Half Ironman Training: Week #14
The quality of my workouts and the strength of my training discipline have a huge impact on my mood. When I’m committed to my plan, focused on my purpose and determined to do what I say I’m going to do, my spirits are lifted. I’m happier. Everything around me feels good.
When I’m less committed, when I make excuses, when unmanageable obstacles get in my way, I admitedly feel depressed. I feel disappointed in myself and frustrated. And typically the only person to blame is, well, me.
After coming off a great training week covering 104 miles and having my longest and fastest ride of the season, this past week is enough to send me into a dark hole, dress in black for the next 5 days and shut down my blog for fraud. Why? Because what should have been an intense week of training turned into only 3 days of workouts covering just 28% of the previous week’s mileage with a few excuses and some laziness thrown in.
The thought of even sharing this week’s half Ironman “training recap” with you makes me want to crawl under my computer and hide. I’m disappointed in myself. I’m embarrassed by my lack of training. But this is real life.
Like I always say (although way too often lately), we have to let go of the bad days and weeks. We have to commit to doing better and being better tomorrow and the next week. I can’t change the past, but I can control the future. I’m going to look at last week as a nice little rest and am going to be ready to kill it this week. With 7 weeks to go until the Beach2Battleship Half Ironman, today is my day to be all in. All of my summer traveling is behind me and I’m ready to stop juggling my personal commitments and training like a Cirque du Soleil performer mastering 4 balls while standing on a hire wire on one leg.
Here’s what my week looked like. Now erasing from my memory and moving on.
Monday
REST
I took a rest day after a tough week #13. The previous Saturday I ran 10.5 miles and swam 1.24 and then biked 50 miles and ran 3.6 on Sunday. The rest was a nice welcome. Too bad there was way more rest involved during this week than just on Monday!
Tuesday
I chose to sleep in instead of swim and bike before work. Strike #1.
After work I went to a Mumford and Sons concert where my only activity involved drinking 3 beers (strike #2), eating a hamburger and fries (yes, this is getting worse by the second … strike #3) and singing (quite terribly) along to the songs (and I’m out!).
Wednesday
Rode 18.5 miles of intervals on the trainer with 7 x 3-minutes as fast as possible with 3 minutes of recovery between each. An easy spin book-ended the workout. Total time was 1:15.
Thursday
Ran 4.5 miles on the treadmill with 4 intervals of 3 minutes at 6:53 pace with 3 minutes of recovery between each.
I followed my run up with a short 1,500-meter swim. Since I was strapped for time, I eliminated my drills and kicks and shortened my second set:
• 300-meter warm up
• 7 x 100 meters at a moderate pace with 5 seconds of recovery between each
• 4 x 50 meters at maximum speed with 45 seconds of recovery between each
• 300-meter cool down
Later that day, I hopped on a plane to Connecticut for the rest of the weekend to attend a friend’s wedding. Although it’s easy to find time while traveling to run, swimming and biking long have been an intense challenge for me this summer while on the road. Thankfully, this was my last big weekend trip before race day.
Friday
Ran 5.41 miles around a beautiful reservoir in West Hartford, Conn., with Mr. rUnladylike. Unfortunately for me, I had a terrible run and had to let Mr. rUnladylike proceed without me after the first 3.5 miles (this seems to be a trend when we run together). We went out at a 7:52 pace, and needless to say I finished a lot slower. My average time was 8:27/mile, but I felt terrible the last 2.5 miles … like I had nothing left in the tank.
After the run, we did a 10-minute strength training workout that was 5 rounds of 10 push-ups, 20 sit-ups and 20 squats with no rest.
And that’s where my training ended.
On Saturday, I attempted to find a gym that I could ride on a bike for 2 hours. However, the 2 local gyms opened at 7 a.m., and I had wedding festivities beginning at 8:45 a.m. It simply wasn’t physically possible for me to do anything. So instead I did a lot of dancing on Saturday night, followed by some eating and drinking and more dancing. And yes, cake was involved!
Sunday was a travel day back to Atlanta. We arrived home around 7 p.m. and although I had planned to ride on the trainer when we returned, I just didn’t have the mental energy or desire. Instead, I ate dinner and watched movies and TV with Mr. rUnladylike. You can smell an excuse when you see one, can’t you?
