100 days
It’s hard to believe only 100 days remain before the big day, Ironman Florida.
However….there’s still a lot of training left to do. Actually, I’m just now getting into the “meat” of my training.
I finished up my cycling block a couple weeks back and am bringing the swim and run back up. Towards the end of the bike block, I started to get a bit burned out. I spent a LOT of time on the bike. I got pretty tired and ended up getting sick. Got a nasty sinus infection……. complete with fever, a nagging cough and no energy…… and missed most of a week of training. But, with the help of antibiotics and lots of rest, I got myself well and back on track.
While I was on the couch recuperating, I had a lot of time to think about what I might’ve done wrong to open myself up to getting sick. I think there are a couple of main things. The first being doing a bit too much in training. John gives me a range of time to shoot for with each session. For example, a long ride may call for 4.5-5 hours at X heart rate zone. Before getting sick, I’d do something like 5:10-5:15, or more, instead of what was prescribed. I was doing the maximum+ on every session, all week, every week. As strange as it may sound, I didn’t really realize how tired I was getting until I was nuked. It was a slow build up of fatigue. That was mistake number 1. The next thing was that I started to let my nutrition go a bit. I’m normally pretty good with eating healthy, but I started to let down my guard a bit and started eating more junk. After all, what better way to celebrate a 5 hour ride than a big ole cheeseburger, fries and a ginormous coke….and maybe an apple turnover to boot. Which isn’t a problem every now and then after a long session on the weekend, but I’d started slipping and eating junk during the week also. So, I think the combination of fatigue and poor nutrition was the one two punch that knocked my immune system down.
I’m now doing the MINIMUM time scheduled for each session and eating much better. Hopefully I’ll be able to listen to my body a little more closely over the next 100 days and not make the same mistakes again. I guess we all have to blow ourselves to bits a time or two to realize moderation and consistency are what really matter for improvement. Or maybe I’m just really hard headed and have to learn everything the hard way….
I’ve got a sprint race coming up in a few weeks and I’m really looking forward to it. My race schedule has been pretty slim this year. My speed isn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be for a short race, but it’ll be fun to lay down the hammer and see what happens.
I’m also going to try to be a bit more frequent in updating the blog. I always thought that as my training increased, my blogging would follow……obviously not the case.
100 and counting…..here we go….
Happy Training,
TJ
However….there’s still a lot of training left to do. Actually, I’m just now getting into the “meat” of my training.
I finished up my cycling block a couple weeks back and am bringing the swim and run back up. Towards the end of the bike block, I started to get a bit burned out. I spent a LOT of time on the bike. I got pretty tired and ended up getting sick. Got a nasty sinus infection……. complete with fever, a nagging cough and no energy…… and missed most of a week of training. But, with the help of antibiotics and lots of rest, I got myself well and back on track.
While I was on the couch recuperating, I had a lot of time to think about what I might’ve done wrong to open myself up to getting sick. I think there are a couple of main things. The first being doing a bit too much in training. John gives me a range of time to shoot for with each session. For example, a long ride may call for 4.5-5 hours at X heart rate zone. Before getting sick, I’d do something like 5:10-5:15, or more, instead of what was prescribed. I was doing the maximum+ on every session, all week, every week. As strange as it may sound, I didn’t really realize how tired I was getting until I was nuked. It was a slow build up of fatigue. That was mistake number 1. The next thing was that I started to let my nutrition go a bit. I’m normally pretty good with eating healthy, but I started to let down my guard a bit and started eating more junk. After all, what better way to celebrate a 5 hour ride than a big ole cheeseburger, fries and a ginormous coke….and maybe an apple turnover to boot. Which isn’t a problem every now and then after a long session on the weekend, but I’d started slipping and eating junk during the week also. So, I think the combination of fatigue and poor nutrition was the one two punch that knocked my immune system down.
I’m now doing the MINIMUM time scheduled for each session and eating much better. Hopefully I’ll be able to listen to my body a little more closely over the next 100 days and not make the same mistakes again. I guess we all have to blow ourselves to bits a time or two to realize moderation and consistency are what really matter for improvement. Or maybe I’m just really hard headed and have to learn everything the hard way….
I’ve got a sprint race coming up in a few weeks and I’m really looking forward to it. My race schedule has been pretty slim this year. My speed isn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be for a short race, but it’ll be fun to lay down the hammer and see what happens.
I’m also going to try to be a bit more frequent in updating the blog. I always thought that as my training increased, my blogging would follow……obviously not the case.
100 and counting…..here we go….
Happy Training,
TJ
posted by TJ at 1:35 PM
2 Comments:
Howdy TJ! I was starting to get a little run down myself, so for this last month, I'm committed to putting in my time, but not hammering like I'm trying to get out of the gates of hell :-) Glad to hear you are mo better, and here's to the final 100 days. Be strong...
Wow, 100 days! How exciting. Good for you recognizing the causes of your fatigue- it seems obvious sometimes to an outsider, but it's much harder to admit to yourself. You'll be better off with the "minimal" workouts (which would still kick my ass of course) from now on. Gotta be healthy at the starting line! Keep it up! :)
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