Too Much of a Good Thing?

I like working out. A lot. It takes my mind off of pretty much everything else except the task at hand, whether it be biking, running, strength training or Muay Thai.

Last weekend I completed the Chicago Half Marathon. The whole next week while I was in Dallas my legs ached like never before. The cumulative workload had finally taken its toll.

The previous weekend I had done a crushing 100 mile bike ride on big hills.

I have never really felt fatigue like last week. I had trained like a madman to do well in the ride and half marathon, but did all of that training on top of my usual Muay Thai and strength circuits. After a week of thought I believe that it was simply too much. My body was so sore and my weight down pretty low. Athletic and lean, but too small for my frame.

I will probably never try to train for two big events at once again. I didn't do any cardio at all last week, and am skipping going to the gym tonight as I still need more rest. I will go back in Wednesday for strength and MT.

There may not be another half marathon in my future either. I am 100% certain that I will never run a marathon, although I certainly could. To train for it properly I would have to drop something - that something would be my gym time and that would eliminate strength training and MT. That is not going to happen as I enjoy those so much and would miss my dysfunctional gym family.

All of this sounds grim, but it is really good that I learn to hear what my body is telling me. I think that until the holidaze are over I will just do small five mile runs on the treadmill or 45 minutes to an hour on the bike trainer. If it is nice outside I will limit my bike rides to 40 miles or so. In reality my body needs probably several months to recover from what was an immense amount of running, biking, strength training and MT. I just did too much. Not that I couldn't handle it, but wowzers, I am pooped.

Last time I tried to remember, I entered and completed eight events this year (runs, duathlons and rides). That is a LOT for me.

So what will next year bring me? Hard to say. I know what I am capable of, but need to chill for a few months and get myself together a bit. I don't think that I will do anywhere near the amount of events next year that I did this year. I toyed with the idea of learning how to swim properly and entering some triathlons, but I really liked the duathlon that I did and am leaning that way. Not huge distances, but shorter ones where I can go full out the whole way.

Time will tell. But for now I need to keep eating like a pig and put on another 5-10 pounds or so. That should be no problem as eating is my favorite sport.