Anyway, after I had coffee and lounged around a little I decided it was time to go get in a light run. I had not ran any during the week! I walked 2 miles earlier in the week as part of my recovery from the 50K but had done no running. I was giving my legs a break. So I headed over to the park close to my house where there is no traffic or dogs to contend with. My running friend was there and actually texted me as I was leaving my house asking where I was at. She had started at 6 am and was already several miles ahead of me. We ran 1 1/2 loops together for her to finish her 15. After she left I debating trying to get 10 miles of running in but my legs said NO. So I stopped after 8 run miles and then walked 2 miles. My sciatic is back acting up badly along with just kind of still being fatigued after the 50K. I don't have a marathon coming up anytime soon so I knew in my mind it's ok to take a break. You don't have to pound out tons of miles week after week. It's good for your body to take a recovery week. You certainly don't want to overtrain. Overtraining is when your training load exceeds your ability to recover and adapt. Fatigue sets in and you see performance drop. I will say overtraining is an individual thing. My overtraining level will be different than yours so you can't compare to your friends. I may need rest after a marathon and others may not. WE are all DIFFERENT. You do want to recognize the signs early and accept that you must train less and let your body recover. You may need to lower your mileage or run at a slower pace. It's extremely hard to accept mentally, however if you can do it, you will actually be doing yourself a great benefit. When I got home my husband went to get pine straw. The rain had stopped temporarily. So before taking a bath I pulled weeds out of the flower beds around our pool area and then put out the pine straw. I was whooped by this time. I took a long bath and tried to take a short 10-15 min power nap because we were scheduled to keep 3 of the grand kids later. Boy they were full of energy! The soon to be 2 year old thinks she can do everything her older sisters do. It's amazing to watch her. They have a huge set of stairs at their house and she can go up an down then as fast as they can. She doesn't miss anything. hee hee
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| They are so much fun! 3 little blondes! |
After church on Sunday it was beautiful! The sun was out so I called up my training partner and said, "how about a 30 mile bike ride?". Of course she said yes so off we went. It was fabulous! So many people were out on the trace. I'm sure most people were just happy to have a day with no rain and sunshine! We had a great ride. I couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. And honestly it just felt so good to be on the bike for a long ride. No race, just fun. :>)
Ah and then it's MONDAY all over again! Monday is swim morning so on Sunday night I have to get my work clothes ready and my bag in my car. I take my shower at the gym and get dressed at the office. NO time to drive back home and get ready and be ON time to work. This morning I wanted to do some swim drills. I've gotten away from doing them and here lately I've been watching and reading tons of info on swimming. One common thing I keep seeing is the importance of swim drills. I've read where even the best swimmers still do drills. The reason being that a good technique is the best way to save energy while swimming and in a TRI you don't want to spend all your energy during the swim portion of the race. You need energy for the LONG bike ride and LONG run. Yes, endurance in swimming is important, but from what I've read you can shave off time by developing an efficient stroke more so than you can by cranking out huge yardage every time you go to swim practice. So today I wanted to get back to the basics. I knew to do that that I would need to get at the opposite end of the pool away from my swim buddies. See when I'm by them that crazy person inside my body says to just swim and swim and swim... forget drills... you need to keep swimming and try to stay up with them. I know it's crazy, but I'm sure you experience it with something in your life. We tend to measure our ability by how others are doing and we really are only in competition with ourselves.
I'm sure Warren wondered today why I was way away from everyone else in the pool. I did 500 yards of 3 different type drills. I took it slow and easy and tried to just focus on technique. When I was done with drills I swam 1,000 yards freestyle followed by 250 yards of cool down for a total of 1,750 yards. I've been doing 1,500 - 2,000 yards each time I go, but I've just been swimming and swimming. I was shocked when I got out of the pool and looked at my stats on my watch. It beeped "new record" which totally surprised me. I swam my 1,000 yards after going my drills in the fastest time I've swam 1,000 yards! WOW! Now I'm not sure it was the drills or just a good day today, but you can bet ya bottom dollar that I will continue doing drills and see where this goes. See as a triathlete I have three disciplines to train for and making the most of my swim time is critical. There are dozens of drills to help you learn proper stroke technique. Here are just a few stroke drills that will get you started and help you achieve an efficient stroke.
1. The Catch-up Drill, 2. The Fingertip Drag Drill, 3. The Fist Swimming Drill, 4. The Kick on Side Drill, 5. One Arm Drill
Well, I didn't get a nap at lunch! I opened my little frig in my office and no turkey. So I had to make a run to the grocery store. Now let's see if I can make it till 5 pm without nodding off. :>) My training partner told me that we could add a coutdown to our Garmin watches. It's so cool! These dang watches are so smart. 195 days to Augusta, Ga.!
Hope your training is going well. Love this quote:
Have a bless day! D
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