WEEK 11 TRI/WEEK 4 MARATHON: Undertraining is better than overtraining

Even Tea told me to just move on, but I'm still feeling guilty about yesterday. So guilty that I'm tempted to work out on a rest day. So I'm keeping myself busy: folding laundry before I go to work, blogging - so that I won't have time to go for a run. But all the while, in the back of my mind, I keep thinking, you got plenty of rest last week, and the week before. Just go for a run.

Never mind that working out today would put me on 7 days straight, of mostly double workouts per day, before my next rest day. Never mind that, despite my 2 rest days for the race and my blown workout yesterday, I got in 7 workouts last week (and that's if you count my strength routine and my short bike ride as one workout, which I did.) And never mind that if I hadn't gone to that party, I would have spent probably my 10th Saturday night in the past several months saying no to spending time with friends just so I could get up and work out in the morning. OCPD much?

Slightly undertraining is better than slightly overtraining.

I'm writing this down right now, so that I remember it for the future, because even before I started training for races, I had severe guilt on days that I missed workouts. I felt like, if I missed one, I was surely on a downward spiral that would send me skipping every following workout. The truth is, since the sprint, I've been feeling much more relaxed and I'm suffering from this delusion that the hard part is over. But it's not - I still have 3 weeks ahead of me, and these last 2 weeks are my peak weeks. Here are my next 3 weeks and dilemmas.

  • Monday: Rest
  • Tuesday: PT, 4mi run, 1500m drill swim (how the hell am I going to manage this one? I'm guessing I'm going to have to get up before 5, run, come home, shower, change into workout clothes again, go to PT, work out, come home, shower, go to work, go to the Y and swim. Or I could drop one of the two workouts.)
  • Wednesday: PT, 15-20mi bike ride (I may turn this one into a 25 mi ride since I really need the distance.)
  • Thursday: 3 mi run, 2k swim
  • Friday: PT, 10-15mi bike ride
  • Saturday: 9 mi run-OR-25mi ride plus A.M. 2k OW swim (again, how the hell am I going to manage this? I could do my OW swim on Thursday, but I'm not sure I'd have time, since the Thursday morning swims are shorter and less crowded than the Saturday morning swims)
  • Sunday: 25 mi ride-OR-9 mi run
I'm thinking something is going to have to ge re-arranged or dropped. Next week is not much less scary:
  • Monday: PT
  • Tuesday: 10 mi run, 1500m drill swim
  • Wednesday: PT, 20mi bike ride
  • Thursday: 2k swim
  • Friday: PT, 15mi bike ride
  • Saturday: Celebration of Running 5k
  • Sunday: 30 mi ride

And race week . . . .

  • Monday: PT
  • Tuesday: 6 mi run, 1500m easy swim
  • Wednesday: PT, 30mi bike ride
  • Thursday: Rest
  • Friday: PT
  • Saturday: Rest
  • Sunday: Hammerhead Olympic Triathlon

2 tidbits of wizdom:

FunFitandHappy said...

I'm with Tea - don't worry about missed workouts - let it go and move on :)

Tea said...

Yea...what Andy said!
Listen to him. He's a smart guy!

You probably already do this, but I'm going to say it anyway. I think you might just need to pull some tough love on yourself.

Schedule your training. It's not fun, but as your mileage starts increasing, you have to. Then, you have to get tough on yourself. Going out is ok, and you shouldn't give up your social life. BUT--if every Sat night you go out which then causes problems on Sunday,that's not going to help your training.

You can mess around with the sprint and oly distances, but once you move on to half and full im races, you cannot afford to miss too many workouts. When you follow your training plan consistently, then you APPRECIATE those rest days because in Tri training, they are few and far between.

So pull out your TOUGH, decide what your priorities are, and kick some serious ass!