Okay, so I’m gonna talk a little bit about burnout, but first let me just say that even though the title of this post says “Week 5″, I started training last fall for the 3 half marathons I ran at the beginning of this year. In January I added CrossFit and swimming and then at the beginning of February I actually started mostly following this training plan, but I didn’t start sharing any of it here until after my last half marathon ended and I switched to focusing solely on the triathlon, so basically I feel like I’ve been training nonstop since about October and I feel….tired. Mentally, physically, in all ways tired. Or at least I did last week.
This week I already feel better mentally because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. One more hard week and then I get to taper and recover. I actually ended up with a weirdly long taper with an extra week since I started my plan a week early on accident, so I have a free week that I can do whatever I want with. I thought it might come in handy in case I got sick or something, but I’ve actually managed to keep up with the volume of workouts surprisingly well. It’s kind of like every day I look at what’s ahead of me and wonder how I’m going to be capable of all of that, but then I am. I don’t know why I’m still surprised by it. 
Okay, here’s how last week went down:
Mon AM: 2:30 bike + 25 min run. I know I’ve been bitching about the wind a ton lately, but it has just been so windy! We had a pretty intense headwind on the way out (like we were going 10 mph and it was hard!), but then we got a nice tailwind for most of the way home. The way out kind of did a number on our pace, but then we killed the run. Transition runs are weird. I know it’s going to be hard, so I just try to get through it and not stalk my garmin. I guess because I expect it to feel hard, I end up running hard? My first mile totally shocked me when it went off at 8:55 and then my second mile surprised me even more when it came in at 8:52! I was only expecting to have to run about 2.5 miles, but we ended up running 2.8 and it was….not easy. It was definitely confidence boosting, though! I haven’t run that fast since marathon training, and I’m finally hopeful that some of my speed is coming back.
Tues AM: Crossfit. This is where I started to notice I was feeling burnt out. I got to crossfit, then sat in my car and thought about driving home. WTF? The hardest part of a workout is usually getting out the door (for me) and I drove all the way there and seriously was debating turning around?? Of course I didn’t, but I was not feeling this workout. The warm up was 3 rounds of 30 double unders (I got 3 in a row!!! A new record!!!) and 21 kettle bell swings. I was already tired just from the warm up! Then the workout looked like it would be easy for me since it was so much running. Ummm, I came in dead last. Of the four of us that were there at that time anyway. We did 800 meter run, 400 meter run BACKWARDS (lots of four letter words happening here), 100 sit ups, 800 meter run, 400 meter run backwards, 100 squats. I finished in 23:17 and was literally sore the entire rest of the week. I don’t know what it was, but this workout killed me! It’s always the high rep body weight workouts that make me sore rather than the heavier lifting days.
Tues PM: 1 hour swim. Tuesday was just not a good day I think. My swim felt miserable. I spent the entire hour convincing myself that it would be okay if I just stopped, and then having to convince myself that it wouldn’t. My neck hurt (I can only breathe on one side…I need to work on that…), my breathing was messed up, my body ached, it just plain sucked. BUT I made it through, didn’t quit and swam 2300 yards which is a new record!
Wed AM: Crossfit. I skipped track. Shhhhh. I rarely skip workouts, but when 4:40am came, I just couldn’t do it. I did get up and go to crossfit, and I was SO GLAD I did because this day was AWESOME!
Okay, first it was really scary, but then it was awesome. I had my first legit terrifying crossfit moment. We were finding our 1 rep max for back squats, and they taught us how to bail out of a weight if necessary, but of course my first time didn’t go as planned. I had worked my way up to 185 lb and I went down, but I was trying to get lower and my lower back went forward just a little bit, but I couldn’t come back from it and the bar ended up rolling over my neck, over my head and onto the floor. The entire room stopped and everyone stared at me, and all I could say was “I’m sorry. I think I have a headache.” Then I gave myself a few minutes and tried it again. And nailed it.
Thurs AM: Crossfit. I was super sore I think from both Tuesday and Wednesday, so I wasn’t exactly looking forward to this workout, and it ended up being even harder than I expected! We had 20 min to do as many rounds as possible of 100 meter lunge / 100 meter run / 21 push ups (I still do them on my knees) / 21 kettle bell sumo dead lift high pulls (I used 35lbs). Ummm, 100 meters is a LONG WAY to lunge! Yikes. I finished exactly 4 rounds.
Thurs PM: 45 min swim. It’s amazing what a difference the day makes! Today I got in the water and felt great, and I think this was the fastest I have ever swam! I did 1800 yards in 45 minutes. That’s a full 10 minutes off the first time I swam the distance about 2 months ago!
Fri AM: 1 hour bike intervals + 10 min run. Today was pretty uneventful other than an interval at 23.1 which made me very happy! Got in almost 15 miles on the bike and 1.1 miles running. Yes, that .1 totally makes a difference when you only run for 10 minutes.
Sat AM: Long run. This run was hard and beautiful and confidence boosting! We went out with BTB to run at South Mountain.
I’d only been one other time and I had somehow forgotten how tough those hills are! I definitely had to take a couple of walking breaks on the steeper sections, but I really felt like we had a great run and we ended up running 12 miles in 2:03 which totally surprised me! There were a few miles in there that were almost 12 minutes long, but I guess we made up for it on the downhill sections and finished a lot stronger than I expected. Also, I totally thought I couldn’t do it between miles 8-10, but that’s just an other reminder that I am stronger than I think!
Not sure if we hydrated enough post run. Just 4 bottles of water, 2 G2s, a bottle of lemonade and 2 drinks from Dutch Bros…
Sun: Rest. Steve and I had a belated anniversary celebration with a perfect stay-cation in downtown Phoenix that involved zero exercise other than lifting my bourbon to my lips.
Totals:
11 hours of training, 10 workouts (my tri expert Jamie says bricks count as two!), 69 miles (17 running, 49 cycling, 4,100 yards swimming
Fav workout: BACK SQUATS!!!
Hardest workout: That mountain.
Quote of the week: “It’s uphill both ways.”