Recovery Week Blues? You Ever Get Them?

Sometimes I do not get myself. I feel like I am so focused on my goal of Ironman, yet it also seems so far away. For instance, I am in a recovery week this week, which ends tomorrow, and I have no desire to go on my run. I set everything out, I even got out of bed, but as I came downstairs, I was not there mentally. Not even close, so I made me a good breakfast, and sat down to type this out to figure what my deal is.

Now I know I JUST BLOGGED about not hearing the voices in my head, but this is different to me because half of me want to go running like I should, the other half doesn't. The other day I posted on my Daily Trainings FB page that I was supposed to does a 2.7 mile run, but my first thought was "2.7? Why bother?" Yeah, I was that guy!

I know rest/recovery weeks are important, but I wonder if they throw me off. I wonder if anyone else has these issues with the recovery weeks during their training. So, I Goggled it!  (You can find everything on Google! A biddy and I replaced a fuel pump on our van yesterday following a YouTube video!)

Anyways here is a good article I found that says what I need:

So I get the recovery part. What I am NOT quite getting (or maybe what I am not quite appreciating) is how downright terrible I feel during recovery weeks. I can barely make it out of bed in the mornings and I feel lethargic, sleepy, and puny the rest of the time. I ache and hurt to the point that I think I may be injured and I even experience moments where I feel feverish and think I am getting sick. I run three miles and can barely knock out a 9:30 pace all the while feeling like I'm dragging a bag of bricks behind me. I should have tons of energy. I should feel great and invigorated, strong, and super enthusiastic...so why don't I?

The answer is simple. Once again, my poor body is trying to recuperate from the heinous beating it has taken for the past three weeks. I am on the razor's edge of overtraining and my body is in shut down mode, so expecting to feel great and invigorated is like telling someone who is recovering the day after surgery that he should feel great and invigorated. It is always during recovery weeks that I begin to have self doubts. Too much free time and feeling like dog doo is a deadly combination for triathletes; it is when we are at our most dangerous. We begin to question our training and goals and then before we know it, we start tweaking our programs and screw up everything with our training. I find that I constantly have to reassure myself that feeling beat-up during a recovery week means one thing: IT'S WORKING! I usually don't appreciate my recovery week until it is over and I am already halfway through my new build week. That is usually when I suddenly notice just how good I am feeling and realize, "Oh, I get the point now!" So, take full advantage of your recovery week; while your body might not seem to appreciate it at the time, it will thank you come race day! 

So Thank You Google! I have been working on a post about looking at my training one workout at a time so I do not get that overwhelmed feeling, because this journey has been a rollercoaster of a ride so far! It is so funny to me how I can go from being confident to being scared straight about a race I know I am not going to even come close to winning.

About the only thing I can say about today is that at least I got out of bed and had a nice quiet breakfast. Tomorrow is going to be a great swim day!

Recovery Weeks In The Dark With Indoor Tri's and 10K Trail Races!

I hate recovery weeks. I know they are needed, but I feel like I am just getting into a good swing of things, and then BOOM, time to recover. So it is very tough for me to get excited about a recover week. This is the time when I tend to start missing workouts cause I think I take the term to literal. So I hit up Google to find the common answer and I found that there is no common answer on the net.

A recovery week is basically a toned down souped up week of exercise. Yes your mileage may be smaller than normal, but I still go as hard as I would, but c'mon, a 1000 yard swim for a workout? Puh-leessse!! Now before you say anything, I know, that sounds really jerky for me to say, but when all the swim workouts have been 2300 yards or more, 1,000 isn't alot, and I think all those other swimmers are wondering why he only swam 20 minutes today??? Anyways, I use recovery weeks to ensure I am getting sleep and not over-training which could lead to other injuries, but by the time the end of the week is over, I am looking forward to hitting it again.

Topic Change:

I cannot tell you how many time I have walked through my house and turned off light switches. Now I am not some save the planet hippie that doesn't believe in 15 minutes hott shoers (I love (is there a stronger word than love?)15 minute hott showers). My wife claims that it is a dad thing, but I say No!  I say it is a pay the bills thing. It amazes me how almost every light in my house can be on and no one is even close to that room. The kitchen light, garage light, dining room light, living room light and the boys room light...all lights on! I can just picture that spinning thing on my electric meter spinning at a high rate of speed while the electric company sits and watches the dials and laughs and laughs at the Ford house!  Cha-ching!!!  Pet peeve of mine.

Topic Change:
My wife did an indoor triathlon this week. It was her first venture into the world of triathlon and she did great. She rocked the swim, did great on the bike and did better than she'll ever admit to on the run! It was my turn to be cheerleader while she raced and I am very proud of her!

Topic Change:
Tomorrow I am racing the last of the winter cross country series races. It is a 10K at Shelby Farms. I am strictly going to beat my time from last year. Last year I ran a 56:58 through the woods, so I am planning on beating that time this year. It should be perfect weather tomorrow. Forecast is calling for sunny and the high around 64 degrees, so it should be fun. I will post results on my Twitter for anyone that cares.

Thanks for reading!!!