Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Spinning; partial fartlek

I was going to entitle this "fartlek fail", but I am trying to be more positive and talk to myself the same way I'd talk to a friend. Cognitive therapy has its benefits :).

First, yesterday I went spinning. I was VERY careful this time and had an ave HR of 137 for the workout. I didn't go over 150 except for once for about 15 seconds. I was super cautious. Garmin data here. 

Last night I turned off my lights at 8:35 pm and I slept until 5:35 am, 9 hours. I felt good when I woke up. I say all this to show that I did everything possible to take it easy on myself and feel good for today's 8K fartlek, which I was very apprehensive about doing given what's been going on this week. But I figured I was feeling better and could do it.

I warmed up and felt so-so, doing my 1600m plus strides in 10:10 but not feeling terribly energetic. I didn't feel bad, though. I was wearing a brand-new pair of NB1400 shoes (my current fave model) and felt ready to go.

I started the fartlek conservatively, knowing I had 8K to go. I did 2:52 and 2:54 for the first 1km and felt OK. Then for the 500m medium effort I did 3:07, and that felt all right too. The next 500m hard was a 2:55, and I think the wheels were starting to fall off. By the medium effort 500m (3:11), I knew it wasn't good. My legs had some weird soreness and I just didn't feel right. I wasn't sure if or when I should stop, but I told myself I'd know and to not worry about it. The next hard 500m was in 2:58, taking me to 3km in 17:58. My legs really hurt. I stopped. I reconsidered. I rested a minute and did 200m medium effort in 1:16, and called it quits when my legs hurt more. Garmin data here. HR was in the low 160s, which seems normal, and all that felt fine. It was just my legs, not my breathing or cardio.

My legs really bothered me today at work, sitting at my desk working on a power point for lab meeting tomorrow (I'm presenting data). So now, after work, I'm at home at my kitchen table trying to figure things out. I am SO frustrated. I am ready to throw in the towel for a while. I know overall I'm still getting better, but maybe I should just wait and let my body recover 100% before I try to train more? But on the other hand, there is a club 1hr postal in 2 weeks that I *really* want to do, plus a half marathon in March I want to do, and besides that, I miss racewalking the long ones and would love to do a marathon or 50K again. ARRRRRGHHHHHHH.

But my legs hurt. I am mentally not 100% due to some factors that I can't make public on the blog. Plus it's going into winter and I'm definitely feeling that. Dark and cold are approaching. I just don't feel good, and feel I don't have any energy to put into training right now.

So, I do want to do it, and I don't. I'm divided. It's creating more stress not knowing what I should do. I've worked so hard to come back as far as I have, I had a good race 10 days ago, and I'm not sure I'm ready to give up. But I can't seem to put a good workout together. Oh, and add in that I'm struggling big-time with my weight and eating right, and I am worried about putting more energy in there. And Christmas is coming. And I'm a mom. And I have to run choir practice at church. And make sure the laundry gets done and that we have healthy food on the table. And work is demanding, even if I like it.

RANT! RANT! RANT!

Rant over. Not sure I feel better, but I got it out there. So much for being positive, and cognitive therapy, etc. :)

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