Y2 D18

Training Week 7

It feels like I've been at this longer than 7 weeks. In week 7 I injured myself twice. I now have the training trifecta (blood, sweat, and tears). This is all said in good humor. My first injury was a flesh wound on my shin and knee with some severe bruising, so it didn't really get in the way of my training at all. The second one I did yesterday on my 13-mile walk. For as much as I love exercise, my body still "hits the wall" at ten miles. Twelve was okay last week. It was pushing myself just a little bit farther than my body wanted to go and I was fine after a single day of soreness.

13 is a different story. There are a lot of factors that went into it. For example: I went out later in the day instead of at dawn, and so the intensity of the sun sapped my energy pretty fast. Because of the time of the day I was also dealing with constantly having to alter my course for the other pedestrians, bikes, and roller-blades. Another huge factor was that I walked alone yesterday, which made it way harder for me to get out of my own head when I started feeling the pain that signals an approaching "wall." I work hard to stay positive in everything I do and especially my training, but walking a distance like that alone just plain sucks.

With these factors combined I felt the proverbial wall approaching at mile six and by mile 10 I'd smacked into it pretty hard. Long story short: 13 miles in the middle of the day and without a walking partner is more than I can handle right now, and I've injured myself. I don't know the extent of it, but I'm going to take a few extra days of rest in hopes that it will fix itself if I just stay off my feet.

It's a sad ending to an otherwise great week. I've been elliptical training at home this week and I keep beating my previous record. It's a lot of fun! Getting to watch the RPM, distance, and time meters while I'm working out enables me to switch things up so I can focus on different parts of my training like cardiovascular strength or speed endurance. It gives me focus to watch those numbers, and engages my natural competitiveness. I've really enjoyed it!

Week 8 is mostly going to be recovery. In a few days I'll get some yoga in to relax and re-strengthen my injured joints, and I'll probably try some low intensity elliptical work. For the first time in a long time, my pain level is actually going to hold me back. But I'm still optimistic about week 8 being an excellent week for my training, in different ways.