Tuesday's double trouble

BIKE: about 26 miles in 1:25, indoors to get the 88%+ HR in the plan.
RUN: 6.2 miles in 62 mins, a struggle of a run

Yes, I admit, I rode indoors today. I haven't been doing speedwork much in July. I quit going to the time trials to save myself the long drive time and in doing so dropped really intense riding. Today I wanted to get it done. I had lots of energy from my "2 days" off--Sunday and most of Monday.

The goals were 12 mins, 9 mins, 6 mins, and 3 mins at high intensities, all 85-90%, followed by long intervals of 75%, then 70% then cool down. It was a refreshing ride that worked the legs up even if it was in the stuffy indoors. Wached LOTR:TT part 2 again. Love that movie!

By the time I finished the ride, I had to rush a shower and quick breakfast to get to work. Once there, I was feeling only somewhat OK. Tired, very tired. Not yawning tired, but lacking in imagination tired. And I was drinking Nuun'd water like crazy, but not really peeing like it. So I was a bit dehydrated too.

The end of the day rolled around and it was time to run, I knew the run would be a struggle. But I've done this so many times before--take off on a workout tired then feel fine--that I prepared for the run with no real worries. As per my rule, don't judge the outcome of a workout until 20 mins have passed.

Within the first 0.5 mile, I felt odd. My legs were like tight springs, almost the feeling you get just off the bike. Makes sense maybe, I never did stretch my legs after the bike? I stopped at a stoplight and yawned! Instead of going left to the park, I turned right to run some hills towards home. I seemed to know the run would cut short. One mile in I stopped to stretch more. My running form felt awful--wide elbows, hunched shoulders, ducky feet. 1.86 miles in I again turned towards home, now heading S on Grand. I was worried now about stepping on or off a curb in a bad way. Already my right knee's tightness was causing problems on curb step ups.

At 3.5 miles (it felt twices as long as that!!) I had the option to turn left for 0.5 miles home or go straight for some more. My goal was a 75min "easy" run. I was only 35 mins in. I had just finished reading RR's of IMWI, and had the "death march" description of the run in my head. What if this was my death march? What if this is how I felt at mile 10 of the run: unfocused, stomach pain, heavy legs, poor form, low motivation? I've done so many runs where I had the option to cut short or keep going, and it might be safe to bet that I always kept going. Why stop now? I went straight.

So while I felt awful, my body really wasn't registering it everywhere. My HR was only in the 130's, my breathing normal, my energy seemed ok. I was just out of motivation mentally? Hard to say, but I reached a point where I walked a lot more than usual. And I made it part of the run, since I usually don't walk much in a race I knew walking in IMWI would bother me. So when I walked, I thought of being in the race. Other runners would be passing me, my HR would be falling, my frustration building. I don't like to walk in races, I only do 15 second bursts of it. Here I forced a 30-60 min break pretty often. While walking, I tried unsuccessfully to figure out a specific reason for this run's fail. Wasn't all that hot out, I ate a small meal before the run, I hadn't run since last Friday. I could only come up with cumulative fatigue and recovery from Saturday. But lately it seems I'm always tired on the Tuesday afternoon runs, just look back over the past month. Maybe Saturday's ride combined with Tuesday fatigue did this.

Either way, I pushed on to a turnaround point in the park with a water fountain. The warm water only trickled out of the fountain, no cool mouthful like I needed. This did nothing for motivation. At the turnaround, I decided to run to 60 mins even, then walk home. 12 more minutes, then quit. OK, sounds good, off we go. I walked once, and focused on a slow but manageable pace. My death march pace? With 4 mins to go I started to struggle a bit more. Keep going. Nearing 60 mins, I refused to look at the time and told myself to run to the stoplight, then walk home. These little tricks work, I made it to the stoplight at 62 mins. 6.2 miles.

Once home I was too tired to think. I sat at the kitchen and blanked out. I took a shower then laid down thinking I could nap. I never fell asleep, but it did feel good to lay out and rest. Yes I'm tired. But this is Ironman. I'm supposed to be tired. Only this week, and the next week, then I taper. NOW is when I need to push into these workouts and NOW is when I learn what I can do under fatigue. So stick with it, almost there!!