Does your body need to adjust?
Find a Conversation
| Wed, 08-01-2007 - 7:54pm |
A while ago, I went through a major exhaustion week. And, it happened again -- but I think I figured out why. I have been really really good for 10 weeks now, only one small little cheat of a bigger hunk of cheese than I should have. Food is going good.
Exercise has been pretty good too -- in preparing for vacation, I jumped up my treadmill walking -- to either 1 hour or 1 1/2 hours 6 nights a week at a pretty good pace. After doing that for a while, I think I overdid it. One night last week, I kinda crashed, fell asleep about 6:00 p.m., woke up and went to bed and could hardly get up the next morning I was so tired! For the next couple of days, my muscles felt really fatigued, and just overall tired. I took a look at my food log, and I was getting in most of my food most days. A couple of times I missed a dairy serving, and a few days was lighter on the protein than some days. So I got that back in line, getting all servings in.
And . . . .I took 6 nights off the treadmill. I have felt pretty guilty about it, but tonight got back on. Went kinda easy, did about 35 minutes rather than the normal hour, didn't work up as much of a sweat -- thought I'd go easy a couple of nights, then back to an hour.
Has this happened to anyone else? I'm thinking that maybe because of the decreased food quantity compared to what I ate 3 or 4 months ago combined with really trying to get my walking stamina up for vacation just was a little more than my body wanted to handle for now.
Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks!!

Yes, we had a discussion very recently about over training.
Hi Cathy -- no major strength training, just a little arm work, as I wanted to get my stamina up as I will be doing a lot of walking on vacation, and wanted to make sure I could do those longer hikes/walks we'll be doing. Boy, it sure did feel great for a while, then all of a sudden -- wow, I must sleep for a few days!
On a positive note, I have no doubt about the hikes -- I've been walking at a really good pace, and in actual hiking you don't go that fast, so I'll be good there. We're leaving in a week, so I'll back off the cardio a little and start adding strength training back in.
One thing I can say -- I'm pretty well rested now!
Thanks!
We won't be doing the type of hiking you did -- wow! Ours are day hikes, not excessively long distances, and not camping out there! Going to Alaska on vacation -- different hikes/walks will be different distances, depending on the trails where we are. I would suspect the longest that we would do would be 7, 8 miles max (half in, half out). Then again, you never know -- we could easily do a 10 mile day hike, and if we want to see what is there we will! I would think max would be 4 - 6 hours, some will be much shorter. Terrain will vary of course, uphill/downhill, mostly on already groomed trails, so we won't be "breaking ground" for future travellers anywhere! And, we'll be sleeping in a lodge with electricity and showers each night!
And I suspect my "training" is a lot milder than yours! I've been walking, a really good pace, sometimes with the incline up, then down, then up again to simulate small little hills, etc. Doing extra stair climbing at work, up & down 3+ times per day, just that kind of thing.
You are a lot more seasoned in the hiking world -- but we'll be working on it. DH & & are interested in getting more involved in hiking, so will be looking for some "real hiker" tips from you in the future!