Usually when I have periods of infrequent updates it’s because I’m doing so much. For once, for good or bad, that is not the case.
My AZTR DNF (Did Not Finish) has hit me really hard. Intellectually I know that sometimes you have to quit, but two weeks later and my stokedtivity levels are still unusually low. Trying not to read into it too much or draw any strong conclusions just yet. No doubt there are many lessons here to be learned- I’m just trying to get past the self-deprecating ones. It’ll come.
Also, I owe y’all a write-up from Feel My Legs. Biggest turnout AND lowest attrition rate ever! Lots of stokedness and positive feedback. Over 90% were first-time racers. What’s that say??
Hopefully this weekend I’ll get some constructive thoughts to paper and into the internets. For now, here’s a sign in Arizona about handling your business.
Could be overtraining. Overtraining is essentially training induced depression – where you hit your body so hard it moves to a lower state of functioning, and all the un-stokedness that comes with that. It usually comes over a period of weeks, but for me it definitely hit me hard after my first marathon in ’02. No reason it couldn’t be the same here, after the DNF . . . I mean, one assumes you pushed yourself damn hard.
Thanks for your thoughts Alex. I always appreciate when people think I’m over-training, it means my reputation as working hard has proceeded me. Though most often the opposite is true: I’m not training enough to feel strong and stoked. For example on Thursday I had a big commuting day and my legs were sore the next day. Crazy. Commuting. Ha.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough about what I meant. I did not mean “you started the race overtrained.” I meant that “the race itself lead you to become overtrained, and the state you’re in now is itself an overtrained state.” All the symptoms you describe, including the soreness, are symptoms of overtraining. Pushing you body to the limit in the race would be a very easy to knock yourself so far out of homeostasis, that your body would reset to a depressed state aka overtrained.