Hows that training going, Steve?

Glad you asked! I was just going to blog about it.

There was some concern over my plan to flog myself into shape quickly ("bootcamping" I guess I called it). The idea is that, if you can manage three or four weeks of unusually hard work, your body takes that as a new "normal." The downside is that you have to REALLY know your body and how it responds to training, or you just end up injured. The part of me that decided to rebel turned out to be my mouth (clever body! I wasn't expecting that) - and for those who wondered about how seriously to take that whining about it, as a general rule, the more I complain about something, the less serious it is (unless I've been complaining about the same thing for several months). When I had the flu last fall, that was serious and I barely mentioned it.

By suddenly doing all my training more than a minute per mile faster than I had been, I'm not getting in the mileage I'd like, but that'll build over the next few weeks. Workouts had been going well until the day before yesterday, when I hadn't been eating or sleeping (I still managed 5 miles in 38 minutes). The biggest problem had been finding dry shoes; it's rained every day for weeks; I ended up putting on a pair of shoes that squished as I laced them.

Yesterday was the first real "fail." It was 87 degrees, dew point 70, 30 mph wind and tornadoes on the way (didn't get a drop of rain in my yard). The plan was to do 5 half-miles in under 3 minutes each with shortish recoveries and then tack on miles until I'd been out for 90 minutes. During the third repeat, I was gasping for air. Being close to home, I took a break, got some water - then, doing anything to keep from going back outside apparently, weighed myself, and found I'd lost 3 pounds in three days. Not eating solid food and having to avoid coffee, tea, alcohol, fruit juice and milk (what other liquids exist?) had taken a toll. I got back outside, forced myself to start running at whatever pace I could; within two miles I was slower than 10 minutes per mile (shut up, RBR, that's slow for me) and weaving. My thighs ached. I had "hit the wall" and was bonking as well. I walked home.

Feeling better today, thanks.