Overtrained + C4C

I've been suffering a bit from a cold and I tried to continue training during and I realized that I am really overtraining. Wikipedia lists the following symptoms for overtaining:

• Persistent muscle soreness (Delayed onset muscle soreness)
• Persistent fatigue
• Elevated resting heart rate
• Reduced heart rate variability
• Increased susceptibility to infections
• Increased incidence of injuries
• Irritability
• Depression
• Mental breakdown

Okay, I may not have all of them but I definitively have fatigue, infections and more soreness than usual. The cure has many options from reducing the amount of training to reducing the intensity or doing cross training. I'm not quite sure how to mix up my training with Miami coming at me furiously (less than 6 weeks away now) but I will try to reduce the intensity and maybe even cross train on the bike instead of the shorter medium runs.

This week I did not accomplish the 80km that the training plan wanted. I did finish my 21k tempo but I cut short every other run and ended up with a 19k long run yesterday. The mind just wasn't in it and with the body recovering from a cold, the endurance wasn't there yet either.

Time for Cans for Comments. Christmas has just sneaked up on me this year. I hope you guys realize that it is next Saturday! The malls were crazy yesterday, it took us more time to park than we spent shopping. We got everything we need so let's make sure that less fortunate families also will, comment early and comment often. For each comment, I will give a non-perishable food item to charity.

PS: Thanks to Dalla for the beautiful picture!

I'm back!!!

Wow. What a gorgeous day out there today. I couldn't resist to go for a run today at lunch time. I could have tried as much as I wanted to hold back but it was too nice not to go full tilt. Throwing caution to the wind may not necessarily the best way to come back from an injury but it felt great!!! This run gave me plenty of confidence that I can shatter my personal half marathon record in 2 weeks. I did my "winter" run where I do two loops at the bridges:
Everything felt really good. The weather was sunny with a bit of a wind at about 12 degrees (Celsius). My knee wasn't complaining at all and I feel only a bit of soreness tonight so I'm using the injury tag on this post for the last time in hopefully a long while! My speed profile was a bit all over the place with a speedy first and last km with another speedier length at around km 5.
It feels great to be back, pounding the pavement and getting a good workout. I missed it. I craved it even. Now I'm feeling really good.

Green Nuns of the Revolution's Rock Bitch Mafia in the mix.

Smoke Test v2

Last Friday, I had a bit of time at lunch to go for another short run. I'm still not 100% confident that I am fully restored from my injury so I took it easy. There was some sensitivity in my knee but I'm not sure if it is the post injury running or just because I'm rusty after not having trained much for almost 2 weeks. I went around the most popular bridge loop:
I did a pretty decent time considering I took it easy. There were no significant soreness in the knee after the race either so I'm building up my comfort level about the race in 2 weeks. I will try to do at least 2, and if possible 3, 10km run next week to iron out all the kinks.

TIP Singles 2 in the mix.

Double swim again

I went to the pool today and did two 750m sets again. I'm starting to like this routine. Alex would be proud that I am maximizing my investment by swimming more. The first set was done in under 19m but I must have miscounted cause it didn't eel that quick. I didn't time the second set. I did a dozen breast strokes in between and another half dozen at the end to cool down.

No sensitivity at all in my knee today. I hope to go for a short run tomorrow, time and weather permitting, With the race in two weeks and the break in my training, I feel like a kid in high school that is facing a test un-prepared. We'll see how much cramming I can do before tapering starts the week before the race.

Swim A-OK

I went for a quick swim today after work. My knee felt great, almost all of the sensitivity is gone, even when I did breast strokes. My usual 750m took only 19m so that's pretty impressive. I lingered in the pool for another 15-20 minutes doing breast strokes and some more freestyle before I decided it was time to go home.

Smoke Test

Back when I was in college, my electronics professor had a funny story about microchips and magic smoke. He claimed that elves worked at the chip factories and what that made the chip behave as they do is the magic smoke that they locked inside the chip. Once the magic smoke escapes from the chip, the chip is rendered useless and can not longer be relied on to perform... So all the students took to running smoke tests when we created new circuits. We would plug everything in with no load or program and look for smoke or signs of overheating, to ensure the magical element did not escape.

I felt a bit like this today, on my first run after a week of resting to allow my knee to recover from the (ab)use I put on it earlier in the season. I was pleasantly surprised. While the knee was a bit sensitive during the early part of the run, it didn't feel overly wrong or painful. I even felt great after. I kept the run really short just in case the feelings would show up after the run.
I met up with my friend Will that was doing some speedwork. That explains the funny speed profile that you see here.

I wrestled a bit about what music I wanted to accompany my [hopefully] triumphant return, even if I knew I'd be running only for all of 10 minutes. I settled for the powerful Astral Projection's Trust in Trance to show I trusted that my body was recovered.

I guess the real test is tomorrow morning when I get out of bed, but even as I did my stretches tonight, I actually felt better than before so I think that the run helped and loosened me up a bit. Tomorrow is swimming and I'll try to slot a 5km on Wednesday to slowly ramp up.

Recovery Update

It's Sunday morning, I've been resting from training for a few days now and I'm coming up with a game plan to get back into training. My knee seems to be doing much better. It doesn't feel sensitive at all today, even if I spent most of the afternoon yesterday walking around the museum and the tulip festival.

So my plan is to go for a short run tomorrow and see how it feels. I will probably ramp up the runs until I get to my regular running schedule while taking it easy on the bike, until at least my race in 3 weeks. Then we'll see how I transition the training into full time triathlon.

Double Swim

I'm getting better!!! Today when I woke up my knee was still a bit sensitive but definitively not painful. After a few stretches I could barely feel that there was anything wrong. Unless I thought or focussed on the knee everything was normal. I'm still thinking no cycling or running until Monday, but it will be tough to restrict myself if I keep on feeling that good. I will have to busy myself this weekend so I'm not teased.

So after work today I went swimming. I swam my usual 750m in a pretty respectable 19m30s. I then did a few laps with breast stroke, paying special attention to my left knee. While it was sensitive, again I wouldn't qualify the feeling as pain... I felt so great that I did another set of 750 freestyle in about 25m. I really needed an outlet to expense all the energy that would usually be channelled through the pavement. After my second 750m set, I did a lap doing backstroke and felt that my muscles were close to seizing up in cramps so I did a few stretches and went on my merry way home.

I feel great!!

Restless Resting

It's hard to stay put and wait for my body to heal. Getting out there and pounding the pavement has become such an important part of my day that when I find myself unable to enjoy the sports I like so much, I grow restless. Not only am I denied my endorphin buzz but also I lost an important stress relief. I also have to watch what I eat because even if my appetite hasn't changed, there are now 1,000 to 1,500 less calories being burned everyday by the fantastic engine that is my body.

So what do I do then instead of running? I live the excitement through others thanks to their wonderful race reports! And I hope that I have a similarly exciting report to share in 3 weeks. The knee is doing better today. It was really sensitive this morning but got better after I did my stretches and lunges. By mid afternoon I almost forgot about it.. I think I'll try to stay put until next week just to be on the safe side.

Regenerative Swim

The swim today was really fast. I swam my 750m in about 18m30s. That's pretty much a record for me. My cool down was really short since the frog kick from breast stroke was not feeling right for my sore left knee.

I diagnosed the problem on my left knee as patellofemoral syndrome or runner's knee which I had a bit of last year in the training leading up to the marathon. It's most likely an overuse injury brought on by ramping up too fast with the kilometers. I could also blame the crazy winds for making my bike commutes more intense than they needed to be. So my prescription is a short period of slowed down training where I will focus on stretching and strengthening everything around my knees.