It wasn’t the best week. In fact, it may have been my worst training week in the last 14 training weeks. But it happened. It’s over. And it is fueling me to make week #15 the best one yet. Ready, set, go!
How do you mentally move on from a bad training week? Does the quality of your training affect your mood?
Comments
It’s okay! Like you said, put it behind you and move on! There’s plenty of hay in the barn, and come race day it won’t be what you’re thinking about. On another note, that wedding dress is insane in the most amazing way possible. I’ve literally never seen anything like it, and not in just a figure of speech type of way. How beautiful! Glad you had a fun weekend!
I just know that life happens! You had a great time and looked beautiful! The body won’t complain about rest and you deserved it!
It’s hard not to let an off week of training get to you. Whether it’s life happening ro injury or illness, it’s hard- as athletes I believe our moods are definitely tied to our training. After being sick all last week and basically dropping one of my last peak weeks of marathon training it was definitely getting me down. But now I am ready to press on.
You looked awesome in the wedding photos, and you are a great athlete. You will move forward and those feelings from having a “bad” training week will help push you through this week… you’ve got it!
I know how frustrating it is to lose motivation and have life get in the way of training. But, you said you’re done traveling until the Ironman (holy crap! Ironman!!! Awesome!!!), so that should help you stay on track. And if you could do last week’s mileage, you can get yourself back into it. One day at a time. You can do it.
PS. Loved your dress and shoes!
sometimes life happens and we all have those weeks. The great news is your consistency will overshadow this one “low” week. This quote “When I’m less committed, when I make excuses, when unmanageable obstacles get in my way, I admitedly feel depressed.” really resonated with me and my training too. Don’t be discouraged and be positive 🙂
Jessica, sometimes learning that a key part of training is being flexible enough to be able to juggle real life with your training and knowing it’s OK without beating yourself up over it.
Also, it was Mumford & Sons & all 3 strikes were totally worth it!
You’ll be back on track before you know it!
Pretty much like all the other comments, I think life has to come first. A wedding is a very special time and you just gotta do what you you gotta do. What a beautiful wedding dress as well! So pretty.
Ahhh Mumford and Sons. I love them!! Their music is amazing. Totally worth it I’d say 🙂
We all have off weeks. Just take it as a rest week, and come back stronger 🙂
And I love your dresses!
Now that you are done traveling for a while, I predict that things will go great as you finish up your last few weeks of training!
My husband is from CT, not too far from Hartford. That area is working hard on building a lot of new bike paths. They are so nice!!
Also, I love your dress. Beautiful!
I had a couple of off weeks due to injury and it stunk for sure! But, just like you, I brushed my shoulders off and kept pushing. The thing is – we’re human — therefore flawed and won’t have great weeks all the time. Upside is you now have the chance to kill it this week! 🙂
I had a crappy week of training this month too. I was out of town two weekends in a row and in between all the traveling was my birthday, so it was a pretty hectic time. I bounced back from my bad week by scheduling training “dates” with friends the next week, so there was no getting out of them! Went to a boot camp class with one friend, spin class with another friend, biked with friends to go get lunch, and enlisted the boyfriend for a long run partner and his sister for a race partner for my weekend runs. Everything got done and I got to spend time with people I love! I also kept the big picture in mind- if you’ve been getting the work done, missing a few workouts because of “life” isn’t going to make or break your race. You should be proud of all the work you have gotten done!
Great job Whitney! I definitely think making training dates is a GREAT idea. It keeps us accountable to follow through with our training. Awesome work!
I agree with all of the other comments. Life gets in the way and you just have to brush it off and kill it the next week. Your friend’s wedding was a priority and like you, I always find it impossible to swim and bike while traveling. You will do great in your race and this week will be a distant past in your memory. Needless to say, I also find it hard to not beat myself up over off training weeks. But I just move on. I have also learned to pad in two extra weeks of training so that if I have a bad week (kids are sick, etc.), I just try to repeat that week. Good luck with the rest of your training. And that dress looked amazing!
Thanks for your encouragement and support, Angie! I love the idea of building in 2 padding weeks. Great idea 🙂