Journey to Kona Day 159: Patience

I had originally planned to ride long today.  Two things happened to change that.  The most important, we need to watch my grandson this morning, and I won't leave my wife alone to do that.  Second, I was dog tired yesterday after a bike ride that probably included more intensity than I was able to handle. In fact, I looked at my bike data from yesterday and I actually put in 16 minutes over 200 watts.  Not too big of a deal, but big enough to put me over the edge of fatigue yesterday.  This calls for patience.  It's important for me to listen to my body, and my body definitely was speaking to me yesterday.  It's always a fascinating experience to try to balance ones fatigue with training.

Fatigue comes in many forms.  Mental fatigue is a very real phenomenon.  It can not be discounted in the overall scheme of things.  It can be combined with physical fatigue, or it can exist by itself.  When it's combined, it's definitely more challenging.  I have had numerous things that give me mental fatigue for many years.  Most of these things, I choose to do, some just happen in the normal course of life.  But, the mental fatigue matters.  Physical fatigue can be more obvious.  Running 20 miles will bring about physical fatigue.  Running a 5K will cause physical fatigue.  Cycling for 5 hours will leave on fatigued.

When I woke up yesterday I felt good.  My resting heart rate was low.  My HRV was high.  The first thing I noticed on the bike was that my legs were tired, they really felt the stress of riding uphill or riding hard.  So, I rode hard anyway.  Sometimes, the feeling melts away and I get stronger.  Not yesterday.  In fact, the answer was there at the end of the day.  I was dog tired.  Patience takes priority at this point.  No hard workouts today.  Except that I am planning to swim a ton!  Of course, I won't count that, I say tongue in cheek.  It will be interesting.  I'm going to swim long with a friend who is doing an ultra swim in a week.  So long as I keep my swim effort comfortable and easy, I should be ok.  It will actually be a good test.  I'll be patient.