Cooler temps in the deep south

It only took one day. And the weather here in Mississippi turned from summer to fall. This week as seen lows in the low 50’s and highs in the mid 80’s. It really does not get any better than that. I rode into work on Wednesday for Adult Swim. I had to dress a little bit differently. I wore a new pair of bibs (the pair with the hole in them really is relegated to the trainer), a long sleeved performance type shirt, a cycling jersey, and my usual fingerless gloves and – for the first time in months, socks.


Every year I remember the coming of fall and the dropping temperatures but I forget how they feel. Sure, I know low 50’s are nothing to most of the country but … I hate it when my feet get cold on the bike. It is funny I can run with frozen feet but on the bike it is miserable. I ran a half marathon last January in shorts and a performance top- the temperature was 23 degrees. My feet were numb for most of the run and they hurt. After the race the awards ceremony was in a park. The ground was frozen (we had a really cold winter down South last year) and feet never warmed up. They hurt but not like they hurt on the bike.

My feet did not get cold on my ride to Adult Swim but it brought unpleasant memories of past winters. I dug around the bike closet and I have already pulled put the toe covers and the neoprene full booties. I will be ready for cooler temperatures.

I also have come to the conclusion that I need to get on an off season training plan. Although I am having fun my volume has not decided – it has just diversified. I am playing racquet sports, swim with the Adult Swim, cycling with the group and a little bit of group running. I am also still doing two-a-days almost every day with a three-a-day still in the mix. My body is telling me it needs a break but without the plan I am having trouble figuring what to cut. It is time to put pen (pencil) to paper and work out MY goals and just chart it out. It is time to become run focused for my marathon build.

Well, I guess it will have to wait until after this weekend. There will be a lot of swim / bike / run.

Taking my three days

I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission.

 And I want to help you. - HAL

I am a computer geek - I have that scrolling across my workstation.

After the long walk home I have taken it easy. I believe that I have just been over extended. This happens to me this time of year. I know it happens and I just bull dozer through it. It is funny – I know it, I can see it, I can feel it but I think it will be different this time.

I hate feeling weak. I am not sure where this trait comes from. I sure did not grow up with it. I was a pretty sickly child (when I was real little). I was allergic to dang near everything. In fact I could not drink any type of milk – not cow, goat or otherwise. A funny story – when my sister was working in a laboratory on g-proteins (cow hearts) everyone in her lab would gag from the smell. I guess it was awful. It did not make her sick – in fact it kind of reminded her of childhood. That is what I had to drink for protein – cow hearts in a blender – YUK. My father tells me that they had to change the carpet in the house often because as he would rest me on his shoulder to comfort me I would throw up all down his back. He has told me this story repeatedly all of my life.

Anyway, if you ask me when the last time I was sick I will tell you that I don’t remember. And I truly don’t. I like to think that my immune system is a fortress around my body. I am in excellent health and nothing can get through. I know this is not true but it is how I look at it. Being sick is admitting weakness.

Let me state this one more time – I AM NOT SICK, I’m really not, but I am a bit run down. This time of year I deal with a lot of stress – it used to be worse – but there is a lot of stress none the less. And the way that I deal with stress is through exercise. One-a-days turn to two-a-days and two-a-days turn to three-a-days. It is just what I do – I know that it is maladaptive – but it is me.

The first sign of this fatigue was the damned ‘Prickly Heat’ (thankfully resolved). Then came some reduced performance – I failed on two of my bike trainer workouts. The last straw was the failed run home on Tuesday. Therefore, I have taken it easy the since then. I am not sick and I do not feel bad but my body (and to a less extent my mind) has been fatigued.

I am fond of saying ‘take three days to save three weeks and take three weeks to save three months’.

I am taking my three days.

Running, biking, overtraining?

Looking at my training schedule for the weekend had me worried that it was not enough. I hate to waste the weekend hours – I need to fill them with activity. Looking at how my training plan continues to build, the past two weeks have been at the lowest volume that the plan will see, I decided to follow the plan.

