Today marks the 4th day in a row of me being totally and completely exhausted. I went to bed at 10pm last night, woke up at 6am, ran 6.2 miles, showered, went to see train two clients and now I am home at 1:30 p.m. and ready for bed. Ugh. I still have to swim and study for an exam tomorrow before I can go to bed! I switched to 1/2 caffeine coffee five days ago in an effort to slowly wean myself off the juice before Ironman. But I am having a hard time thinking that is the cause of my exhaustion. I am getting adequate sleep. Around 7.5-8 hours a night. But I am still tired. I also feel like I am getting sick, but I am not. I wake up with chest congestion and a sore throat, but no fever. The rest of my body feels great! My legs are getting used to all the training and aren't complaining much. The ART that I am getting twice a week has done wonders for me but it doesn't make me have any more energy.
Although I am tired, I am still completing all my workouts as prescribed. I am just even more tired after I get done. I called the expert, Kevin Patton today to discuss this plus my freaking out that I am not riding long enough. Kevin told me that it was stupid that I "raced" three weekends in a row. Although I wouldn't call the relay portion of a bike a race, KP noted that I was still holding a much higher pace and HR than I would have during any regular workout. This places stress on your body. I am afraid that I am stressing my body too much right now and it's catching up to me.
Kevin has his clients that are racing IM Louisville riding the Cartersville Century in two weeks. I was planning on riding 85 miles then racing Irongirls the next day. KP basically tells me that I am an idiot for doing that. Get up early one day and ride, rush home and put race wheels on your bike, drive to Gainesville to check it in, then come home and race the next day? That's just begging for illness to come on. I agree. I don't know what I was thinking. Plus how much fun is Irongirls really going to be if I can't taper and blow it out? Not fun at all.
So I am not racing Irongirls. I really didn't want to in the first place but Luna Chix are supposed to be racing. Guess I am a volunteer at this point! I am more than happy with that. Sorry to Dave for wasting the free entry!
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5 comments:
Pulling out is definitely the prudent decision for you given how you are feeling right now and your much more important goal of completing IM Louisville.
It is a good sign that you were able to recognize the issue before it becomes something more significant (injury, complete burn out).
You are going to rock it in Louisville, Danielle! :)
Take care of yourself, listen to your body and ENJOY ALL of your experiences!
Girl, I hate to say this, but those are all the typical signs of overtraining. You really don't want to hear this, but as a medical professional, the best thing you can do is take some time off. The true test is to check your morning resting HR. If it is higher than normal (>10 beats), you need to chill. Not easy training, but NO training. With so much volume, taking 1 week off will not hurt your endurance, but help it. Just some advice. :)
I remember the hardest thing for me in training for the IM was how I felt tired all of the time. It's just kind of part of it... stressing your body to that point, but not pushing it past that point or you'll get sick. So yeah, I don't think you should race it. But I'm glad to hear you'll be volunteering as I'd like to say hey! Take care of yourself!!
Good to see you've been killing it on the race scene. Knowing when to turn off the throttle will make you stronger in the long run. Reger and I will be at Cartersville ride'n 100.
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