On the edge

I have to admit it now. I've overdone it. All that denial has come home to roost, and I have to swallow my pride and admit I was wrong. My legs have no spring in them at all and there are a few other over-training signs creeping in, so I'm going to take a couple of days off. Monday should probably have given me a big clue, when something popped in my thigh. My coach and I jointly agreed it was The Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve being caught on the Inguinal ligament. Well that's what he said and I went along with that. From my perspective it just felt like someone had plugged my thigh into an electricity socket, and I jumped higher than I had the entire night! I'd been doing a one to one conditioning set, with a lot of lunges when the thigh popped, but if it was that nerve thing it was OK to carry on. So we did, although I was pretty nervous about it. The coach was happy that I just ploughed through and me? Well I'm an athlete belonging to the old school - "ignore it and it will go away". My friend Chris once went half a season with an injury, refusing to go to a doctor or physio because he knew - we  all knew - that the diagnosis wouldn't be good and he would be told not to compete. So he went through to the season end, training and racing, gritting his teeth, before he had it seen to. But Chris is tough - really, really tough. I'm not that tough, but I still wanted to train through this, so I went to the Performance Cycling class with the idea of testing it out. I told the long-suffering Jo: "I'll just spin easily, give it a bit of work and finish early then see how it reacts". She didn't believe me, at all. I would not let her get any medical stuff, as I didn't want to mask it, and she wasn't very pleased. I went to the cycling, warmed up and felt fine. I got through the first set no problem and basically did the full 90 minutes, hard as ever. We finished with the 5 mile time trial, and once again I raced it like it was my last, increased my wattage output average over last week, improved my time, and (again, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it's important to me) came home first, and very pleased with myself. No reaction, so I did swimming on Wednesday and then went out to do run sets on Thursday with Chris and Chloe from work. I really love running with them, because they are so enthusiastic and it's good to see them make some real progress. We did 3 * 3K sets at race pace, which for me is just a tad over 7 minute mile pace. Chloe is a little slower and Chris inconsistent, so he can run faster than me for one or two but then struggles. He'll learn. That's what this session is all about, setting and keeping a pace, and I have practiced that loads so I can dial it in even on a night like this, when I'm feeling dreadful. Just grit it out. So despite feeling heavy legged, I still did my race pace. The only difference between this session and last weeks was what I was feeling inside. I really felt tired, but you wouldn't know from my garmin readout. Chloe did her normal strong run, and Chris again showed his speed but also his inexperience. I'm hoping to help him become a very good triathlete, he certainly has the potential.
That evening, I knew I was close to, if not in, overtraining state. I felt exhausted, and I wanted rubbish food. I could barely drag myself up to bed and, once there, I couldn't sleep. The following day I called the family in for fish and chips. This is, next to bacon sandwiches, the only known cure for overtraining. It's already having a positive effect. Today, Saturday, I'm not training. I'm going to take it easy, drink coffee, eat bacon sandwiches (If they exist in California - I haven't needed one up to now so I've not looked) and go to the Jazz Club up the road tonight where I can see my new pal, Louisiana Joe. (He's not from Louisiana, and his name isn't Joe, but that's another story altogether). I'm quite proud of myself. A couple of years ago I would not have spotted, or acted on, this overtaining until it was too late. This way, I think I'll be back tomorrow, strong and ready.