This training makes me nuts!

So after the great week I had last week, I had trouble falling asleep Sunday night. Not sure why, but I just tossed and turned and I don't know how much, if any sleep I got. To make things worse, I woke up with a kink in the right side of my neck, bad enough that turning to that side hurt. So no swimming. I knew the neck thing was just trigger points so I started working on them.

I thought I'd give my legs a break so I went to the Y and got on the treadmill. Legs felt dead, and still was experiencing some tightness from my low back leading to sciatica. So I did 1/2 the workout on the treadmill.

I thought I'd try and swim Tuesday morning, but the neck still hurt, which meant I could try and catch up on some sleep which was a good thing. I got a good 1:45 ride in, though, and I am supposed to switch my schedule around this week and run long on Thursday, so Tuesday is now a slightly longer ride (what the hell was I thinking--not sure if I can always get in that much on a work day).

Wednesday I was feeling like I still needed more sleep so did not swim again, although the neck was significantly better. But I thought I'd give outdoor running another shot, and after about a mile, man things hurt, so I backed way off and ended up doing some walking and then some run/walking. This was a sign that I guess I just needed to back way off on running this week, and given that all this messed up stuff is on the right side of my body, it's a signal that I am training really, REALLY hard and need to let this stuff resolve.

Yesterday I finally felt like getting up at 5AM to swim and wanted to run or do elliptical, so I did the elliptical first, which causes me no problems, and then I had a pretty good swim of 3100 yards. And I got a massage in the afternoon which was sorely needed.

I have to say over the last few days that even though I know I need some amount of rest, it just makes me crazy when something hurts. Or you can call it "overuse." Whatever. I have made it pretty far into this training regimen without completely shelling myself, and am always feeling like I'm on the verge of it. At the same time, getting in the training I want to get done is a trick, and getting the rest of my life in is also a trick. I know that I am very fit, but I am also very stubborn, and when I have scheduled training and I can't do it, it takes awhile for my mind to catch up and realize all will be fine. Next week I am doing a PLANNED recovery week, so it sucks even more to have this week be a sort of down week too, but again, I think things will work out.

I am to the point now where I just look at what I had planned for training for the coming week and think about how much of it makes sense considering where I have come from, and then since I'm introducing recovery weeks, does that mean I can still do what I had planned for the following week? Actually, when I look at things on a macro scale, the recovery weeks are fitting in there very nicely after some brutal weekends I have planned. THOSE I intend to do!

In my head, I wanted to get in another easy ride yesterday, but bagged it and finished up my strength work. I wanted to get in over 2 hours of training so I was set up for today's long swim with a good day of work the day before. Why? Because all of this toughens me up.

Last night I ate pasta to the point of being overstuffed, slept really well, and woke up just minutes before the alarm went off at 4:45. I bounded out of bed, had an obligatory cup of coffee (which I don't really need to wake me up anymore since I am sleeping what my body needs) and a toasted English muffin, got my swim stuff together, and was in the pool swimming at 5:33. I could shorten my lead time a little bit, but hey--I'm proud of the fact that years ago I would need like 1.5 hours after waking up to get going on a workout, and now I'm down to :45. That's a hefty 50% improvement!

I sort of decided before I fell asleep last night that today's swim would be 1500's. Although months ago I had written out these workouts for Fridays, I just ignore them and make something up. It's not like I'm going to get faster at this point, so I have made the point of these swims to not slow down and practice my nutrition. So I did 8800 yards this morning, and maybe it's because I have hardly run this week (in my book anyway), but I have felt great all day! And that 8800 included 5200 yards of pulling! And my arms are not sore at all! So this tells me I am indeed adapting to this, and next week I will do a 2.5 hour swim before my long ride and see how that feels.

I also asked my boss for a hiatus from some special duty at work for May-July. I might get it or not, but somehow I felt I might as well ask. The special duty is just something that adds that extra bit of stress for a week, and my schedule can't be too flexible those weeks. It is the first time I have ever made a request like that, and probably the last time. We shall see how it goes.

Now I am going to enjoy a starch free dinner (since I had oatmeal right after the swim and rice with lunch), sleep in tonight and work out for 4 hours tomorrow, and I am actually looking forward to it. As much as (and I guess I should admit it finally) I like to run, I had been on another 9 week serious run build after Goofy, so a little breaky-poo was probably in order. I will try and realign my back and acclimate to running outdoors, and as it warms up, it will be so great!

Right now as I write this, I'm thinking that there are these major training blocks and I need a certain amount of focus to get through them, and I think my focus muscles were getting a little tired; but I think I am recharging them and ready for the next assault.