Burnt Out

These past two weeks have been pretty brutal in a lot of respects. Not only have they been the two hardest weeks of my marathon training (ie highest mileage), I have been getting in at least 3 P90X workouts per week and have been doing overtime at work. I also did some volunteer work on Saturday that had me on my feet for 14 hours straight and didn’t allow me to get to bed til past 1 a.m. (after waking up at 6:30 a.m. the morning after our big 18 mile run).

My Workout Schedule the Last Two Weeks

• Monday: AM – P90X Legs & Back/Ab Ripper ; PM – 45 min Turbo Kickboxing
• Tuesday: AM – 6 mile interval run; PM – P90X Chest/Shoulders/Tris and Ab Ripper
• Wednesday: AM – 9 mile mid-week long run
• Thursday: P90X Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper
• Friday: 18 mile run
• Saturday: Work 14 hours on feet
• Sunday: 5.5 mile run
• Total Weekly Mileage – 38.5 (total hours work – 58!)

 

• Monday: Legs & Back/Ab Ripper (I upped my weights to use 12s for the squats, lunges and calf raises and I swear I’m still sore 3 days later)
• Tuesday: 6+ mile interval/speed work (see blog on Yasso 800s here)
• Wednesday: AM- P90X Shoulders & Arms/Ab Ripper; PM- 4.3 mile easy run
• Thursday: AM- 10 mile medium long run; Lunch – 85 minutes of (easy) Yoga (at work)
• Friday: REST (P90X Chest & Back was scheduled)
• Saturday: 21 mile run
• Sunday: Yoga X
• Total Weekly Mileage – ~42

I had planned to do Chest and Back on Friday but I’m starting to think that my body needs so much needed REST. I have been pushing it really hard lately, intensity wise and mileage wise. I also haven’t been sleeping well lately. And I’ve been working overtime at work for the month-end close (I’m an accountant). Last night was the first night I fell asleep quickly – probably because I’m exhausted!

Benefits of Rest

I read an article today (I’ve actually blogged on this topic before but it seems more relevant now!) from Active.com about how to prevent injuries when training. Knock on wood, I have yet to be seriously injured while training for a race. The number 1 way to prevent was to take a day off. Another important one was to get enough sleep. I’ve been lacking in both lately. Also, it is mentally beneficial to take a day off. I was considering last Saturday a “day off” when in reality working 14 hours on my feet is far from a day off. I should have taken Sunday off, but I felt restless not sweating two days in a row and went for a run anyway. I’m sure my body would have thanked me and I would have had a much better training week had I taken that day off. Lesson learned.

Longest Training Run of the Season Rapidly Approaching!

We have our longest run to date on Saturday. We are running 21 miles, starting in Pacific Beach, looping through Point Loma, continuing through downtown San Diego and finishing back in Pacific Beach.  Although I felt great last week on our 18 mile run, I’m still quite nervous for this 21 miler since I have been feeling pretty exhausted lately. I’m hoping that a good night’s sleep (hopefully 9 hours) tonight will do the trick! We are meeting extra early on Saturday for the run (7 a.m. which means a 5:45 wakeup call) so there won’t be much time to make up for this week’s lack of sleep on Friday night.

I am looking forward to the confidence boost that running 21 miles will give me, but at the same time I know that we will have to run 5.2 miles more on race day! Although 5 miles has become easy for me, it’s not going to be easy after I just ran 21! I just have to trust in the fact that thousands of runners before me have run just 20-22 miles prior to the race and finished.

If you’re curious, here’s our course for the 21 miler (we’ll have to add on .5 miles): http://bit.ly/csXJJX