Well, a smart lady once asked me about overtraining! Here is how it is.. ocassionally, one tends to get carried away in training and really go overboard, in all aspects possible -- Intensity, Volume, bad-hydration, bad-replenishment, etc. Once these wonderful factors of incompetence (or in my case, forgetfulness) come together, we are in deep doo doo and officially "overtrained" or just plain cannot sleep at 3am (like me, today). Of course, more severe forms of this exist that are more permanent but, Im not there yet.. this will go away after a couple of slower/easier days and more sleep.

I had a killer day on Sunday, doing some heat training for some upcoming races. I had already had a big Saturday, in terms of training. On Sunday, I backed that up with another solid day but, put the long-run at the very end of it as Ive been working on my biking a bit this week and wanted to make sure I had a solid ride. I had had a 90 minute nap beforehand but, somedays are just epic!

I was on a 2 hour run, minus water, having eaten 4 hours prior. It was nearly 35 degrees outside, the ambient temperature being raised by a hot hot wind. I was singing for the first 75 minutes of my run after which the singing stopped. I was in a world of pain and suffering. However, I reasoned with myself that it would be less pain and suffering to finish the run rather than to turn back, as that would mean more running and I went through with it. In fact, I had no intention to quit.. I was just reasoning :) One tends to lose their mind with low salt levels :)

I had already sweat buckets and stopped once or twice, which I never do on my runs unless I am absolutely desperate.. I finished the workout but I was knackered. I rolled straight homewards and had major spasms in my right calf. Then I had whole body spasms for about 3 hours, owing to a lack of hydration and sodium. Added to this, I couldnt eat quickly enough to replenish my store. I felt like shit for about 5 hours post the run. When I tried to sleep, I had had a bowl of food (tops) and slowly downing the water in me. The spasms let up for four hours of sleep and I was promptly up at 3am, staring at the ceiling :)

I decided it was time for some weak, salty noodles as my stomach now felt a lot better and one does need to FEED THE MACHINE!

I need to work on my nutrition issues a lot. For a working woman, this is the killer. Added to a lack of rest, one can set one's self back quite a bit.. More on this in a while.. but, my weekend was great and when I think back on workouts like this, I will recall that hard work is not such a bad idea, afterall!