November 11, 2022
I was doing great at the end of last week. Two runs in a row indicated that my heart rate was settling into a narrow band and that my pace had quicked by 2 minutes a mile all while staying in Zone 2. I wanted a few more data points before I wrote and proclaimed that this was working, that my aerobic conditioning was improving. Sure, I was still running 13-14 minutes/mile, but this was better than 15-16 minutes/mile, and I wasn’t having to modulate my pace as much and I hardly had to stop and walk at all. It really seemed to be starting to work.
I was thrilled. So I kept running every day; I ran on Saturday in 30 mph winds; I finished Sunday evening’s run as the sun was setting. It was a tough run, the winds were brisk and the temperature was dropping. Saturday and Sunday’s runs didn’t go as well and I didn’t feel well through Sunday night. My legs ached, and I just couldn’t seem to get any rest. Monday wasn’t any better, and by Monday snow and cold settled in to stay.
It may be that the perfect storm has hit me. For one, I trained non-stop for the past 2 weeks. I only ran 65 miles, but at my Zone 2 pace that’s 18 hours of running. I was moving slowly enough that I thought I could just keep going without consequences. My body seems to be telling me a different story. My resting heart rate was up from 59 to 68 yesterday, I am not getting restful sleep and I have been lethargic all week.
But, maybe it’s not excess training. Standard time was ushered in on Sunday and the cold and snow arrived on Monday—the low was -4F this morning and we haven’t seen the sun until today. The loss of an hour of light in the afternoon and the sudden blast of intense cold and grey could be having an impact. I’ve never felt any extreme form of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), though the stretch from mid-November through New Year’s always takes some of the wind out of my sails. By early January with the sun having turned the corner, so to speak, and daylight steadily increasing, the drag on my system fades. Skiing also helps as it gets me outside for lots of hours during the day.
Maybe this year the training stressed my immune system and strengthened the SAD effect. Either that, or I am guilty of overtraining. Either way, I took 4 days off. I expect that I will likely lose some of the aerobic conditioning that I had just gained. Hopefully I will be able to regain it again quickly.
With the sun shining brightly today I snapped back. I headed up to Bridger Bowl skinned up 1600 vertical and skied back down. I’m feeling well tonight. It seems the storm has passed.
Skinning Bridger was fun. This is a ski town. It felt like half of Bozeman was up there. The skiing wasn’t great, but everyone was just thrilling at being outside in the snow.
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