BPM. I was back to normal and felt ecstatic with my good run and how I was feeling. However I would have to be cautious on my next few workouts starting easy just to make sure that I could sustain max output when needed.

I have become attuned to my body over the years and can just tell when I am not feeling up to par. This past week, I am sure, was the result of chronic fatigue which was coming on just prior to my race (hence the not so great race) and through easy workouts, lots of sleep and taking a couple of days off, resulted in making an amazing recovery and a complete turnaround in about 6 days. It is truly amazing what the body can accomplish through careful monitoring of workouts, heart rate and now I am looking forward to a good week of training. On to Week 13, the second last week of Endurance. I don't know about being ready for the 15K race next weekend but if I miss it it will not be such a loss as the Ironman training is more important for me. I have a Sprint Tri in 5 weeks from now and that will have to be my main focus. Now if I can only get the shoulder problems alleviated, I would be in seventh heaven. For now I am just content that my Blah week is over! Whoo Hoooooo!......