Well let me recap on my worst training cycle in years. It started in February. I was dumb. I finished Houston on January 17th, my second marathon in 6 weeks, both of which were a 2:46. I took 4 days off and wanted to see how my legs felt for an easy 4 mile shakeout later that week. They felt fine. This was enough for me to stay in the elite field for the Miami Half Marathon a week after Houston before getting on my cruise ship for vacation. Initially I thought it would be a good tune-up for the trials in LA had I qualified at CIM in December. However I didn't and then ran Houston. There was no reason to run Miami, but I did with the thought one good run before indulging all week in food and booze on a cruise ship would somehow justify my laziness. I ran 1:22, which was pretty good a week post marathon, but I'm sure my muscles weren't recovered and I did more damage. I was lazy on the cruise, but then upon my return wanted to start running again.
I started February 1st and ran every day through June 12th. Normally when we start a cycle we start with a base phase. Build up my mileage with no workouts over ~4-6 weeks. Being eager and had gotten into the elite field of the USATF Half National Championship I definitely skipped the majority of this base phase and rushed into faster paced workouts, building up lactic acid. The first sign should have been at the Shamrock Shuffle 5 miler in March. My legs felt like crap essentially the whole race. I chalked it up to the weather, it was cold and I had just starting with high mileage and workouts so I figured my legs weren't fresh. Next race, Delmar Dash 5 miler. Same thing, it was cold! After a mile my legs just didn't want to go, maybe it was still the weather and wearing shorts in cold weather.... The half marathon did not go well. My workouts had been decent, however they were rather short. Mile repeats, 800 repeats, etc. My problem when racing seemed to occur right after the mile mark. Something was going on where my legs didn't want to continue past that point. The first 2 miles of the half went really well and I thought I felt great, it could be a good day! However, then they went dead again and didn't want to move. Okay, something is up. I got my labs checked, my H&H had dropped as did my iron. I added liquid iron to my normal tablet supplements and hoped for the best.
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| Our team at Freihofer's, my teammates both running well! |
After the half we really did short, quick, track work hoping it would result in a fast 5k. I backed off the distance and mileage and continued training. I ran a decent 5k towards the end of May, 17:31 on a fast course. I had hoped this would convert to an 18-flat at Freihofer's (which it should have), but it didn't. I ran slower. The next weekend was one last chance to redeem myself, I should be able to pop out a 17:40 at the OK 5k, but I didn't, I ran 17:50. Each week I was racing seemed to get worse. I tried to run the day after these 2 5ks to find my legs hurting so bad that I walked both runs. I knew something was really wrong. I got all my labs checked again, I was sleeping 9-10 hours a night now something had to be wrong, but this time everything was perfect. WHAT????!! I really did overtrain for the first time, I couldn't believe it. I went back through my running log to learn I hadn't had a day off since January. I then took 3 days off.
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| 1st day off from running in 19 weeks, walk with Mia |
I ran an easy 8 yesterday in Amsterdam from Karen's Produce on the hard pack dirt bike path. I used my new watch that I got last week to monitor my heart rate and the aerobic/anaerobic level I was at. I stayed in the aerobic zone, which I will have to do for the next 4-6 weeks. I started to read up on this whole overtraining syndrome everyone was suggesting months ago that I didn't want to believe. It really made sense, the absence of a base phase and the difficulty racing after mile 1 were clear indicators.
Another key sign I missed was the lack of competitiveness I had. I always have been competitive, but kind of didn't care for the first time. My mom told me after Freihofer's an observation she made. "Karen, I may not know anything about running and maybe I am wrong, but when I watched you, you were just like ahh whatever, I am just here and don't really care. I see other people on that start line pumped up, ready to go and then when they finish they are killing themselves and really want it. You looked like you didn't care when you finish, you just ran in like you were doing any old run." This was true. I lacked that desire and fire. Maybe you could say I was a little depressed with running.
Other factors: Aside from the lack of aerobic base phase and the abundance of anaerobic track work, I didn't treat my running the same as I did in the past. Normally when marathon training my workouts were long and I run 80-90+ miles a week. When doing this, I know how important recovery is and I am 100% committed. After a long run or long workout during marathon training I immediately make a protein recovery drink, foam roll, epsom bath and/or use my elevated recovery legs. However, this cycle since the workouts were only 3-5 miles on the track total and I was maxing out my weeks around 65-70 miles, I didn't think all this was important, so I skipped all of these things. Probably not the best idea...
So now what?
Like I said I took a few days off, and I will continue to add in rest days over the next 6 weeks. As for running this will be strictly aerobic working on the base phase. I have several massages scheduled and will start adding in the proper recovery tools I would normally use when marathon training. I think we learned I am more of a strength runner (higher mileage, less anaerobic track stuff) and thankfully I made it through this without any injuries.
Hopefully things will start looking up.
