Low energy

2½ weeks ago I wrote a lengthy email to my coach about the period of low energy I was coming out of. These periods bedevil my training and the momentum that underlies any consistency I can maintain, so it’s crucial to understand them and, as best I can, mitigate them.

Situation

I go through periods of low energy. These can be several hours or several days long.

During these periods I feel fatigue but not sleepiness. I often feel like my head is full of cotton batting; a bit migraine-y. I might be unusually sensitive to sharp noises or bright light. I can have vertigo.

It’s hard for me to work out; I’m so fatigued I just can’t. Sometimes I’ll push through and start a workout and completely run out of energy if I exert myself. E.g. a stroll is fine; a run is not. It feels a bit like bonking, but comes on very suddenly and after little effort.

I’ve had all the expected tests. My doc said it was just “your normal”.

Hypotheses and discussion

I’m not happy with my doc’s dismissal (or so it sounds to me). Here are some hypotheses, and discussion for each. They’re in no particular order.

Not enough to eat during the day (and the evening before)

My nutritionist wondered about this. When she started working with me she noted that I tended not to eat much during the day. This is still a problem, but she says much less of one. Still, something for me to pay attention to.

Overtrained

Some of the symptoms I have are similar to usual descriptions of overtraining. All of my problems in the current macrocycle (I hope that’s the right word) came after 10 weeks or so of improved compliance with workouts and improved fitness. Maybe I’m “pushing myself too hard”, and this is just my body’s way of getting me to rest.

Coach Mary says: Nope both subjectively (based on her reviewing my training) and objectively (based on TrainingPeaks’ calculation of my “form” [TSB]). Even though I still don’t to pretend to know what TSB means, I’m inclined to agree.

Load

Not a different way to say overtraining. I’m very fatigued after physiotherapy or strength training. My physiotherapist says that’s normal as I ramp up both, and that I should expect myself to recover better and faster as I improve.

I can see and feel the effects of load. After keystone workouts in the current macrocycle I’ve been tired but “good tired”. It’s not mysterious, and I recover predictably in 24-36hrs, so I’m disinclined to think it’s this.

“Physiotherapeutic”

I don’t have a good word for this. Maybe a phrase: “Something amenable to physiotherapy”. What made me think of this was late last year on an early visit to my new physiotherapist I mentioned I had a mild migraine and he stretched the joints at the top of my neck (not my neck) and the migraine dissipated.

I’ll admit this is my favourite hypothesis right now. I can work on it (as I have been), and we can see.

Depression

I’ve suffered from depression all my life. I don’t want to say I’ve defeated it, but it’s very much under control. I consulted my old psychiatrist earlier this year and he said I didn’t need help. This last week (the week of April 7/25) I had a definite bout of it—what I call a slough. It’s not subtle and it has effects all over the place, not just working out. I haven’t rejected this hypothesis but I’m not inclined to it.

Migraines/post-concussion syndrome

I had two bad concussions in the mid-’90s, which I treated poorly. I’ve had pretty strong PCS symptoms since, but they’ve become less and less common.

Migraine is a great hypothesis because it remains so mysterious. I’ve had migraines off and on all my life. But many of these low-energy periods are not associated with migraine symptoms. And I can have e.g. vertigo and feel awesome at the same time.

Sleep

I keep a detailed sleep log and I do think poor sleep hygiene doesn’t help. Another of these hypotheses that I’m not inclined to but not rejecting.

Anything else?

I’m open to suggestions.

Discarded: not eating enough before the workout or activity

I had some workouts I had to step out of and I asked my nutritionist to review my eating before them. (I keep a detailed log for her.) She felt that my nutrition was fine, and I’m inclined to agree.

Way forward

I’ll continue improving my compliance to my physiotherapist’s exercise, including the stretching of my head/neck joints.

I’ll keep my sleep hygiene on track. It’s one of those where in the moment is annoying but I feel much better for it e.g. the next day.

I’ll pay attention to all of the above hypotheses, and look for confirming and disconfirming evidence as I review my logs.

