Recovery vs. Planning

As I mentioned in yesterdays post Tweaking the Training, I have a pretty large training block in front of me, starting next week. I have no illusions that this is really going to stress me out and be a huge test for my body to deal with stress and recovery. Just to fit in the road march during the work week, I'll either be doing them before the family gets up, meaning a 3am wake up or doing them after the family goes to bed meaning I won't hit the bed till 3am.

The true test will be the way my body adapts to the challenge. I think my motivation will get me through the first two weeks, the Toughening Phase, fairly well. The Slow Improvement stage that follows be where I really test my damaged kidneys and the Rhabdo I have. This is why in the middle of week 4 after completing a 100% effort road race, I purposefully scheduled almost a week off of hard training.

Its all about load. How much load can a person put on their body and still perform, whether it be this for me, or someone else training for a marathon, half ironman or full ironman. As hard as this block will be, no one will be more concerned about its toll on my body than myself. If my recovery window does not match the training plan, recovery time is more important. How's that for maturity from two years ago?

It's not enough to exist. I am going to live.