Ken's Road to Kona

This is how I feel right about now

I’ve officially run myself into the ground. Friday’s run was tough. Much harder than last week, but that was expected. Probably wasn’t good that I pushed it a little hard around mile 8 of 2-hour run (in the blazing heat no less).

Saturday, my goal was to do 2-hours of high intensity cycling on the trainer: ladders, supersets, race simulations, etc. It was beautiful outside, but I didn’t want any junk miles, so I decided to concentrate on some intense training indoors. The session was supposed to last 2 hours…but lasted about 45 minutes.

I guess I should have seen this coming. Immediately into the first few intervals, my legs were burning. They felt very heavy; evidence by not being able to get my cadence over 90rpms. So I’m there, in my living room, collapsed over my aero bars. I just know my heart rate is over 180+ beats per minute. I look down on my watch and it reads 147.

“147? WTF?! How is this possible”?

If I’m in my aerobic zone then why does it feel so hard? I went on for 40 more minutes and called it a day. I simply had enough. I hopped off my bike and Googled “Can’t get my heart rate up”.  Diagnosis: overtraining. I’m “heart tired” as they say.

Considering how I felt on Friday, and the hill training I’ve been did early in the week; the 1-hour tempo runs; running stairs; and ultimately, not taking enough time off from JerseyMan…it all makes since. Taking from Coach Joe Friel’s blog, symptoms of overtraining are:

+ 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.

After reading these symptoms, it’s all coming full circle:

This week I had of such a heated argument with a friend of the most trivial thing. I simply lashed out and I don’t even know where it came from.

While it is comforting to come to a conclusion for the way I’ve been feeling, I’m a little worried about the next two months of training before Ironman UK.

After BlackBear this weekend, I’ll take a week off. From that point, I have only 7 weeks left. I have a race on one of those weekends (albeit it’s only an Olympic distance). After that race it will be month to Ironman UK. I also have to fly home to Florida for a weekend. Basically, I have only 3 weekends left for long bike rides

According to Mark Allen, the perfect taper beings a month in from race day.  I’m not sure if I’ll be ready but it almost feels as if while summer is beginning, it’s almost ending as well. Sub 13 hours is the goal. I feel my run will be ready, but there are still lingering doubts about a 1:10-1:15 swim time (which could possibly be answered soon).

With the lack of time till August 2^nd, my personal family commitments, improperly scheduled races, recovery time, are starting to get to me, but I least now I can formulate a plan of action. If I’ve learned anything from this season so far, is that you shouldn’t schedule 2 half Ironmans in a 3 week period.  Just plain stupid.