Early this week I was super tired, my back and legs were speaking to me and I did what any athlete would do...well, what a non-stubborn athlete would do. I RESTED!!! Years ago, I suppose I tried to "get through" workouts for whatever reason. You know, I really don't know why athletes (myself included) feel the need to push through pain, tiredness or extreme fatigue. Seriously, is that 1 hour run, 30 min swim on an active recovery day or 90 min interval bike really worth it? Trying to get through one workout because it is on the schedule or because it gives you an excuse to eat x-food or perhaps it defines your fitness (or toughness factor) will likely increase more days off from training, with no performance gains what so ever.
Looking back, I really regret trying to "get through" so many workouts as if my pain, soreness or tiredness would magically disappear. I learned the hard way, as so many of us do, and injuries and illness come because we don't listen to our body when it speaks to us.
Likely, 24 hours is all you have to wait to overcome the funk that is keeping you from feeling productive but more often or not, athletes don't like to rest.....especially if the schedule doesn't tell you do so.
I have had several close calls with my leg acting up (previous injury which took about 3 years to overcome and hasn't affected me for last 9 months..yay!) and feeling a bit under the weather. I rested, listened to my body and I am still going strong with my training. I suppose that it is easier said than done but I am feeling productive with my training (with a lot of performance gains) despite resting my body when needed. Take it from me and from a physiological point of view, if you can't give your 100% for the prescribed workout (due to fatigue, injury or tiredness) ask yourself is "it" worth it? I know it will be hard but taking care of yourself for a few days will only allow yourself to reap the benefits of listening to your body. In my opinion, it's all about quality training..not quantity.
Because I skipped my workout on Tues (interval bike), I moved the workout to Thurs. I am not a fan of making up missed workouts the next day (ex. adding an interval bike to my already packed training for Wed) but in the case of having a bike on Tues and Thurs, I knew what the rest of my week would bring and I felt confident in moving my interval bike workout to Thurs. Whenever my athletes need to move around workouts, I always ask them to email me first so that I can make sure that they are not doing too many intense workouts in a row. Training is all about getting the most physiological adaptations with the least amount of training stress.
Thursday's bike workout was a killer and there was no way that my body would have accepted the workout on Tues.
Thank you Karel for the crazy hard pyramid set:
1 min on, 1 min off
2 min on, 2 min off
3 min on, 3 min off
4 min on, 4 min off
5 min on, 5 min off
6 min on, 6 min off
4 min on, 4 min off
2 min on, 2 min off
1 min on, 1 min off
For the "on" I tried to hold around 160 watts which is above tempo effort for me (105+ rpm cadence) and for the "off" it was spin easy. This pyramid set has been a work in progress for the last month. This was the longest pyramid that I have done thus far and I was happy with how it turned out. I do my tues/thurs bike rides on the trainer (at 5am) which is much easier than outside to control my power.
After the 1 hour and 45 min trainer ride (which went by super fast), I did 2 fabulous Campy miles and got ready for my last day of interning.
Fri was another fabulous swim. The main set included 2 sets of 4 x 150's with some pull and IM sets in between. I dared myself to swim in the "fast" lane again and with a 2 minute cycle for the 150's, I was doubting my ability to swim with the fasties. I can't recall swimming on that cycle since college but I didn't want to doubt myself before we got started.
Amazingly...I made it!! Granted it was touch and go with about 4-5 sec rest but I made all of the intervals on a 2 minute cycle. I am not sure how I managed to swim 150 yards in 1 minute and 52-55 seconds, but I did it! YIPEE!!
This weekend I felt the good kind of soreness. No lingering injury pain but rather soreness from my last week of build before a well-needed recovery week.
This weekend kept me inside. With 2 full days of studying on my schedule, I needed to get my workouts started and completed before the day got away from me. Sat I was on the trainer for 2 hours and 45 minutes and I didn't mind it one bit. I did my Thurs tempo workout which had a main set of:
3 min VO2max (170+ watts) w/ 3 min easy spin
32 min tempo (138 watts averaged, 95 rpm- which is now slow for me but I was hurting and just couldn't get my legs to spin any faster)
10 min recovery
15 min tempo (142 watts averaged)
5 min recovery
5 x 30 sec on/30 sec off (on are all out just spin as hard as you can go. Typically I can get over 200 watts but today I was just fine with 180..a painful 180).
This tempo workout has also been a work in progress where I started with 15 min and built up to 22 min and now 32 min. I never thought I would hold an interval on the trainer for 32 min but with Karel's excellent coaching I am really seeing progress with my cycling. After the bike I was super tired but my adorable furry friend was begging me for a run. Not realizing that he wanted a "long" run off the bike, Campy and I did an enjoyable 3 mile run in perfect running weather. Thanks Campy for the great run!
Today was a long run on the treadmill. It was cold and I needed to get the workout finished to prep for my RD-prep quiz on vitamins, minerals, deficiencies and acid/base balance. I had lots of entertainment on the treadmill TV to keep me from feeling bored but my main set kept me even more entertained and my workout was over and done with before I even knew it.
30 min warm-up
8 x 40 sec "fast" (9mph) w/ 20 sec straddle treadmill recovery (get the HR up)
Main set 5x's /.5% incline)
.5 miles @ 7:19 min/mile, 10 sec rest, .3 miles @ 6:57 min/mile). 1 min rest (straddle treadmill) and repeat set.
5 min easy jog
2nd main set 3x's:
.25 @ 9mph (1% incline) w/ 1 min rest.
Total: 1 hour and 35 minutes, 12.5 miles (7.9 mph average)
Well, I am officially finished with my "base" training and looking forward to several changes with my training (not to mention my first day at St. Vincent's hospital for my acute care rotation..which starts on MON!!).
