Some Days You Have It and Some Days You Don't

How I feel some days...

It is a strange phenomenon to me how some days you simply have it and some days you don't during your workouts.  For me personally, I have yet to figure out why this occurs.  I feel that it can be attributed to a variety of factors:

1. Hydration
2. Nutrition
3. Fatigue from previous workouts
4. Energy Level based on Sleep
5. Many other reasons

There are some days when I wake up and feel that I did not do anything different the day or night before in terms of exercise, eating, etc. and my legs feel like lead on my run, and there are other days where I feel like my legs have never felt better and I should be able to keep up with Ryan Hall on a 800 repeat workout(this is a definite lie, but you get the point).

How I feel other days and don't
know why

This happened to me last week before a race on the 4th of July.  I ran 10 miles hard, the day before and had an afternoon swim to try to get some lactic acid out of my legs.  I expected the race to be a struggle and had no intentions of breaking any personal records.  However, when the gun went off, I started clicking off miles faster than I ever had in my life on a very hilly course which many people were struggling with.

Same thing happened with my bike ride yesterday.  On Saturday, I ran 8 miles about 10 seconds below my tempo pace and swam in the afternoon.  On Sunday, I was stuck in an airport for 12 hours with no chance to really loosen my legs.  I got home from the airport and immdiately hopped on my bike and rode a course that I typically ride faster than I ever had in my life and could have easily went further.

How?  Why?

If you have an answer to this, please feel free to respond.

I have looked up articles to attempt to answer this conundrum.  There have been a few that have been good reads.

In a New Balance article, they attributed success and failure in workouts to a few factors:

1. Dehydration
2. Inadequate Sodium
3. Too Much, Too Soon
4. Inadequate Fueling
5. Life Stresses
6. Weather

This was helpful, but still did not completely help me to understand why when I feel that I have done everything the same or even better that I have bad workouts, or why when I havent fueled properly and feel dehydrated that I have great workouts.

I guess this is all just a learning process that I will need to grow to understand as I progress as an athlete.

Well here is the weekly log from last week:

Monday-  The usual double swim.  Technique session bright and early in the morning and open water late at night; about 5500 Yards total.

Tuesday-  Morning Bike Ride(roughly 33 miles at 21.4 MPH) and a night time endurance swim with the master group about 4000 yards.

Wednesday- Morning Bike Ride(32 miles at 20.5 MPH) and an afternoon recovery swim of about 2000 yards to get some lactic acid from the legs.

1 week until I hopefully shatter my
time at San Juan

Thursday-  Really early interval run at 4:15 because I had to leave on a recruiting trip to Daytona Beach.  2 mile warm up run to track, 4x1000 with 400 recovery in between, 2 mile run home

Friday- 4 mile tempo run to beach, 4 mile easy run home and an afternoon endurance swim of 2500 yards

Saturday- 4 mile tempo run to beach and 4 mile tempo run home with an afternoon swim of 2800 yards shorter intervals of around 100-300 yards

Sunday- 35 mile bike ride at 21.8 MPH

1 week until Racine 70.3!

Until next post.  Nick out.