Recovery

My body does not recover well. I know this and am trying to fix it, but I don’t know what to do to fix it. This has been a recovery week, fewer yards and less time riding and running, but I’m still just as tired as I would have been during a normal week. In fact, I even skipped a swim and today’s felt harder than if I had swam two back-to-back. One thing I decided to try was drinking at least 8 oz. of Gatorade a day. I tried to think what I might be doing differently now that I hadn’t been doing the last couple years, and that was what I came up with. I’ll try it for a few weeks at least and see whether that helps.

Fridays are kind of the midweek for me, with long rides on Saturdays and long runs on Sundays, and today was not an exception to the midweek fatigue I felt last week during a significantly longer week. But I did the swimrun and accomplished another thing on my list also: Getting my car’s emissions tested (it passed, thankfully), which means I now must pay the city to let me drive it legally.

I went to BFY to complete the swim:

• 350 warm up
• 8×25 drill (lots of kicking with no kickboard just to make my legs work; already they were dragging)
• 5×150@15sec 50build/25descend (I had nothing to build to and thus nowhere to descend to; I felt like I was working at max arm and leg capacity the entire time and not really going anywhere. Talk about frustrating!): 2:19.97, 2:28.54, 2:29.74, 2:29.14, 2:28.96
• 8×25@20sec sprint (here I could actually go somewhat fast, or at least comparable to how fast my other sprints have been): 18.20, 18.80, 18.99, 18.53, 18.85, 18.76, 18.68, 18.94
• 350 cool down (I did 150 only)

Off to emissions, home to ride, outside. It was kind of an eventful ride. I like to call rides like this “neighborhood rides.” That’s where I explore some neighborhoods I haven’t been in and ride slightly slower. It was perfect for a recovery ride, and I got to go through downtown Franklin, which I hadn’t been to in a while. I also got rained on, saw a kid who looked like he was 12 driving (but his mom was in the car with him, so I’m guessing not 12), nearly got hit by two women at two separate places, and saw one other cyclist the entire hour I was out. I was hoping to see a rainbow, but even though I didn’t I know God still remembers His promise to never send a flood to destroy the earth like He did in Noah’s day!

• 1 hour on the nose (+2 minutes of cool down after), 16.52 miles, 16.5 average (27.0 max), 139 HR (170 max), 951 cal

If the speed and distance weren’t evidence enough of the slow ride, the HR surely would be. I don’t remember keeping my HR that low any other time I’ve been out riding! On the trainer, maybe, but not outside. It was a bit windy, too, so we’ll say that played a small part in the slowness.