I emailed my coach yesterday after writing my blogs for the past two days. I also looked back at the titles of my blogs over the last week and it really stood out that something was going on. My dad emailed me that he was concerned after reading my blogs over the past three days. What’s going on? Am I overtrained? Should I be concerned? Am I pushing myself too hard? Why?
The answer came to me the moment that my coach noted that based on the data it seems that I have been overreaching. There’s a big difference between overtraining and overreaching, although too much overreaching could easily lead to overtraining. I’ve been overreaching my whole life. I’ve written about that many times before. I love to set the bar higher than I can actually achieve. I intend to go to Kona and give it my best. I’ve written about that a bunch. I’m feeling that more than ever. I’m also feeling like I’m fitter than I’ve ever been and capable of more than I’ve ever been capable of. That’s what overreaching is all about. You push yourself, then you recover. You push some more, and then you recover some more. The key element that my coach noted is that my workouts have all been solid. If I were overtrained, I’d be pushing without positive results. With that said, I could be one workout away from dong that. That’s what I need to pay attention to.
As low I felt two days ago, I was already feeling better yesterday. I went for a walk and did a 20 minute swim. My swim reminded me of how much I’ve improved, and how, no matter what comes from my Kona training, I have found something in my swim stroke that I’ve never had before. My form feels locked in, and I really want to work hard to secure the muscle memory for the future. For that reason, I’ll try to get in the water as often as possible, even if I don’t put in a ton of volume every day.
I’ve written a lot about recovery, and that is equally, if not more important than the hard workouts right now. With that said, I feel like I have a few more “overreaching” workouts left in me before I begin tapering for Kona. It’s not that I have anything to prove. I’m just testing my body in order to see what it can do. So far, it’s responded positively. Despite my emotional ups and downs in the past week, my workouts have been solid. It’s definitely part of the journey, but as both my coach and my dad reminded me, it’s time to show a bit of caution.
Kona is six weeks from tomorrow. I feel like I have a few more long bike rides in me, and I still have a goal of doing 10 loops over my 11.2 mile, 850 feet of climbing, course in my neighborhood I’ve done 8 loops, 7 loops and 5 loops. I’ve done several 5 plus hour rides. I’d set my sights on 10 loops, which would be ~112 miles with 8500 feet of climbing, and should take me about 8 hours. That will be the pinnacle, if I can get there. It’s my carrot. If I get there, great! If I don’t, the effort trying will be of great value. If I feel good tomorrow, it would be a great time to hit this goal, if not, I will try again the following weekend.
My run is as locked in as it can be, but I feel like I have a couple more 20 milers left in me prior to Kona. I’m setting this upcoming Wednesday for the first one, as it will have been 10 days since my last one. Then, in 10 more days I’ll be 4 weeks out from Kona, and it will be time for my last long run.
So, while I will continue to overreach, I really only have a couple of more weeks and a few more chances to do so. I’ll pay close attention to how my body responds. If it rebels, shuts down, resists any of these workouts, I’ll rest. If I’m able to handle them, I’ll rejoice in doing so. At the end of the day, it’s still all about the journey. It’s about the exploration of what the human body can do. I’ll continue to learn from overreaching. It’s what I do.
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