A fortnight of red cards

TL;DR

• Too many red cards (i.e. more than zero)
• But … am I back?
• Still no swimming
• Spring comes to Toronto
• Life gets in the way
• “You never had control …”

Red cards!

I use TrainingPeaks to receive workouts from my coach, and to log what I do. The workouts are shown as “cards”; in the future they’re white but in the past their colour depends on a couple of things. Red is unequivocal: “Workout was not completed”. As a result of “surrendering to the plan”, these are rare—but the last fortnight has seen 3(!).

Part of my growing up is learning that “bad” workouts don’t exist: they’re good data; are missed workouts also data? In this case, Yes.

For the first time in this (macro)cycle I had one of those periods of fatigue that have bedevilled my training in the past. One workout I started warming up on the treadmill (brisk walk) and just … stepped off. No energy. But all other indicators, particularly my heart rate, were fine. So what had happened?

During that week I’d had a tough session with Phil the physiotherapist; couldn’t work out the next day. Then the day after that I had a tough strength session with Arden; couldn’t work out the next day.

Phil’s thought after I raised this with him is that he and Arden are getting my body to do what it doesn’t want to do and it takes a lot of energy. Is it worth it? Yes; when Phil works on me, needles me, I feel … quicker, lighter, smoother, more relaxed. (Some readers may recognize that mantra.) I remain very hopeful that getting my body “aligned”, top to toe, will allow my muscles, tendons, and skeleton to do what my heart and lungs are capable of. At my age, after a long lifetime of carelessness about my kinetic chain and a propensity to twistedness, this is a big process.

But—and I think this is a key point—if nothing else comes of this quest to do a half-Ironman, being freer and more capable in my body will pay rich dividends to the end of my life.

But … am I back?

Maybe?

Despite the negativity of the foregoing I’ve had 24 Peak Performances over these two weeks. I’ve run the farthest I’ve run in 47 weeks (see above), and in shorts, too. So I’m still progressing.

“For want of a nail …”

On December 19 I had the toenail of my left big toe removed. Until it heals swimming is not permitted. (Everything else is fine.) It “should” take 5 to 6 weeks to heal. It’s been 12½ weeks but still has a scab over about half the old nailbed. Yes, it’s better; yes, it’s no longer swollen or painful; healing is progressing. But probably no swimming until my next appointment with the chiropodist, April 3.

Spring has sprung

The definition of spring used in English-speaking North America (at least) is the period between the March equinox and June solstice. This is dumb, but I’ll save that rant for another time. Meteorological spring began two weeks ago. We haven’t yet had seven consecutive days with mean temperature above freezing, though the seven-day average is now well above. Regardless. In yesterday’s sunny 10°C≈50°F I went for my first run outdoors in Toronto this year in shorts and short sleeves. You will, however, note the snow in the background; the steep path into the ravine behind me was covered with ice.

Planned, if unwanted, holes in my training

The next two weeks see a quartet of fillings, and a colonoscopy. All stuff that can’t be put off to after the half-Ironman so we have to accommodate them in the plan.

“You never had control; all you had was anxiety.”

I am a huge fan of Oliver Burkeman. His long-running column in The Guardian was always interesting and readable, and his books are all edifying; my favourite, which I recommend to everyone, is Four Thousand Weeks. He also does a semimonthly newsletter, The Imperfectionist, which I also strongly recommend.

The March 13 number of The Imperfectionist introduced me to the phrase in the heading, and it resonates strongly to me. He attributes it to Elizabeth Gilbert, and quick googling tells me it’s from Eat, Pray, Love. Everything about that book (e.g. the description in Wikipedia; the trailer of the film) confirms I wouldn’t like it; am I wrong?

A big dump (of snow)

TL; DR

• Recap: a good week
• But one orange card!
• Getting fat(ter)
• Cutting down on caffeine: It’s great and I hate it
• Finding a genre of music I hate but I’m listening to it

Recap

Good week. One non-green card but I earned it (see next). Did a couple of hard workouts. CTL climbing. Coach is good at figuring out what I can do.

