Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Running Patterns


I've worked out a pattern. I run a speed session on Tuesdays. My very next run is always crap. It's a simple pattern which is just as well because I swear my IQ is going down as my age goes up.

Yesterday was speed session. It was the dreaded 3, 2, 1. This is a 3k time trial followed by a 2k then a 1k. I never liked these sessions when I was running well - like them even less now. My 3k time was abysmal. The last time I did one it was 13:12. This time was a very sad 14:45 and I wasn't taking it that easy. The 2k bumped up to 10:18 and the 1k was 4:57. Demoralising, huh!! I know I shouldn't let it worry me but it's hard not to be disappointed at how slow recovery is going. It's 5 months now and I can see that Sam's estimation of between 6 months and a year really wasn't exaggeration. Has anyone out there had Overtraining Syndrome? What did you do to recover and how long did it take?

Today I had a 10k on my program. My aim was to keep my HR down to a reasonable (for me) level. I misjudged the distance of the run so only did 8.5 k but I did manage to keep my HR down to a respectable level so as far as that's concerned it was a success but it didn't feel great. I could feel my legs were fatigued so I don't think cutting it short was a bad thing.

The chickens are still unnamed. I've come up with a couple more options - The Rockettes (they have great thighs) or Thing 1 and Thing 2. It's almost easier to call them a group name because they're so hard to tell apart.

7 comments:

  1. I cannot sleep until the chickens are named!

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  2. Those are both great names for the chickens! Though I am leaning towards the Rockettes!
    Don't get to tough on yourself! You will persevere!

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  3. And yes the Ktape comes in colors. I wore blue in Boston last year.

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  4. I've never had over training syndrome and I train a lot. I just try to take plenty of off days to balance things out. I'm waiting for the chicken names!

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  5. You made me laugh reading about your trials and tribulations of trying to name your chickens. Too funny. I look forward to hearing their final names.

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  6. Done it - Over trained and the performance goes down! I now schedule a recovery day after a hard day of speedwork or hill repeats. Recovery is key (no hard runs and keep the HR very low so your body can truly recover) so you can run strong the next day. Otherwise, it turns into a death spiral. Recovery also means good sleep and eating the right food to help your body repair itself from the breakdown. We work hard to break down the body, but we often forget to work hard for recovery. Must keep this balanced to get the full benefit of our hard work.

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