"When you argue with reality, reality wins. But only 100% of the time"
The last posting I made on here was about 10 days after Ironman when I'd just spent a Tuesday smashing myself on a hard ride and fast run session and I felt amazing. Sadly all the articles I'd read and things people had told me about Ironman recovery did turn out to be true in my case as well as for everyone else. I wasn't anywhere near recovered and ended up being absolutely shattered for at least the following week and beyond. Sigh. And I thought I was special!
I missed the Wednesday long run because of a meeting, so decided to go out by myself, but my legs just had nothing. NO pain or muscle soreness, however my whole body just kept saying "Stop running!". I jogged / walked to Rushcuters Bay but it took me forever, then I lay on the ground for a while and limped back to the office. Thursday I took the morning off and Friday just did an easy ride and the Warrior session.
Even then I wasn pretty buggered. Did an easy 65km ride to McCarrs creek Saturday, but when I tried to go for a half hour run off the bike... well it turned out that I barely made it 2 blocks! Again, no soreness, and I can't even explain the feeling. It's something I've never had before, but basically it was like my body as a whole was just sending messages to my brain to stop running. The first couple of times I tried to override the messages using my frontal cortex. IE "Harden up you creampuff, just keep running and the body will get into it shortly".
By the time I got to the Commodore (about 3 minutes from my front door) I did some major self-assessment and realised that the messages were serious and it was time to stop. I couldn't even jog back DOWN the hill, my body just wanted to walk. Fair enough, no point arguing. Interested to note though - so that's what happens when you push too hard when you're supposed to be in recovery. I took Sunday off entirely. That was the end of Week 2 post-ironman.
The following week (Week 3) I muddled through without pushing myself, but fairly unsure of what I was supposed to be doing. The riding felt great, even pushing hard at Boundary Riders, and the swimming likewise. Running was still tough so I did barely any, although by Saturday I felt "ok I really need to do a couple of long runs at least because I've got the Wild Endurance 50km bush run in 2 weeks and the North Face 100km bush run 2 weeks after that!"
It was a hard situation - do I rest more, do I run a shorter faster session, a longer slower session, how long - 20km, 30km, more? I ended up jogging to Andrew's house and running with him and Mark (my WE team) along the Chowder Bay / Bradleys Head track out and back for 27km. Plus to run to Andy's and return would have had my up to about 34 km, but I was absolutely shuffling by the time I got home. I pulled up ok for a ride on Sunday so happy with that.
THIS WEEK.
Week 4 of IM recovery. I should be close to back to normal according to most of the things I've read. So on Tuesday I went out to the HURTS session of 8x 5min reps on an extremely hot late April day (about 28 degrees I think) and tried to keep up with Mike COnway and Dom. The first three reps felt easy enough and I was still reaching the second drain after the Mrs Macquarie's hill (so where I normally get to at my best). Good times I thought!
Rep number four my heart rate jacked up and my legs suddenly didn't want to run anymore. I dropped off the back like I was going in reverse, then after 3.5mins stopped all together to rest in the shade and compose myself. I've never done that before in a session, but I thought it was worth it to play it safe.
I jumped back on for the last 4 reps but didn't have a lot left in me, and suffered on the final 2, slowing down a fair bit. At least I had company, poor Dom was hurting as much as I was, so we kept each other going which was nice. Ah well, still not 100% yet, but I am getting a lot closer!
No comments:
Post a Comment