Another hard week of training in the books, and I’m feeling
pretty good overall. A little achy, but more so from the CFT, than the miles
this weekend I think. I still owe you
all a post on the training plan that I am following, so that will be coming
this week (seriously this time…I promise).
The highlights for this week’s training was the b2b long
runs of 24 and 16 and the hill work that I was able to incorporate into my
running this week. The 9 miler on Thursday and the 24 miler on Saturday both
has some pretty silly elevation that is leaving me very confident as I continue
on in my ultra- training. Now I really
need to start focusing on getting out to the trails more often so that I can
continue to work the hills while also focusing on the tougher terrain.
In other news, I want to switch gears really quickly to talk
about over training. For the last two weeks
or so, the HeadThinker has been dragging. She’s been keeping up with her runs,
but complaining that she’s tired and that her legs just aren’t recovering.
Well, long story short, she’s overtraining, and it’s my fault! I feel so bad
that I have put her into this situation.
Basically, about 6 weeks ago she was feeling great and wanted to up her
mileage because 1) she was feeling strong and running well, and 2) she wanted
to make sure she could run multiple 20 milers and at least one 22 miler prior
to her marathon (Nike
Women’s Marathon on Oct 16th).
Well the first week or so went great and the next week was ok, but then
the wheels sort of fell off. Now, less than 4 weeks out, she is having to take
a lot of time to rest and recover and probably more importantly, she has lost a
lot of confidence! We added lots of rest
days and dropped her mileage and now she is slowly ramping back up with one
more week of solid training before she starts to think about tapering.
Obviously there are a couple of lessons here. First, what
works for one will not necessarily work for another. I thought that since I had followed a similar
high mileage plan that it would work for her as well. Unfortunately, I failed
to realize that I have run about twice as many miles as she has this year and
her base was not up to the challenge for increased mileage so soon. Second, it
is imperative that you listen to your body over your training plan or training
partner. While being tired is normal, always being tired and sore is not. Never be a slave to a sheet of paper. Finally, we (well really she, but I am vested
in her success as well) are very lucky that she did not get injured, which
would have totally derailed her marathon plan. The first marathon is something
special. I want her to have the same chance for both joy and success that I
did.
Have you ever dealt with overtraining? How and when did you
finally realize it? Were you able to overcome it and still complete your goal
race?
Mon – Rest
Tue – 9 @ 9:42
Wed – 9 @ 10:14
Thu – 9 @ 9:25
Fri – Rest
Sat – 24 @ 9:54
Sun – 16 @ 10:54
Total miles for the week – 67
Next week’s goal: Maintain mileage at mid to high 60s and complete
another b2b weekend of 4 hours and 3 hours. I'm also thinking about a giveaway when I reach 25 followers (4 to go!). What do you think?
