I had had a great time on Day 23, but this morning I could tell from the bruises on my legs and feel from my slightly higher-than-usual resting heart rate that I was a lot more worn out than I had thought. But today was another work-out day so there is no avoiding getting up to go run. At least a run is a safe way to discover whether I need to take a rest day or if I can push through without negative results (or an injury).
This is my tired face
I ran my regular route in 21:14, which was about a minute slower than yesterday, but I just didn’t have anything else in me. 20+ minute 2.5 mile runs are not fast by any standard, but even 21:14 was difficult today. It was more of a survival run than a training experience. I tried everything: running slow, running fast, big steps, small steps, smooth, choppy, anything I could think of… and it all just sucked. I was simply too tired. I could feel when I got back home that I hadn’t accomplished anything other than confirming that I had overdone things last night.
My legs hurt, my chest felt hollow and things just weren’t working right. After the run I spent a nice, long cool-down period and stretched out a lot and got ready to go eat.
I decided that the wisest thing to do was to cancel the rest of my training for the day because it just wouldn’t do to crush myself under a barbell or damage my legs or shoulders boxing. With only one week remaining in the experiment an injury would risk the remainder and that just doesn’t make sense. Regardless what I do today, my body will have to put its full energy into rebuilding and restoring itself and that will require food, all of which will come from McDonald’s, so this should still give me a clear picture of whether or not my body is adapting to this diet or not.
Recovery food?
Of course, at this point I don’t really feel any different than I did when I started and my blood work was great at the mid-point test, so I don’t think there’s much to worry about. The big change was that last night I met a BJJ guy who was better than me and a ton of fun to roll with and I wasted myself doing boxing and that all at once.
And on the point of diet… I was starving… all day. I could get to feeling full, but I always felt hungry again right afterwards. It was sort of a miserable feeling because I’m tired of eating the same food every day and going all the way to McDonald’s every time I get hungry is beginning to be a pain in the ass.
Bleh! Overtraining sucks and feeling worn out to this degree is not a very fun thing. I need to curb my enthusiasm a little if I plan on double-work at the gym. It changes a three-a-day schedule into a four-a-day schedule to roll and box on the same day. Without pacing the entire day a certain way and putting a lot more technique work into the routine (as opposed to going full-force on pads and on thr ground so often) there is no way I could keep up with a schedule like yesterdays with any regularity.