I will be adding structured bricks into my workouts (in addition to Campy miles).
I will be doing a 2 week build, 1 week recovery (instead of the typical 3 week build, 1 week recovery).
I will continue working on endurance and speed.
I will continue taking off on Monday.
Time for a little reading to get ready for the upcoming week of interning!
Looking back, I really regret trying to "get through" so many workouts as if my pain, soreness or tiredness would magically disappear. I learned the hard way, as so many of us do, and injuries and illness come because we don't listen to our body when it speaks to us.
Likely, 24 hours is all you have to wait to overcome the funk that is keeping you from feeling productive but more often or not, athletes don't like to rest.....especially if the schedule doesn't tell you do so.
I have had several close calls with my leg acting up (previous injury which took about 3 years to overcome and hasn't affected me for last 9 months..yay!) and feeling a bit under the weather. I rested, listened to my body and I am still going strong with my training. I suppose that it is easier said than done but I am feeling productive with my training (with a lot of performance gains) despite resting my body when needed. Take it from me and from a physiological point of view, if you can't give your 100% for the prescribed workout (due to fatigue, injury or tiredness) ask yourself is "it" worth it? I know it will be hard but taking care of yourself for a few days will only allow yourself to reap the benefits of listening to your body. In my opinion, it's all about quality training..not quantity.
Because I skipped my workout on Tues (interval bike), I moved the workout to Thurs. I am not a fan of making up missed workouts the next day (ex. adding an interval bike to my already packed training for Wed) but in the case of having a bike on Tues and Thurs, I knew what the rest of my week would bring and I felt confident in moving my interval bike workout to Thurs. Whenever my athletes need to move around workouts, I always ask them to email me first so that I can make sure that they are not doing too many intense workouts in a row. Training is all about getting the most physiological adaptations with the least amount of training stress.
Thursday's bike workout was a killer and there was no way that my body would have accepted the workout on Tues.
Thank you Karel for the crazy hard pyramid set:
1 min on, 1 min off
2 min on, 2 min off
3 min on, 3 min off
4 min on, 4 min off
5 min on, 5 min off
6 min on, 6 min off
4 min on, 4 min off
2 min on, 2 min off
1 min on, 1 min off
For the "on" I tried to hold around 160 watts which is above tempo effort for me (105+ rpm cadence) and for the "off" it was spin easy. This pyramid set has been a work in progress for the last month. This was the longest pyramid that I have done thus far and I was happy with how it turned out. I do my tues/thurs bike rides on the trainer (at 5am) which is much easier than outside to control my power.
After the 1 hour and 45 min trainer ride (which went by super fast), I did 2 fabulous Campy miles and got ready for my last day of interning.
Fri was another fabulous swim. The main set included 2 sets of 4 x 150's with some pull and IM sets in between. I dared myself to swim in the "fast" lane again and with a 2 minute cycle for the 150's, I was doubting my ability to swim with the fasties. I can't recall swimming on that cycle since college but I didn't want to doubt myself before we got started.
Amazingly...I made it!! Granted it was touch and go with about 4-5 sec rest but I made all of the intervals on a 2 minute cycle. I am not sure how I managed to swim 150 yards in 1 minute and 52-55 seconds, but I did it! YIPEE!!
This weekend I felt the good kind of soreness. No lingering injury pain but rather soreness from my last week of build before a well-needed recovery week.
This weekend kept me inside. With 2 full days of studying on my schedule, I needed to get my workouts started and completed before the day got away from me. Sat I was on the trainer for 2 hours and 45 minutes and I didn't mind it one bit. I did my Thurs tempo workout which had a main set of:
3 min VO2max (170+ watts) w/ 3 min easy spin
32 min tempo (138 watts averaged, 95 rpm- which is now slow for me but I was hurting and just couldn't get my legs to spin any faster)
10 min recovery
15 min tempo (142 watts averaged)
5 min recovery
5 x 30 sec on/30 sec off (on are all out just spin as hard as you can go. Typically I can get over 200 watts but today I was just fine with 180..a painful 180).
This tempo workout has also been a work in progress where I started with 15 min and built up to 22 min and now 32 min. I never thought I would hold an interval on the trainer for 32 min but with Karel's excellent coaching I am really seeing progress with my cycling. After the bike I was super tired but my adorable furry friend was begging me for a run. Not realizing that he wanted a "long" run off the bike, Campy and I did an enjoyable 3 mile run in perfect running weather. Thanks Campy for the great run!
Today was a long run on the treadmill. It was cold and I needed to get the workout finished to prep for my RD-prep quiz on vitamins, minerals, deficiencies and acid/base balance. I had lots of entertainment on the treadmill TV to keep me from feeling bored but my main set kept me even more entertained and my workout was over and done with before I even knew it.
30 min warm-up
8 x 40 sec "fast" (9mph) w/ 20 sec straddle treadmill recovery (get the HR up)
Main set 5x's /.5% incline)
.5 miles @ 7:19 min/mile, 10 sec rest, .3 miles @ 6:57 min/mile). 1 min rest (straddle treadmill) and repeat set.
5 min easy jog
2nd main set 3x's:
.25 @ 9mph (1% incline) w/ 1 min rest.
Total: 1 hour and 35 minutes, 12.5 miles (7.9 mph average)
Well, I am officially finished with my "base" training and looking forward to several changes with my training (not to mention my first day at St. Vincent's hospital for my acute care rotation..which starts on MON!!).
I will be adding structured bricks into my workouts (in addition to Campy miles).
I will be doing a 2 week build, 1 week recovery (instead of the typical 3 week build, 1 week recovery).
I will continue working on endurance and speed.
I will continue taking off on Monday.
Time for a little reading to get ready for the upcoming week of interning!