15 March 2007
Feeling a little funky… and not in a good way!
Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Cycle; Fitness; Flexibility; Friends; Ironman; Marathons; Run; Strength Training; Stretching; Swim; exercise; fixed gear; fixie; single-speed; sports injuries; triathlon.
If it was some deep soulful bass riffs pounding through my head… maybe a little Bootsy Collins or maybe some Miles Davis, that would be cool… but nah, it’s something else… something that makes me feel like saying “wah wah”. I’ve been in a funk the last couple days. Maybe it’s stress… probably… maybe I’m coming down with something… let’s hope not… maybe it’s over training… I don’t think so, but then again denial is the first sign of over training… hmmm… so what do you do, when you’re in the middle of a big training week and you feel blah?
So what are my symptoms? Well, I first noticed something on Tuesday night. Tyler came over for our strength training session. I didn’t know what he had planned, but I suspected he’d want to do the “killer back workout” again… and I didn’t feel like it… sure nuff’… that’s what he was up for. He’s convinced if he does this workout enough it’ll make his shoulders nice and broad and give him more of a “V” shape, and it will obscure his gut. Hey, T, put down the beer! That will help you with your gut. Jeez… ok, ok, I like hanging out with him and lifting, but I just didn’t feel like I had it in me. My sets were weak, and I didn’t have as much fun as the week before.
Then yesterday, I went for a swim. I rode my bike down to the gym (11minutes of commuting), and had planned to swim for 30minutes or if I got in a groove longer; then I’d go for a 90minute bike ride afterward. Kind of a little swim/bike brick. By the way, why don’t people do more swim bike bricks? And why aren’t they called bricks when you do them? I asked a more serious triathlete this question once (what you say, there are more serious triathletes than you Zappo?, uh, yeah!)… their answer was something like, the swim to bike transition is just not that significant other than gear changing technique, and so you might practice your T1, but there really isn’t an impact on your bike from doing a swim before hand. Hmmm… that just doesn’t make sense to me… so I do swim/bike bricks too.
Anyway, the point is, I biked down to the gym, no big deal… then I got in the water, and started swimming. And my knee felt a little funny. What? My knee felt funny swimming? Yeah… it was weird… I actually stopped a couple times and tried stretching and shaking it out. But I just felt bleh. I swam for 25minutes… did some TI drills, and swam so easy laps, but basically it was kinda a lame workout. In my mind, this was ok, because I planned 4 swim sessions this week, and figured that I can make up the effort on Friday or Sunday.
When I got back on my bike it was cold, and I wanted to get some work done, so I decided to bail on my longerish bike ride. Again, in my mind, I’ve planned a 50mile ride this weekend, plus another couple shorter (20mile) rides this week, so I figured, eh, I’ll have plenty of training this week… take a slightly longer way home, round it out to 45mins for the day, and save yourself for later in the week.
This morning, my wife and I attended our first grader’s “50 States Report Presentation”. Each first grader had prepared a report on a different state, and they each read the reports out loud to a group of parents. This is the “dress rehearsal” for when they present their reports to the entire lower school (K-5). After their reports, we went down to the music room where they sang three “geography songs” including “Fifty Nifty United States” and “Wakko’s America” which includes every state capital. It was quite a show. Why do I mention this, well… the plan was to go down to the school as a family with my bike on the bike rack, and then afterward my wife would stay and volunteer at the school and I’d ride my bike home.
So my plan for today was: 1 hour bike this morning, 40min run this afternoon, 30min of strength training this evening, and 15minutes of stretching after the bike and run. I ended up taking a longer bike ride, 1 hour 40 minutes, and I did a nice 29mile loop with some moderate hills. I felt really good and averaged just under 18mph. But my knee was tweaking a little just like swimming yesterday.
Also I tried to push myself near the end of my ride and found I didn’t have the “will” to go for it. Near the end of my ride, where I have this steady 5 mile, 1% grade toward my house, which is on some notoriously bad pot holed and root busted trail, I tried to visualize the last 12 miles of my Ironman. I wanted to push my average from 17.8mph to more like 18.5mph. I should have been able to do it… I wanted to have some fodder to write about how visualization can be a powerful performance tool (more on that some other day)… but alas, after I got to 18mph… my brain said “that’s fine, no need to push more… you get a negative split, but nothing else…” What? Who’s the boss here? My heart? or my brain? I say my Heart Damnit! But alas… my heart wasn’t in it either!
As if that wasn’t enough… this afternoon, I was planning on doing a quick tempo run while my youngest daughter was at music class. I dropped her off at class, slipped on my running shoes, and headed down the block. About 200yards later, I just stopped. I didn’t want to push it. My knee was still tweaking, and I just didn’t have it. Now I’m dreading seeing Tyler tonight because I am just certain he’s going to give me a hard time about not pushing myself hard enough.
Ok ok ok… I know what you’re all thinking… DUDE!!! Over training!!!!!
Maybe, and so I’m definitely going to give myself a chance to recover. But I also think there may be a different issue. I think my knee is really bugging me. I think I did something on my bike… maybe trying to resist against the fixed gear. I also think that maybe might seat is too low, and something in my training has pushed me into a zone where now that low seat is causing my knee to be bothered. And so this could explain the knee problem. And I think the issue of “will power” is a case of stress; and I need to find a way to release the stress.
4 Comments so far...
Feeling a little funky… and not in a good way! « ZappoMan.wordpress.com - Fitness Blog Says:
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Eric Says:
Well they say fixed gears can rip up your knees if you are trying to slow down on them.
I think you’re just in a classic funk. I get these once and awhile, it’s usually combined with eating the wrong food, not getting enough sleep, and something else in your life (ie work/relationships/etc) not going perfectly well. It just seems to snowball and rear it’s head when you try to exercise.
Plus you’re probably overtraining :).
Solo Rafiki Says:
And from the spiritual side….
An injuried knee would imply either yourself or your partner is not being supportive enough…
I had a patient a while ago who came to see me, complaining bitterly about her knees tweaking.
I told her she could tell me how her husband was letting her down.
She looked stunned but told me - and then told him.
Knee problem gone.
(just consider me your little freaky commenter to give you that ‘other’ view 
)
- Solo xx
lifeslilfairy Says:
It sounds very much like overtraining to me. Happened to me around Xmas time after a 160km cycle challenge. I had to take a good long break in the end in order to replenish my energy. Every time I started working out again I got sick in the end.
I would recommend you take a week or two off and you will be surprised how strong you come back.
BTW loving your blog. Just found it and frankly Im impressed.
