Nicki and I have modeled our training for Ironman Louisville after the guidance of Joe Friel and Don Fink, who wrote the Triathlete’s Training Bible and Be IronFit, respectively. Both have decades of experience in competition and coaching, and we highly recommend the reading for triathletes of any level.
One of the common tenets that both authors preach is “When in doubt, leave it out.” Essentially that means that training for triathlon, especially the Iron distance, requires a concerted, planned training attack, and there are very few workouts that can be missed for optimal success. However, make sure to listen to your body. It is better to stop when you notice fatigue in order to allow your body to recover enough to continue rather than to ignore the signs of fatigue or injury, keep going, and then really mess things up.
I resolved as I began my training four weeks ago that when in doubt, I’d leave it out. I just didn’t expect to have doubts so soon. As I’m writing this entry (Sunday), I’m currently fighting the urge to go out and do my 60-minute Zone1 to 2 run scheduled for today. But I’ve been laid up since Saturday, when I started to feel chills 45 minutes into a 90 minute Zone 2 bike ride. By the time we got home, I was shivering badly — there was a sub-40 wind chill after all. When I took my temperature, I discovered I had a 100.2-degree fever. I took a hot shower, got in bed and slept for a few hours.
Did I mention that Saturday was my 31st birthday? We cancelled dinner plans, ate leftovers, watched six episodes of Arrested Development Season 2, and I went to bed at 9:15 p.m. I’m a real party animal, I know. After another 11 hours of sleep, I’m feeling better today. I skipped church, but I did laundry and made some adjustments to my bike. No fever, no nausea, no upset stomach. I’ll probably take another nap after lunch.
But I really want to go run. I mean, what could it hurt? Well, that’s the thing. I don’t know. I’m feeling better, and the weather is warmer, but raising my heart rate for a significant amount of time could derail my recovery from whatever mild illness I had. Honestly, I was probably just fatigued. The feverishness was reminiscent of times when I was in college when I would get sick during finals. If I made sure to get serious sleep shortly thereafter, I was as good as new. Work has been really draining, especially last week. I’m taking a grad-level course at James Madison University, which had a paper due last Wednesday and a mid-term next week, and I’m conjuring up ideas about how to raise money for Journey Counseling Ministries. All that on top of my first four weeks of Ironman training, the most ambitious athletic goal I’ve ever set.
Now I’m tired again.
You might say I need more tortoise and less hare. I’ve been getting warning signs all week. A Journey board member. A good friend. Both telling me they fear I’m going to burn myself out before I get anywhere. I’m so consumed and in such a hurry to get established professionally that I forget to take care of myself and listen to my body and heart.
It is for this concept of slowing down to a more sustainable effort that I picked up endurance sports in the first place. Focus more on the process than the finish line. Cooperate rather than compete. Know your own limits and swim, bike, run, work love, play within them.
Monday starts another week, and I’ll head into this one well rested and with the understanding that I’m only as established as I can be. No more, no less. I don’t have to know it all; I don’t have to have it all. The truth is that I don’t. Far from it. That frame of mind is a more sustainable place from which to come.
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