Sunday, August 15th
Day Off
Monday, August 16th
Day Off
Tuesday, August 17th
Day Off
Wednesday, August 18th
Day Off
Thursday, August 19th
Day Off
Friday, August 20th
Still had a day off, but I met with Frank Sole. He’s a teammate on One Multisport and is out on the soccer fields with us on Wednesdays. He is also a tri coach and the head swim coach at Notre Dame Prep here in Scottsdale. I figured that this overtraining stuff was serious enough that I didn’t want it to happen again. That said, we were able to get together over coffee and discuss my future. With the information I provided him, he pretty much confirmed that my symptoms were due to overtraining. He wanted me to get back into training with a 30 mile, zone 2, bike ride tomorrow with a zone 2/3 5 mile run on Sunday. I left our meeting fired up to get back after it. After all, it’s been 9 days.
Saturday, August 21st
In my mind, a 30 mile ride was going to take around an hour and a half to complete, so I figured that I could sleep in a bit and start later (around 7AM). James, on the other hand, was gunning for 80 miles and wanted to set out around 4:30AM. We worked it out that I would still start at 7 and meet him out during the ride. Before I left, I set the alarm feature on my Garmin to warn me when my HR rose above 133 (zone 2). Not 1 mile in, it started to go off. What? Already? 140? I couldn’t believe it. OK, just settle down and find a groove and it will balance out. Nope. The alarm must’ve gone off no less than 8 times in the first 4 miles. That’s when James called and asked where I was. After I informed him that I was less than half a mile away, he said that they’d slow down to let me catch up. Moments later, I could see them. James, Kyle, and Chris were all heading away from me, but keeping a real slow pace. Problem was, since my Garmin was buzzing and beeping already, I couldn’t pick up the pace to catch up. They ended up speeding away with an occasional look back to see where I was. Eventually, I caught up to them at a convenience store about 9 miles in. If you look at my HR graph, you can see that my HR only got down to about 121 while I sat and explained my new found woes for a bit. I ended up setting off before they were ready to go and was immediately met with a new flurry of buzzing and beeping. Shortly after I left them, the crew whizzed by me like I was standing still. I could hear James yell out, “Come on! Join the train!” Believe me, it took absolutely everything I had not to grab the last wheel and join in the fun. Even though we were taking the same route, this was the last time I would see them. I can honestly say that this was one of the absolute hardest rides I’ve ever done. Mentally, it was challenging to keep hearing my Garmin telling me that I was exceeding 133bpm while only going 10 mph on certain inclines. I actually started talking to it. I was saying things I won’t repeat here, but I can tell you it wasn’t pretty. Mentally, it was challenging to be passed by a couple of different riders. Physically, it was challenging to back off the pedals every time I needed to go back to zone 2. Physically, it was challenging to almost be in the smallest gear while going up the smallest of inclines so as not to exceed 133. When I got home, I fired of this text to Frank:
“Real struggle 2 keep HR in zone 2. 30 miles @ approx 2 hrs. Still run 2maro or walk & recover? May still b badly overtrained”
His response:
“Dan, no doubt let’s see how tomorrow goes. Go with a 2 mile walk let me know HR. Go early out of the freakin’ heat that along can effect HR 4-6 beats”
So, there you have it. I’ve been reduced to 30 mile rides (in 2 hours) and walking for my Ironman training. Hey, if that sounds like depression, it is. Depression, if you recall, is another symptom of overtraining. The question is, how long is this going to take?
Link to workout:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/45818698
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