I'm there

I saw this earlier this week:

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond into the limits of the impossible.

While I'm certainly not in the realm of the impossible, I think I have crossed over into being overtrained. I knew I was doing it, but, in the spirit of the quote, how am I going to know for sure unless I get/go there?

I've had a good week of training:

2 hours in the pool - which is not that strenuous yet, but it is not rest either.
40 miles on the bike (in 2 rides)
40 miles running in 6 days
Core work 2 days

My plan calls for biking once a week (on Friday, a day off from running), and I usually only run 5 days a week. The nice weather this week allowed me to push/test my limits a bit. I biked Monday afternoon, after running Monday morning. Then I went to the pool Monday night. Tuesday evening I ran really hard on the tempo run. Wednesday was easy, but Thursday I increased to 15 minutes of hard running on hills, up from 9-12 minutes. I went to the pool that evening. Friday I biked and then followed it with a run (called a brick in tri language). Today I ran 12 miles in wet conditions. I originally planned to do 20, but since I did some yesterday, I didn't have to do as many. I also lowered my weekly total from what I had planned, knowing I was really pushing it.

The significant variations this week are adding a bike workout, increasing the hill repeats, and running after biking on Friday, resulting in no rest days this week. This is not rocket science and is easy to see why my heart rate was way too high on my run today. The danger of being overtrained is getting sick and/or developing an injury. I don't want either of those.

The long-term correction is to go back to my plan, plus I think I am going to have to eliminate one intense workout most weeks. I am thinking about doing hill repeats one week and then a long run the next week but not doing both in the same week. Last week's 18 miler was really tough, and it followed Thursday's hill repeats.

This coming week I will do an easy run on Monday and Wednesday. I am going to tempo hard on Tuesday, shooting for 6.35 pace for 3 miles. I will do an easy run on Thursday, instead of hill repeats. On Saturday I am running a (hilly) half marathon in Tennessee. Right now I plan to do it at 7.45 pace, which is my goal pace for the first 15-16 miles of Boston.

My main focus right now is the Boston Marathon, but I am also looking ahead and past it a bit, thinking of the 162 miles of RAIN in late July and my first triathlon, Lord and swimming willing. The Ironman looms large in my mind also, but it's still more than 2 years away, I think.