Struggling with FT Intervals--The Recovery
Thought I would share my recovery time line, and some other thoughts about this process I have gone through.
Week of :
Jan 18--start drooping in workouts.
Jan 25--Drop back into major recovery phase since I can't hit FT, have to cut everything short, etc.
Feb 1--really bad shape. Can't handle much of anything, shaking my head NO at the thought of a workout, cranky, feeling this is work not fun at all, put upon by everything. You did not want to know me. Wondered if even something like clinical depression was happening, I was that off. Have some fun with the CT Central Park TT on Sat the 6th, and that helped.
Feb 8--Feeling a bit better, and start to turn the corner by mid-week. By Sat the 13th, I am riding well. Hit a TT workout at FT for 23', which was 9 watts higher than the week before. Mentally, I can fall back into burnout at a moment's notice.
Feb 15--the body starts to come around. Mentally, on the comeback trail, but not 100% yet. Still not running much at all (2x/week). Feeling very good on the bike today the 20th. Easily hit everything above FT, rode 30' @ 85%, got off feeling very pleased and wanting more. Good sign.
Observations
This is ONE MONTH of recovery. I could have pushed the body sooner, but the mentally-fried piece was very a big obstacle this time. I do not want to be into the season, get as cooked as I did, and need a whole flippin' month to come back. I have to be real, real careful--and I'm still not exactly sure where to dial it back.
Risks for Me
Now that I feel better, and the joy is returning, I feel that little piece of me wanting to dive back in 1000%. I guess realizing and admitting this is the first step to tempering myself. I hope. I really have to watch that. Since I know mentally I'm not entirely back yet, I'm taking another easy week and plan to ease into HIM training on March 1.
Issue to Work On
The other thing I am sick and tired of doing when I get too fatigued is feeling that it's all "hopeless." "I can't....I'll never come back...It's all awful and always will be, not capable...." You get the drill. At my age I would really like to stop this emotional wasteland, and will use IM training this year as a central piece of therapy to help deal with those demons. I have found IM training can really help with things like that. That focus is a silver lining from this downturn. I also have to be much more cognizant of using the tools I employ daily to keep me in a strong head space. But, man, when I go over the bell curve, these old demons reappear all too quickly.
I really enjoyed the discussion we have been having about all this, and have already learned a lot from everyone here. Thanks so much.
Comments
I've tried to pm you to check in but it either is disabled or I am. Probably me. I am very happy to see you post this and even happier that you're rebounding. It all resonates with me. The "issue to work on" can be its own sticky thread. Call it the "head thread". Back when you first posted in the OS forum that you were feeling pretty shot, you also said you had just also had a stressful week. (real stress, not training stress) I thought, hmmm....
Sharing your process here is a great thing for you to have done. Posts like this and people like you set EN apart. Thanks.
cm
Linda -
+1 on the good news that things are turning aorund, and on thanking you for sharing both the slide down and the crawl back up.
Wow! One month to get back on track sounds like going past over-reaching into over training, maybe combined with life stuff outside of training making the cliff that much easier to reach. Those demons of hopelessness are a symptom, not a cause of the "over-training", which is the good news, of course.
Like others here, I'm not interested in focusing on age per se, but getting on in years does make one think. No question that recovery and healing (physical healing, at least) take longer with advancing age. I see this every day in my medical work, and note it any time I get any minor injury, cut, or cold.
Currently, my father-in-law (the last grandparent my kids have) is in hopsice, so I am thinking a bit about the ultimate lack of healing. And seeing that maybe what we all fear, and see approaching and thus want to avoid as long as possible, is the point in time when the rate of deterioration exceeds the rate of healing.
Meanwhile, we're all following Dylan Thomas' advice.