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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Overtraining






OK.
Yesterday after my 102 mile bike ride I felt great!
Today I was exhausted!

Tired, dehydrated, and HUNGRY....



I kept going down to the cafeteria to find more protein - hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese, etc... I couldn't get enough!

I had forgotten my diary.

For 5 years now during biking season I kept notes in the Carmichael Training Systems Cyclists Diary.
It's more than how far and how fast you go each day.

It has you track your resting pulse, weight, mood and sleeping pattern.

Because over-training is more common among cyclists than under-training.








(Alex may be an exception)









You realize you are overtraining when your pulse rises, you drop weight unexpectedly, you're irritable, can't sleep.




Then, back off.

I tell you, the hardest thing to do is to get us type-A personalities to relax.

I tried today.
After work I was going to go out to The Land, sit in a lawn chair, read a book and listen to the birds.




But when I got home I saw the front flower beds needed weeding.

So I knelt down to pull out a weed.
And then another...
...and another.

There went my whole evening.





I ran out to The Land just in time to catch the sunset.

Maybe I'll relax tomorrow.

6 comments:

KC SW said...

You should learn from Koda how to relax =) not Marsh since she is always excaping! good puppies =D

Mark Koltz said...

Helen -- Your blog reads like a blog ... I so enjoy it. I need to find more time for mine! I am like 3 weeks behind! Off day tomorrow, maybe I will finally catch up.

JK said...

Helen..you will be well trained at the rate you are going at it....impressive. Myself and another past president of the Finger Lakes Land Trust did "coast to coast for conservation" in 2008. ONE thing in your PR really caught my eye. The Port Authority will CLOSE the Blue Water bridge at Port Huron while you cross??? Kudos on getting that done. We took the funky ferry down river at Marine City. I rode around lake Huron last year and they wouldn't let us ride across that time either. We also meet with LT's along the route but getting there for pre-arranged meetings on time was next to impossible for us. We did raise $40K mostly from our members here in the Finger Lakes of NY.
Good luck with the training. Our trip was our first "tour" and I am hooked on touring.
I'll follow your progress.

Jim

Unknown said...

Thanks Jim. I'll welcome your advice on training, preparing, etc...
We are wimps - we're going with a group, America by Bicycle. They carry our luggage and coordinate meals, accommodations, etc... I can't imagine doing it without them!
They are also pulling the strings to get the bridge closed for us. We do take a ferry across Lake Michigan. Did you?

Emily said...

Following up on Jim's comment--I am the Land Trust staff person who helped coordinate things on the home front while they were pedaling away. It was such a great trip and project! They blogged about it too, and the blog is still up if you want to have a peek http://www.fllt.org/blog/
Its a fun read. Good luck on your journey and thanks for being an amazing friend to land conservation!

Unknown said...

Thank you, Ji,. Yes, I've read about your wonderful adventure. I plan to be cautious about over-promising my amount of actual contact with the local land trusts since there are so many variables in my schedule.

America by Bicycle is our tour company - they organized the bridge crossing. Kudos to them!

I am most concerned about the mountains. Being from Indiana elevation change is unfamiliar to me.