I hear you brother!!! Today it was all I could do to drag myself through 4500 yds and a 3 mile run. I may have to cut back further tomorrow and/or Sunday if don't feel better tomorrow. I just feel really, really tired overall. Is your 12-hr race "see who can run the furthest in 12 hrs" on a set track or loop??? How long is the track or loop???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

This is too funny, earlier today you commented "that is sadly very German" to brag about your own accomplishments, and then you write a post bragging about your most recent accomplishments, I guess you just proved your own point regarding Germans:)

It is how far can you go in 12 hours / 6 hours or 3 hours.
It is on a 10 mile loop but around 2 hours before the end they switch you to a shorter loop so you are not starting a 10 mile loop that you can’t finish when time runs out

True, but hope hat conversation was specifically scout titles and who folks were unsure which pros were doctors. It may have changed a bit but titles have always been important (especially in smaller towns) and not just doctor ones. So if someone was an engineer and his name was Peter Maier on his doorbell at his house (possibly even a sign) and or on a flight ticket it would say
Dipl. Ing. Peter Maier.

I have not lived there for a long time so this may have slowed down.

But talking about athletic achievements on social media and to friends and neighbors that seems to be not unique to any country.

I think both you and Eric should take a few weeks off so the rest of us could catch our breath😛

Haha, so says the guy who has been at the top of the ST Leaderboard for most of the past 5-6 wks. You've been burning it up TJ!!!

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I am lucky to have so much time time to train, but I also realized that I eat more junk and then train more to make up for it

This is my first full year of retirement and with COVID I don't have many distractions. As long as I keep the wife and dog happy I am free to train as much as I want. We've had a beautiful fall here in the midwest and with it great outdoor biking and running weather. That weather window is closing (at least for outdoor biking) and so I'm forecasting a swim "surge" toward the end of the year :) As far as sweets go I have found myself buying those individual ice cream cups and brownie bites and I crush those things after dinner.

I am a stay at home dad for another 5-6 years at least when the boys can be trusted to stay alone. But luckily we have a nice treadmill and a Wahoo Kickr at home.

But sweets have always been my downfall and having easy access is not helping

I've always been a high volume athlete, but working from home and no racing has upped those numbers even more this year- I'm over 10,000 cycling miles and 1,200 running miles this year, which were my totals at the end of the year in 2019. Actually just ran a 2:56 marathon last weekend, and am now taking 2 full weeks off of training to give myself a chance to recover before I do almost all base through EOY.

I'm fortunate that my physiology lends itself to high volume training since I truly do enjoy cycling/running 15 hour weeks (probably comes along with me literally having no fast twitch muscle to speak of, and both a mental and physical block from emptying the tank on top end efforts). I toed the line a few times of being overtrained this year, especially with doing 4 double days/week for a few weeks straight, but thankfully never stepped all the way over the edge. Here are the signs for me personally that I was overtraining:

1. Interrupted/low quality sleep. I'd wake up in the night and not be able to go back, despite being dead tires
2. Hunger/cravings even after just finishing a meal
3. Lower HR than expected on threshold efforts
4. Soreness

I think I was able to toe this line without going too far because I worked proactively to try to prevent overtraining. Here's a couple of big things that worked for me- note I still managed to lose 15lbs since January while doing these:

1. High carb diet- I love meat and nut butters as much as anyone, but I've intentionally shifted my meals to contain a bigger portion of high quality complex carbs. Fruits/veggies, brown rice, quinoa, beans, low-sugar granola, whole grain bread, sweet potatoes, steel cut oats were my go-to. I have no doubt that this helped me perform and recover for the next workout. This was personally a big part of my weight loss, as I was able to get full on fewer calories as well.
2. Fueling hard workouts- I intentionally focused on eating more during workouts, even easier workouts, to prevent cravings and binging after. I still try to mostly fuel with less processed and "healthier" alternatives to straight gels/mix/sugar, but I also matched my fueling to the type of workout. Nut clusters and RX bars for Z2 workouts, clif bars and Nature's Bakery for SS/threshold, and SIS mix for VO2.
3. Build into this slowly- I built up from 10 hour weeks last year to 15+ this year primarily through Z2 and some SS work before adding in threshold+ work. I don't think I did any structured workouts that were aimed at threshold or above from the beginning of March through mid May. Made it a lot easier to absorb long threshold intervals and VO2 max efforts while maintaining those hours.
4.Enjoy training- I'm probably weird but I love structured workouts and progression more than group rides/runs, even more than most races. I love having a specific target to hit, then analyzing my results and quantifying my next goals. But if you don't genuinely like training without having an immediate race or goal, the volume will take a toll on you mentally (which impacts your physical peformance).


Little bit rambling, but hopefully there was something useful about training volume in there. I'm actually wrestling with the question of whether I could've gained more witha little less volume and more effective recovery. In 2020 I probably could've, but all the volume I did will serve towards giving me a bigger base entering next year.

I can N=2 this. Possibly with one small exception, and that is I kept my protein intake where it was and just increased overall calories with carbs.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5