Overtraining

According to "the plan", I would have raced yesterday. According to "the plan" I would have biked and ran twice as long as I did today. According to "the plan", now I should be looking forward to beginning a hard three week block of training tomorrow. Well, I'm not. According to my mind, I don't even feel like trudging through the shortest of workouts, I'm emotionally on-edge, and I no longer eagerly anticipate my next training session. The truth of the matter is, I did a poor job of formulating "the plan" for my buildup to triathlon nationals and paid a high cost.
Throughout the month of May I have pushed through feelings of staleness and lethargy, putting up crappy numbers in workouts, ignoring what my body was telling me in lieu of fulfilling the sessions which I had scheduled; surely it would be disastrous if I deviated from "the plan". What ended up being disastrous was following it.
The past two weeks I have attempted to continue through overtraining. This is a state which, unfortunately, is very familiar to me. Almost every schedule which I've created has led me deep into the valleys of fatigue with no immediate escape route. However, my compulsion to go hard continually drives me even further its clutches. So what made me recognize my error? Its really pretty simple: waking up every morning this week I haven't been looking forward to training. It sickens me to realize that I'm no longer feeling a desire to swim, bike or run, whereas all of these activities normally bring me so much joy every day.
This was the last straw. I am discarding "the plan" and seeking the advice of an expert coach in Dave Williams. I am confident that he will help me to achieve my fullest potential going forward. Most of all, I have finally decided to confront the mental and physical burnout with something which intimidates me even more: recovery. The past month's training has certainly hampered my chances at nationals, as will the requisite recovery to get ready for hard training again. But there is no other way around this roadblock- believe me, I've searched for one.

White Lake Sprint

One week after nationals we packed up again and drove to beautiful White Lake, North Carolina for a weekend of Boyles family racing. My dad did the half on Saturday, but unfortunately stomach problems caused him to have a sub par day. Impressively, he pushed through the GI issues and still managed a 4:58 finish.
The next day, my brother and I raced the sprint. I woke up calm and excited race morning and came to the starting line ready to go for it. The swim went surprisingly well considering that I had only been getting in the pool a couple of times a week when I was getting ready for duathlon nationals. I found some fast feet to draft off of and came out of the water in third. After a little trouble getting my wetsuit off, I settled in to an even pace on the bike. I was erring on the side of caution since I had definitely biked too hard at nationals, so I held back a lot more than I typically would. Coming in to T2 I was in second place about thirty seconds back. After an okay transition I hit my stride and focused on the first place guy, who I could see farther down the road. By the first mile mark I had made up twenty-four seconds on the leader. Shortly thereafter I took the lead and pulled away, winning White Lake for the second time in my racing career. My brother had a great race, winning his age group despite his saddle coming loose midway through the bike. As for the TMS-IOS team, Amie Krasnozon won the female title and Alysia Lovgren took fourth. Amazingly, JoAnna Younts was second in the master's open after winning the same division convincingly in the half the day before.
Even though I had phantom soreness left over from nationals which lasted all week, I felt like I put in a good effort on the day. White Lake is a fantastic venue and the weekend always takes a festive atmosphere, which we got to experience for the first time this year. We rented a room in the lodge which is adjacent to the race venue- it was pretty cool to step right out the door and race.
Now its time to start logging some more yards in the pool so I can get ready for my first draft legal triathlon. I'm already excited for Junior Nationals in August!