Saturday, my scheduled called for a 70 minute run in Heart Rate Zone 1 – 2. No problem. I headed out the door – the temperature was cooler than it has been and I quickly got up to speed. I set a limit on my heart rate at 150 beats per minute. Doing the quick math in my head this would be a 9 mile run. I did not have much trouble maintaining the 8 minute / mile pace while keeping the heart rate below 150. However, as the run progressed I would notice that I was slowing. A quick look at my heart rate and I would see that I was zoned out and my heart rate was falling into the low 140’s. A quick couple of strides to get back on pace and I was hugging 150 again. My run took me out to Beaver Pond and back and I finished the 9 miles in 1:13 - an 8:08 minute pace with heart rate average at 148. I could have easily kept this under the 8 minute mark but due to cardiac drift I would have had to exceed the 150 beats per minute. I really wanted to extend this run to 10 miles – I don’t know why but 10 sounds so much better than 9. I stuck to the plan!

I was also supposed to swim on Saturday. Not long after my run the rains came in with full abandon – lots of thunder and lightning. There would be no open water swimming. In addition, I just do not care for swimming at the pool on weekends. I decided to make this swim up on Monday – Monday is a scheduled day off. In the future, I am going to be proactive and reschedule any swims that fall on the weekends.

Sunday was KEY BIKE STRENGTH WORKOUT. It called for 2 hours on a hilly course. To push the uphill’s and recover on the down hills. The Heart Rate could hit low zone 4 but otherwise be in zone 1 – 2. I contemplated on doing this workout on the trainer to better control the conditions (and watch the Giro d’Italia on the internets). There were pop up storms all around but I took my chances and headed out the door. There are not many hills on the trace (rails-to-trails) so I decided to leave the trace just after Sumrall and do hell (I mean hill) repeats. There is a hilly loop that figure-eights criss-crossing the trace. I would do an hour of these loops.

Before I could complete the first hilly loop the sky opened up! The air was already chilled and the rain was cold. I was soaked in a matter of seconds. I finished the first loop and jumped on the trace at the first junction. I was just going to push the pace all the way home and out run this storm. I accelerated quickly and was pushing a good clip but I was unable to get my heart rate up into zone 4. I wanted to time trial this back at a heart rate of 165. This was not happening. My legs were aching and I was pushing hard but my heart rate was in the 140’s. I pushed harder but just could not increase my heart rate where I wanted it. I still managed to beat the storm home and gave fair warning to the other cyclist when I crossed their paths. It would end up raining hard all afternoon. I do not regret the decision of heading back. A heart rate in the 160’s should be obtainable – This was the rate that I did the entire bike segment of the ½ ironman in New Orleans.

I know what this means when I can’t get my heart rate into the high zones – fatigue! I have decided to not make up the swim that I missed on Monday and rest the entire day. No bike / run commute or anything. I am also going to re-evaluate my training plan. I have been hitting the workouts but I have also been adding a little bit to them on occasion. Sometimes, when I think they are not enough I will go ahead and ‘supplement’ with a few miles. For example, I have been adding bricks to many long bikes and extending many short runs. This is causing me to spend too much time in ‘no man’s land’ zone 3. From Joe Friel’s Blog – The Overtraining Threshold (while I do not have all of these symptoms– I can see and feel some of them).

+ Fatigue which doesn’t go away with 48 hours of low workload or even time off from training. The legs feel tired or there is general body weariness that lingers even after taking it easy for two days.

+ Little control of emotions — evidence of anger, feeling sorry for yourself, moodiness, depression, grumpiness. In short, you are hard to live with. A spouse or roommate may be the first to recognize this.

+ Performance declines. For example, you are slower at a given heart rate, or for any given speed, heart rate is higher than usual.

+ Self-confidence declines. This may be the best marker, but it’s hard to assess. One way to do it may be in the athlete trying to visualize accomplishing a very high workout or race goal. If it seems out of reach and farfetched, self-confidence may be low.

When any of these markers show up and linger for more than three days, there’s a good chance that the overtraining threshold has been exceeded. At this point the workload must be reduced immediately until you are back to normal. Then take time to evaluate what level of workload produced the problem, and make adjustments as you start back into higher workloads.

By learning to recognize your overtraining threshold and keeping the workload below it while designing the season around your limiters and strengths, you’ll improve race performances both in the short and long term. That’s smart training.