I signed up for Eagleman 2012 in August of 2011, and I've been freaking out ever since. I found a training plan in September - September - so that I'd know when to start training (January 23rd) and how much I'd have to train the first week (8 hours). I found and signed up for two prep races, I made sure my off-season training was sufficient to get me ready for the Official Training Plan. I've been thinking about it, strategizing my workouts and how they'll be impacted by the kids' spring sports, our spring break trip to Florida, and everything else under the sun. I've negotiated with my husband to be able to workout both days on the weekends. Lots of thinking, lots of planning, and now it's here.
Week 1
Planned: 8 total hours (1:30 swim, 3:30 bike, 3:00 run)
Completed: 7:42 hours (1:29 swim, 3:29 bike, 2:44 run)
This week was very intimidating for me - 6 days, 8 workouts, 8 hours. I've done 6 days a week for the past 2 seasons, so that's an adjustment from the off-season that I know I can handle. 8 workouts in a week is a lot for me - usually I do 6. Those double days make a big difference. I've done doubles before, but usually to accommodate a day when I can't workout, which means I get a rest day within a day or two of pulling out the double. Clearly there'll be none of that this week. And 8 hours … that's a lot for me. I've done 8 before, I think last season I had an 8:45 week, but that was where I peaked. Now I'm started at 8. Holy crap. I really hope I don't get injured.
So the week started great - Monday's are rest days. :) Kind of anticlimatic, actually, to be counting down to the Official Start Date for my Official Training Plan on January 23rd and then have it be a rest day, but thankfully I knew better than to do anything but rest - clearly I was going to need it.
The first few days were really ok - a track workout, a swim (which felt good!) and an indoor bike, another track workout. So far, so good, feeling strong … maybe this won't be too bad. Then Friday came. My morning swim was ok - a speed workout, which I haven't done in months, so not actually being speedy didn't surprise me. But by the indoor bike I knew that the increased workload had hit my legs - I just didn't have it. Don't get me wrong - I still did the 90 minutes - but I kept it in Zone 2, didn't push myself beyond what I thought I could do. I sat there on the bike with my spent legs thinking, “I still have a long run Saturday and a bike on Sunday. This is going to get ugly.”
And it did. My long run was not pretty. More specifically, the last few miles of my long run were really, really ugly. The first hour was actually ok. Not great, but better than I thought it was going to be. I was hoping to pull out an easy / Zone 2 9-10 miles. And I was mostly doing that until about mile 7, when the trail hits that long 1% grade to home, and my legs just hit the wall. I pushed through to 8.5 and then decided that there was nothing gained in forcing my legs to keep going when they were clearly done. I'm hoping this is just an adjustment, and that in a few weeks my long runs will be better. If not, I'm in trouble.
Thankfully I only had a 50 minute ride left for Sunday, and that was actually doable. Not sure how, since my legs were exhausted all day Saturday. Maybe that chocolate milk recovery drink really did help? I'm definitely not opposed to continuing with that nutrition plan.
So now - I'm done! I did it! Well, I did week 1. But that feels like a huge accomplishment. Now I have almost 48 hours off. I'm hoping that I'll feel refreshed and ready come Tuesday morning. We'll see. Two more weeks till my “recovery week” - my goal right now is just to make it there.