And an update in general.
I've been really busy, and frankly, fairly unhappy. I hesitate to say depressed, because I believe depression is an illness, and I'm just experiencing a funk. I'm still doing most of my training, but in everything, I'm just feeling a lot less motivated...and unfortunately, a lot less joy.
And I didn't want to write about it here, because I am unwilling to go into details, but anyway, that's why it's been harder to post and harder to train and just harder in general.
But here's a training update. Last week sucked. I only did like 70% of my training, and that was including two hours of "cross-training" (i.e. hot yoga). I'm working on doing better this week, and I think I started off well.
This morning I did an hour in the lake - 1.6 miles at a comfortable pace. And then at noon I rode 18 miles, also comfortable. I'm finding that right now, I don't have it in me to push very hard, so I'm just telling myself that for my Ironman, the most important thing is long, slow, distance training - not the intense stuff I'm skipping. And hopefully I'll perk up soon and start doing my intense stuff again, and happily.
So it was a windy day. The water was choppy for the entire hour, which was actually a good thing - I felt like I was getting splashed randomly, and I figure that's good practice. A gorgeous glassy lake won't really simulate mass swim start conditions.
But I'm also super-annoyed at the lake, because Jessi explained to me what swimmer's itch is, and I described these little bug bites I have on my wrists, hands, neck, and face...and sure enough, Danielle has them in the same places and Su has them as well, plus all over her arms since she wears a farmer john wetsuit. YUCK!!! And ITCHY!!!
However: it's not enough to put me back in the pool, even with the SwiMP3 player (for hopefully obvious reasons, I don't use it in open water). So I just have to make sure I shower right away (there are showers at the lake) then scrub really well when I get to my second shower at work.
So that's my life right now. Oh what fun.
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10 comments:
Ewww!
Hope you feel cheerier soon!
I went through a major funk this winter/spring, as I wrote about on my blog -- although I didn't go into detail, it was pretty bad. The good thing is I'm feeling a lot better now. These things usually tend to come and go in phases, so keep looking to the future and it will pass.
You work real hard and you are doing a lot of extra stuff. Maybe you can refocus on the core stuff for a bit and take it easy. I pretty much decided the same thing as you. I'm just not motivated to bust my ass these days, and I celebrated this decision by staying in my second big wheel all night last night on my ride :-) I could think of worse places to have bug bites! Hang tough!!!
I can definately sympathize with you on the lake water thing. I went swimming in one of the major lakes in the metro Atlanta area this past weekend, and now I have a light case of a sinus infection. I jumped on the meds immediately, but it is annoying, since I was not doing anything that normally would have caused this. I even swam in the same lake three weeks before and nothing happened. Fortunately, I have not experienced these itchy bites you speak of yet. I hope they quit!
Murtha...
Hey Jess,
Yay, I'm glad you're back!
For what it's worth, I swam at Idylwood on Sunday and showered well (with soap, in the park showers) and then scrubbed myself dry with a towel. Then I went home and took a "real" shower before work. And as of today I only have one small itch on my neck - which honestly could just be a bug bite. In other words, although there might be swimmer's itch at Idylwood I think you'll be able to avoid it. I didn't mean to be the bearer of bad news. :( But now you won't itch as much! :)
Jessi
p.s. I've also heard that applying some sunscreen to exposed parts (anything the wetsuit doesn't cover) will keep away the swimmer's itch. Haven't tried it myself (keep forgetting to bring sunscreen), but it makes sense.
Sounds like you might be overtrained. The symptoms are iritability, not sleeping well, loss of appetite.
Take a few extra days rest, bump up your caloric intake at least for a few days.
Sorry to hear you're feeling so disappointed with yourself, and on top of that, suffering from SI.
I think it's better to write about it, because you have a community of support here for you, and it just gets it off your chest. My bet is you'll feel much better now.
ICK! I hate anything making me feel creepy crawly. We do the "tick" check down here after mountain bike rides.
Hope your funk leaves you soon. Sounds like you have folks who will sympathize if you need it, if you feel like writing about it.
hang in there girl. this is the part I was talking about when you have to remember why you're doing this. keeping pushing through it, but bring the intensity level down. Take some long flat rides and easy long runs and swims in the pool. You'll perk back up in a few weeks.
-Laura
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