Yellow card!

Users of TrainingPeaks will know about colour-coded workout cards. I’ve been pretty darn good (pats self on back) about having a lot of green cards. Got an orange card (worse than a yellow card) this week:

Trying to do a hard-ish treadmill workout after a rough hour and a quarter shovelling my car out of 50 cm≅20 in of snow; just had nothing in me and stepped off. I’m not happy about it; I’m inclined to credit the depletion from the snow shovelling but Coach Mary may have a point about nutrition (next section).

Fat manatee

In 2009 I did the only Ironman I finished. I trained hard. I gained weight.

I struggle to have enough in my gut and my blood to fuel a good workout. Having too little is a harrowing experience so I’ve tended to “eat ahead” so I can finish the workout. I’m now the heaviest I’ve ever been and I’m not any taller than I was at age 14.

I am working with a nutritionist but this seems like the hardest of nuts to crack (pun unintended just fell in there).

Three espressos

TL; DR: Cut my caffeine consumption 25%. It’s great and I hate it.

Long story: I didn’t start drinking coffee until my 21^st birthday. My parents were heavy drinkers of instant coffee mixed with condensed milk—yuck—so I didn’t develop the habit at home. In my last year of university my girlfriend took me out to a birthday lunch at a prix fixe restaurant. I decided to try the included coffee but to have it black so I could add cream and sugar to taste. I never did that; I’ve never drunk anything but black unsweetened coffee.

I used to drink a lot. I would percolate a pot at home and bring it to work in a huge Thermos.

Then I got used to having several mugs of the brewed coffee at work.

Then I discovered the caffè americano. Even when I was home I would get all my coffee from Starbucks: 3 triple caffè americanos a day, that’s 9 shots of espresso. Eventually I got a superautomatic espresso machine that would make a near-equivalent, the caffè crema.

You can see the pattern here: snazzier coffee but actually less caffeine.

When the pandemic hit my coffee consumption dropped. (So did my alcohol consumption but that’s a story for another day.) For the last several years I’ve had 4 caffè crema a day—very approximately 250 mg of caffeine, less than a single large coffee from Tim Horton’s.

The nutritionist I’ve been consulting asked me if I could try having just three shots of espresso a day. Sure, I said.

It’s been 3 weeks. The good? Even though I’ve almost always had my last caffeine before lunch, cutting down 25% has made it easier to get to sleep early—and I hadn’t thought I was having any problems at all. And the nutritionist is right: my gut seems happier.

The bad: mostly just the craving. I so want that 4^th shot. The nutritionist said I could have it when I “needed” it, but so far I haven’t crossed that threshold.

I will not give up caffeine. The boost in the morning is awesome. But 3 shots/day seems to be my new normal.

Low fidelity?

“blend hip hop beats and jazzy vibes and serve it chilled” would normally be words that would send me rushing to change stations. If there’s any music that gets me irritated it’s cool jazz, and as a Boomer I’m generally unenthused about hip-hop (tho’ there are some songs I like).

But here I am listening to Lola’s “lofi study & focus” playlist on Spotify—and liking it, at least when I’m working at my desk. Fills that aural space but doesn’t engage me or spin up any emotions. Sounds terrible but it seems to work.

(For working out, housework etc. I still like much more active, engaging music.)

Until next week!

“Surrender to the Plan”

Kimberlee tells me that your mantra doesn’t have to make sense to other people. That’s good, because I can’t even explain it to myself. Physio Phil caught sight of my Road ID and asked what SURRENDER TO THE PLAN meant. Been thinking of that question for days; here’s my first cut at at an answer.

I am a planner. Give me a goal and I’m awesome (if I do say so myself) at breaking down the work to the goal into steps, identifying constraints, setting intermediate milestones, and all the guff that got PMP after my name.

