So it has now been a little over three weeks since I finished Norseman. I have just under two weeks until my last race of the season, Las Vegas.
I have now come up with a "should-have" for my full distance training: I should have done more research about the post-race. I am normally a super planner and researcher, but maybe it was because I didn't want to jinx myself or take my eye off the ball so I didn't really know much about how I was going to feel after the race was over. This was (and still is!) uncharted territory for me.
I understood the importance of feeding myself nutritious food and getting plenty of sleep. With the exception of a bit of stiffness the following day, I was never in any pain. I wasn't physically exhausted. I don't think I was mentally exhausted. I felt like I was back to normal within a few days.
After about 5 days of rest, I was back to following my training, which was now mostly swims and easy recovery bike rides. Sounds pretty non-threatening...
Here is what blew my mind: despite feeling fine and my heart rate variability and resting pulse rate suggesting I was fine, within minutes of starting my workout I found I had no juice. The best analogy is to compare myself to an old cell phone. You charge it up, the display says full bars, and after pressing a few buttons, you have no battery power left. For me, this was very frustrating. I would look at my run pace or my bike speed and think, "well, this is pretty humbling." Even worse was going to our club swims -- the people I usually swim faster than were dropping me.
I guess this is going to take a while. I'm already seeing improvement in my "rebound," so that gives me hope that I will only get better and I shouldn't get discouraged. For my next Ironman, I need to be smart about scheduling races afterwards as well as planning better for the recovery stage.
Time will tell....
No comments:
Post a Comment