I wrote a blog post about whether to stick with or quit my training some days ago. I’ve been busy since then, trying to understand what’s going on for me and finding a way forward. After a short mental slump, I realised I needed to embrace the grind.
I hit the gym on Monday and focused mainly on my upper body. I hit my heaviest bench press for several years—certainly the most I have pushed in my sixties. At least I can say my collarbones are no longer a perceived weak point, and the titanium plate and screws in my right collarbone are robust. (I had this odd psychological tick where I imagined the plate giving way!)
On Tuesday, I did a 5-kilometre ruck with my weighted vest. I tackled the hills of Hampstead Heath, and while the one-hour walk didn’t seem intense, the data was interesting. Logging the work on my Garmin HR-Pro Plus strap and 965 watch showed the Training Stress Score higher than my 5k gentle jog the previous week and only slightly below my 5k personal best set in October. Rucking is a sneakily good workout. I will log that information for the future; rucking is now a nice switch-up in my repertoire. I can embrace the grind with less stress on my knees and hips while stacking a decent core and cardio workout.
Wednesday saw me back in the gym, and I benched the same weight again, but for three more reps than Monday. This was a good result, and I was pleased with it. (Friday edit update. I repeated the Wednesday lifts, so that has been a solid week.)
Today, Thursday, I met for an hour with my top-quality physio, Stephen Davies. He examined the knee that’s been bothering me and released my tight hamstring and calf muscles. The bottom line is that there is nothing seriously wrong with my knee. An in-depth discussion of my training was helpful. Stephen’s considered opinion is that I’m training too much and too intensely. I need to have two complete rest days a week. I should run only three times a week. And my lower body strength training needs to be less intense. Simply put, I’m overtraining; that’s the cause of my constant niggles and building fatigue. It’s ok to embrace the grind but not to grind myself to dust.
Stephen has introduced some single-leg work to my routine to bring some focus to my right leg, where I have intermittent knee problems. I do a single-leg press and calf raise, lateral banded strides, and a stiff-leg deadlift to lengthen my hamstrings. It’s less intense than my usual lower body work and instinctively feels like it will help me, but without taxing my central nervous system too much.
If you have read this far, you’re shaking your head and saying, “No shit,” as you muse on my idiocy. Overtraining has always been my weakness. My knowledge that I’m an average at best athlete drives me to try to work harder than the next person, including the person who looks back at me when I stare into the mirror. It’s not ego that drives me this hard. I fear what happens if I don’t work hard enough. I love to embrace the grind, and this makes me overreach.
That’s my update. I need to dial it down a couple of notches to make progress. Stay tuned.