Reset and go again...

Approximately 4 weeks ago I wrote a note in my Training Peaks which read "It's weeks like this that make me think I should just retire". Perhaps a touch melodramatic but I'd had 10 days where all my interval sessions had been useless and even base rides felt like a struggle. I had no motivation and the only thing making me get on the bike was the fact I knew I'd feel even more useless if I didn't train. My body was giving me all the classic signs of being a little rundown... saddle irritations, disrupted sleep, moodiness and so on.

Logically I knew that I was just tired, having been training hard and without a real off-season at the end of last year. I've had periods like this before and they always make me remember a magazine column written by Katie Archibald about a GB training camp in Portugal. She was feeling terrible. Unable to keep up on rides or complete her interval sessions. The coaches told her to take a few days off and, begrudgingly, she did so but all the while thinking that she was done and the coaches were actually trying to subtly retire her from the squad. To nobody's surprise, after a few easy days she was back to kicking everyone's ass. Even though I recall this article well, I struggle to apply the story to my own training...

On 1st June I had a rest day to travel to France and then on Tuesday 2nd June a session appeared in my training plan, titled "2.5 hours LIT - enjoy life ride". That was actually the only session I was set that week. I had a great ride on the Tuesday to a tearoom with Matt and Emma and then the rest of the week I did what I fancied; a 4.5 hour club ride on the Wednesday, cake ride Thursday and then some harder rides Friday - Sunday. Despite not being set anything that week I still did 17 hours and 800 TSS but it felt easier somehow. Good food, good company, happy head, better legs.

The past 2 weeks have been back to structure and hard sessions. I've done back-to-back 22 hour weeks, each of >1000 TSS and with runs being added back in. I've got through it. The end of last week was becoming questionable but I'm happy with how I handled the load. Yep, right now I'm in a small hole again; I actually fell over on Saturday morning when I got out of bed. But I have experience with this state; 16 days out from the Commonwealth Games TT in 2018 I felt horrendous and had to take breaks walking up stairs. I distinctly remember not wanting to move. The benefit of having data from back then is that I can look at my metrics and they are remarkably similar to yesterday's numbers. Knowing that I now have 2 easier weeks before MWC kicks off this is pretty encouraging and it's now all about managing my recovery (and hoping that, 8 years later) I can still bounce back from that type of load!