The Rocky Relationship with Endurance Training

Or...the popular age old question "How do I avoid burnout??".  Good question.  I'm not sure that I am the best person to ask (the whole pot calling the kettle black thing), but I had a request for it, so here goes. 

Source

So...you signed up for an Ironman (marathon,triathlon, half marathon, pick your poison, etc.).  You picked out your training plan, got excited, and gave it your all for the first 6, 8, 12 weeks.  Then the workouts get longer.  Your free time is less.  You get tired.  And the race is still 8 weeks away!  You begin to dread your 20 miler, 100 miler, 6 hour ride, fill in the blank.  You can't sleep.  Or, you sleep all the time.  Food tastes terrible.  You have no motivation. 

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Welcome to burn out, friends.  It happens to the best of us!  And yes, it happened to me last year training for Ironman.  After 27 weeks of training and 9 to go, I hated the sight of my bike.  I didn't want to look at my running shoes.  And the pool made me want to just drown myself.  But my big race was still 2 months away!  AHHH!!

So what did I do?  Well, I got lucky.  I went away to training camp with 20 amazing people and took in Lake Placid for the weekend.  Amaze.  I returned full of life and ready to tackle Ironman training!!

However, I realize that's a bit narrow :-)  So, if you are feeling the signs of burnout/over training, here are my thoughts and suggestions (and clearly, I am not an expert.  Just have a few years of endurance training under my belt!)

How to Fall Back in Love with your Training

1.  Look at your intensity and volume of training.  How long has it been since you had a rest/recovery week?  Maybe you need to step back for a week to let your body rest.

2.  Look at alternate forms of exercise.  The world will not end if you set aside swimming, biking and running for a week.  How about kickboxing?  Pilates?  Personally, I turn to yoga,  It gives my body a good stretch and reminds me that exercise is more than just about moving my body.

3.  Find a good friend to do a run or ride with.  Oftentimes I find that I get stuck in a rut with routes and it helps to explore other areas.  Also, even though my tunes are good company for a long run, I did a 10 miler a few months ago with a friend in hilly Mendon without music-the hour and a half flew by as we dished about life, and I could have gone for another hour.  Awesome run.

4.  Look into other forms of training-you are doing an excellent job of training your body, but what about your mind?  Long distance racing is about fitness, sure, but it's also largely mental, especially Iron-distance racing.  And if the space in your head isn't in the right place, you'll be in for a long day.  I used this book and this book for my Iron day...and had great success!!  Nothing like fighting an "Epic Battle" on mile 17 of your Ironman marathon (check out the latter book for details-an awesome tool!!)

5.  Finally, look at where you've been.  It's so easy to think "Ugh, I have to cover 140.6 or 70.3 or 26.2 on race day...how am I ever going to get there??"  But let's take your first marathon for example.  Sure, the distance is 26.2...and you haven't ever run that far.  But 4 weeks ago, you might have never run 16 miles, and look at where you're at now!  And if you've done the distance that you are training for, remember that achievement and look back at how far you have come since then.  C'mon, did you really think you could ever do an Ironman?  (or insert your race).  I had my doubts about myself for my first time one year out!!

Well, there ya go.  Not expert advice, but it's worked well for me...I've ditched my training plan for as much as a week at a time (ok, ok, it was my honeymoon) but came back to race a week later with a huge PR!  Why?  I let my body rest and really got excited to race!  Trust me, it works!