How to Shell Yourself, Part One

I racked up a good amount of training last week, and now it's Tuesday, and I am still feeling the effects, i.e., I have not achieved 100% recovery, but that's just the way it goes. Last week went like this:
M: Swim 2500, run 5.5 miles, abs/core for :34
T: Lift :30, Bike 1:15
W: Swim 2500, run about 6.6 miles
Th: Bike 1:15, lift :33
F: Shovel snow 2:00, run 5.5 miles
Sa: Bike 2:00, run about 5 miles
Su: Run 13.5 miles, swim 2200

And so far this week we have:
M: Lift :55, Run 5.5 miles
T: Swim 3000, Bike 1:21

I felt unrecovered yesterday, which was why I didn't swim in the morning like I usually do on Mondays. I toyed with skipping the run, too, but thought I'd get in a strength workout and see how that felt, and it was fine, and I remembered it's all about running right now, so I marched my butt to the Y after work and ran. My legs felt like lead, but actually the faster I ran the better they felt, but as always, the treadmill sucks. So I did my strides on the track, and then ran for 5' on the track to end the workout and what do you know, 8:00/mile, even though I felt like I was running much slower.

This morning when I woke up, I felt pretty good and headed to the pool. I actually had a good swim workout. I've been playing around with spending a lot more time breathing bilaterally (which is good for my spastic left arm/hand and also for rotational beauty), and it was the first time I did significant time during my main set bilaterally, and it was good! But then when I got home, I felt completely shelled, so I stuffed my face with 2 bananas and a can of mandarin oranges (what are those things, anyway?), drank a bunch of water, and hoped for the best when I got on the bike.

I could tell right from the first pedal stroke that the bike workout was going to be a challenge. My poor legs are just feelin' it. Not as much force available in the lower gears, meaning I had to keep up a pretty high cadence to produce decent power. I tend to gravitate to 90-95RPM as my ideal cadence, so when I have to push 95+ just to generate the watts I need, it is not going to be a good day.

I managed to salvage a decent workout anyway, but it was not pretty. I hit 2 out of 3 FT intervals, and on the third, I just put a towel over the SRM and did the best I could, which was actually pretty crappy (OK so it was still 91% of FT, but crap compared to 95-100%). But I let go of it knowing that I am still not quite recovered, but will probably be there tomorrow. I also kicked myself for not shooting a can of Ultra Violence before the workout. I will remember that on Thursday!

Tomorrow I swim a little less (50 yards, to be exact) and do a tempo run. I think I'll be OK for both workouts. And then Thursday I get to sleep in, so that should fix me right up for the big weekend ahead.

I decided I am going to take the next 2 Mondays off from work, since I know I will feel like crap or at least won't want to wake up anytime quickly to do a workout. These days off will follow 2:15 and 2:30 runs, so I think I am making a wise decision. Yes, if I really feel rotten, I will skip a few workouts, but I don't feel rotten, so onward.

Tonight I'm cooking up a big pot of brown rice and plan to eat a lot of it with some roast chicken. I may not have carbed up enough on Sunday after my big run, but then again I don't keep track of that stuff any more, but feeling bonky-ish several days running usually points to a lack of carbs. Maybe because I ran out of Halloween candy...perhaps I need to buy some Cheetos and gummi bears. I've been trying to stay off of that stuff, but with all the running, maybe I need it. Since I'm not using my HRM, I have no clue how much I'm burning in my run workouts and may be undereating.

I feel fine right now--a bit tired, and I do need to stretch for at least :30 tonight--and I think I'll be good to go tomorrow. We shall see!

I am not, repeat AM NOT doing a winter marathon next season! Although sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just run and not bike and swim at the same time. I am looking forward to my taper already. 5 more weeks. And then I don't have to run this much until....May?