2nd Week of Marathon training down

Well I have almost completed 2 whole weeks of training for the Disney Marathon and my legs are really hurting now. My schedule has basically been run every other day, skate 2 days, swim 2 days, and try to work in a day of cycling. The last week included two 3 mile runs, a 4 mile run and two 5 mile runs. I was able to actually swim 2 times and I rode my bike tonite for the first time since the Georgia Veterans Triathlon, 1.5 months ago (which was a bit of a struggle to say the least. More on that later).

The best news is that I have been keeping my heart rate around the 150 mark in all of my runs. Although my times are a bit lacking, I feel that this is best way for me to train right now for the long run. Here is a list of the last weeks accomplishments:

Mon 22nd - Ran 5 miles - Time 52:16 - Heart rate 155
Tues 23rd - Ran 4 miles - Time 35:18 - Heart rate 158
Tues 23rd - Swam 1K - Time 36:00 - Heart rate 144
Wed 24th - Skated in door practice for 2 hours
Sat 27th - Ran 3 miles - Time 30:52 - Heart rate 149
Mon 29th - Ran 5 miles - Time 55:36 - Heart rate 151
Tues 30th - Cycle 26 miles - Time 1:25 - Heart rate 151

Yesterday's run was very hard for me for some unknown reason. The only thing that I did different (that I can think of) is I didn't eat a banana 2 hours before my run. My calves started cramping (or something like that) within the first mile. Not exactly a good start to a 5 mile run. So around mile 1 I had to stop running and walk for a couple hundred yards until my calves stopped hurting. I started running again and had to do the same thing around mile 3. After that I basically forced myself to just run through the pain and to my amazement it finally went away around mile 4. So overall I had a slower time than my previous 5 mile run on the same course. I actually thought about continuing my run past 5 miles, because the cramping was gone, but decided that I better quit while the getting was good.

Today's bike ride was almost as bad as yesterdays run. I haven't ridden since the Triathlon on August 13, and felt that it was about time that I did. I felt that I needed to do something instead of running. I thought that cycling just might help stretch out my calves. So I decided to ride today with what I call the BIG BOYS. We have basically 4 different groups of cyclist that ride on different days starting with the Cat 1 or beginners and ending with Cat 4, the pros or big boys as I call them. So they are planning to ride out the River Walk to Fort Benning and back, about 30 miles if they go all of the way around the airport. I figured that I am strong and could hang with them even though I haven't ridden in a while. Boy was I wrong!!! I started out towards the front of the pack, 3rd position, and actually led for a short while. Then I decided to drop back and let someone else do the pulling. Well I dropped back alright and went all the way to the back and got dropped off of the back around mile 5. That really sucked!!! I looked down and thought that my cyclometer was acting up when I saw 28.1 miles per hours! And we were on a flat too. I was doing everything I could to stay on the back but they just kept pulling away from me.

Oh well, no catching them now, or so I thought. However I was able to catch them around mile 6 only because they had stopped to wish a fellow rider a happy birthday. So they offered us some cake and ice cream but we had to go because we had to get back before dark. So we start back again and I attempt to stay close to the front again, but ended up more or less around the middle of the pack. Which was ok with me. So we start up the big long hill into Fort Benning and I know that Terry is going to get dropped on the hill. So I talk to him and tell him that I am struggling and that I will wait for him at the top of the hill and we can ride together if they don't wait for us. Which is exactly what happened. So we continue on and Terry says that he isn't going to make it and that he is going to turn around at the next stop sign. I tell him that I am going on and will see him tomorrow. I was hoping that I would have a good ride and maybe meet up the the other guys on the way back. Well this never happened and I finished the ride by myself.

To my surprise Terry was still at the parking lot when I got back. He said that he had been talking to some of the guys and was getting a little concerned about me. I never saw the other guys and they had already returned and most were already packed up and leaving. I don't know how far they rode or which way they went, but somehow they made it back before I did. Anyway, it was a pretty good ride for me even though I couldn't hang with the big boys today.

So in summary of the last 2 days (the pain of it all), I feel that it is fatigue and maybe over training and maybe a little bit of lack of proper nutrition to boot. More to come...