The controlled anxiety that lets me be a good (I think) project manager doesn’t seem to work well for my triathlon journey. This year I’m doing something different. I have a coach I trust. She agreed the goal was feasible. She writes the plan. Every week or two she gives me the schedule for the coming weeks. I do what I can to execute. The only “planning” I do is to look at the coming few days and figure out when, where, and how I’ll do the workouts. As I wrote last week I don’t even want to know my training plan for the coming months. I’ll take it one bite at a time and not worry about the coming bites. I am surrendering to the plan.

Bonus Taylor Knibb content: After I wrote the above I watched Bob Babbitt’s post-win interview with Taylor Knibb at the Ironman 70.3 world championships. I loved what she said: “it’s kind of … like Christmas every week when [my coach] puts the training in and then I get to see what I get to do”.

Purely at a technical level—does she use TrainingPeaks? I mean, lots of pros do and I’d like to think we have that (if nothing else!) in common. Seriously, though, does that mean that she doesn’t concern herself with the arc (mesocycles, macrocycles) of her training? Just agrees with her coach and manager and family what races she’ll do, and lets her coach work out the plan and schedule? If so, that’s awesome.

33 weeks to go: Jan. 20-26/25

In response to last week’s blog my friend Tony wrote to me that “eating an elephant is hard”.

This week’s serving of elephant saw my first uses of TrainingPeaks Virtual (formerly IndieVelo). I was going to use Zwift rather than FulGaz, because Coach Mary had sent me a structured workout and I’ve found the real-world courses of FulGaz don’t mesh well with a structured workout. Reading Ray Maker’s articles on TrainingPeaks’ acquisition of IndieVelo and Rouvy’s acquisition of FulGaz made me think that TPV might be pretty good for doing coach-set structured workouts—and so it was. I did a free ride Sunday and that saw me climbing lots of hills; I guess an unscheduled strength workout. But so far I like it.

(As a gratuitous aside I will say that how Ironman handled the sale of FulGaz to Rouvy doesn’t speak well of the new administration’s managerial competence—especially in a company whose core value proposition to customers is operational excellence.)

(Stock photos are so funny.) Big win for me: I actually ran for a few minutes, albeit on a treadmill as breaks during ærobic walks. Didn’t get too dizzy or bored or anything and nothing hurt. Very happy. It does help watching narrative TV, I think:

My injured toe got stepped on early Saturday which messed up my training—didn’t want to put the unhappy toe under the pressure of a shoe, or even my weight more than necessary. Otherwise the toe is still healing slower than expected. After 5 weeks it should be fully healed but here we are, with seepage and sloughing off of skin. Yuck. Except when it’s stepped on it doesn’t stop me from walking, running, cycling on the trainer, or doing strength work (see below)—but no swimming.

Over all I lost a day this week (see paragraph above) but altogether a good week: progress.

After I publish this post looking forward to 7 hours of top-notch NFL football. Who ya got?

Next week: Jan. 27–Feb. 2/25

Finally got the fitness assessment (sic) that was prerequisite to starting strength work. First session with the personal trainer is Thursday at the Pan Am Sports Centre’s gym.

I didn’t think the trainer and I had a thorough enough discussion about my goals, so I emailed this to him afterwards:

I’m interested in a strength programme for two key reasons:

• To support my triathlon goals, specifically to do a half-Ironman later this year
• To fight back the effects of age, and just generally to be better able to cope with daily life (lifting things etc.)

I don’t think I’m very interested in flexibility, but I am very interested in mobility (strength through range of motion).

I have a triathlon coach who sets me ærobic workouts—swimming, cycling, and walking/running. These are the core disciplines; strength is in support. Right now we’re ramping up; last week I did 3¾hrs of ærobic workouts, but there’ll be more, probably topping out at something like 12hrs weekly in late summer.

I’m not at all interested in addressing weight/body composition in personal training.

To be frank I’m uncomfortable in a gym; I’ve never liked going to a gym by myself; I have no confidence in my competence. In the 40 years I’ve been doing “sport” (I started late) I’ve always done ærobic things, and mostly by myself.