Sunday, April 20, 2014

Sometimes... You Blow Up!

I will say without any filtering that this week has really kicked my ass.  Really.  I was so close to bailing not even half way into yesterday's ride but somehow managed to force myself through it.  Afterwards though I was just beat and when I got back to the apartment I just sprawled out on the floor until I felt like I could get up and function again.

But why so tired???

I upped my calories intentionally the past couple days as I felt myself becoming more sluggish but that didn't help a whole lot, though I am sure it didn't hurt.  Sleep?  To be honest I am not sleeping that great up here yet. Sleeping is okay, it is the getting to sleep that is the issue.  Nevertheless I do make sure that I still get enough hours and I don't really get up until my body is ready to be awake.  So while sleep is sketchy... I am still getting enough I think.

So today I crunched some numbers.  This sort of tells the tale and makes me feel a bit better about things.  Last April I had a total of 51.19 hours of training for the month.  As of today and with ten days still left in the month, 50:18.  Ah... that must be it! :)

It all came to a head on today's run.  It started out rough like usual but I have gotten used to that sorta.  I know to just give myself sometimes upwards to an hour to really get warmed up and going.  I had planned on 13 miles of running then swinging by the house again to refill bottles etc.  I ran over and up Smuggler then back down then up towards Independence Pass for a bit then turned around and headed home.

Things to note about the run...  Even though I had eaten before going out and was fueling constantly throughout the run as usual I still felt "blah."  To make matters even more challenging my HR would not rise into zone 2 really, even if I was going at pace that would have warranted it.  It did climbing Smuggler but that was really it.  So my HR was bout 15 beats lower than normal... so at 135 BPM I was cruising WAY faster than normal.  Getting to or above 140 just running today... forget about it.

After swinging by the house and refueling I went out and ran some more.  I could just feel myself becoming undone with each subsequent mile and then I just stopped.  Call it the wall... call it breaking down, call it just being damned tired, call it whatever you want but I was done.  Aborted the run and headed home.

It has been a really long time since I have blown up on a run like that.  Maybe last fall when I was in the Springs and I just quit the run early, grabbed some Chinese takeout and took the taxi home.  I think that was really the last time.

I don't know if this week was really all that hard.  It might be the aggregate of the past three put together, but either way this week pushed me to my limits and definitely left a mark.  I told Melissa yesterday after the ride that any illusions that I have been holding onto the past few weeks about being stronger, faster, yada,-yada, were definitely crushed during that ride.  Of course today's run didn't help foster a lot of confidence either.

I am okay.  I think that breaking down this week was actually part of the master plan as I will have a super easy recovery week coming up.  Maybe just as in weight lifting, you know, that last rep of the last set where you damned near can't get the bar back up on the rack and you hit that point of failure?  I think that is what the last two days have been, just hitting that point of failure.   The funny thing about today's run, excluding pace/HR discrepancies, etc... it was really going good, or at least okay, until it wasn't and then it was just over.

Still, it was a solid training week.  16:26 total with 7:34 on the bike and 8:52 of running.

Seven weeks and five days until the Leadville Marathon.  Still looking for a 6.6% improvement in time overall.  It should be doable. 

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