Crushing Miles...and Myself...

The past few weeks I have ramped up pretty intensely in overall training. The main goals were to test how much training I could handle while getting absolutely massive aerobic benefits that I could not otherwise get during race season. So I pushed the envelope, way more than I ever had...and I both have paid for it and got paid some big fitness dividends!

I have averaged nearly 18 hours per week thus far in 2012. First, I must say that this high of a training load requires a lot of things to be aligned...and an athlete willing to make a lot of sacrifices. For me it was pretty easy: I don't have kids, I am (currently) working part-time and I don't 'take my job home' with me, and I have zero problem with going to bed early, getting up early, cutting alcohol and lower quality foods, being very attentive to my food intake, and sacrificing social events.

Secondly and much more importantly is you have to have brought yourself to a point where you can handle the given training load. This part takes months years of training. So, in this case, upping your training load by a lot is relative. Example: if you do 5 hours per week, then a 7 hour week is a solid jump - especially if you are not reducing the quality of the workouts you are completing. For almost any athlete, approaching the mid-teens in hours per week becomes quite volatile. I remember my first back-to-back 15+ hour weeks last winter...it demolished me. Bigtime. And I was training in the pool, running, and cycling - distributing the stress through many facets. This time around, I am primarily cycling - I do about 20-30 miles/week running, but that is significantly less than 4 training hours.

With doing a 24 hour week two weeks ago, I think most people are quick to jump and say "that is definitely over-training". At a later time, I am going to discuss over-training and its meaning (along with related terminology) and the fact that conditioning allows one to sustain a very high training load. In a nutshell...one HUGE week is not over-training, but extended over-reaching will result in over-training.

The past three weeks (along with the intended dropping of a LOT of weight) really accumulated to take a toll on me. I felt amazing - strong, steady, well rested - up until Friday. On Friday I did the last stage of Friday Night Fights - a 10K TT we did back on January 3rd. I improved by 23W and 28 seconds, so I was damn happy with the effort! Then I went again and somehow managed to still beat my first time, by a mere few seconds. Owen had challenged me to go a second time and stay within 10% of my wattage. I did...by a longshot, but it required digging very deep (I stayed within 7%).

Yesterday (Saturday) I was fairly run down, but still got in a great 3 hours with the Base36 crew. Today was a different story...I ran early and felt decent during the run. Once I got home I was suddenly lightheaded and felt like I was hit by a truck. I ate, then showered (to get ready for work). Getting out of the shower I was extremely chilled and was shaking. I laid down in bed and had no desire to move at all. I ended up resting all day in bed, pounded water and ate continually. Now (10PM) I feel pretty good!! Legs are still tired, and tomorrow will be yet another super super easy day - 2 hours spinning on the trainer (at recovery wattage), no technique drills. I'll aim to drink 4 bottles and take in some calories while riding. Tuesday's game plan is up in the air, I will do 6AM core class and likely a higher intensity/short-ish duration workout if things feel good. If I lead spin class Tuesday evening, I will be on the rollers in order to minimize any semblance of resistance. Today and Monday will be my two easiest days in the past month, some much needed recovery. I'm looking forward to see what level of energy return I might get in the next day or two.