Thoughts From FitOldDog On What You Should Do About The DNF (Did Not Finish) Workout?

FitOldDog is up early for a critical pre-race workout, an 80/10, 80 miles on the bike followed by a 10-mile run, and it’s going to be hot. Very hot!

Hi folks! Welcome to my World, or an important part of it anyway!

Rory (right) and FitOldDog heading out on a planned 80-mile bike ride. Note, Rory is carrying food in the form of Spiz on his bike, and FitOldDog is carrying food in his Paleo-adapted body (storage fat), while they both carry water and electrolyte supplementation.

If you fail to complete (DNF) an important workout, don’t try to ‘make it up the next day,’ learn from it and modify your training plan accordingly.

I’ll be heading off for the Lake Placid Ironman for the 6th time in a few weeks, and there are some critical workouts to complete before I start to taper. One such workout is the 80/10, an 80-mile bike ride followed directly by a 10-mile run, also known as a brick. This takes some organizing, especially when family want your attention, and the weather has been very wet and very hot.  A number of things worked against me for this workout, including not being able to get to bed the previous night before 10:30 pm. (much too late, you’ve got to sleep), being very tired from heavy training, which is normal at this stage, still not fully recovered from a couple of recent local races, a half-Ironman and a 4-mile run, and the heat (85°F+) combined with the humidity (97%).

Delicious ice-cream at Johnny’s in Carrboro, served with a beautiful smile by Mesa, which makes one wonder, why did I cut the last 7 miles of the run, for the ice-cream or for the most important training reason, avoidance of injury?

Another thing working against me was my unwillingness, a couple of times, to let Rory drop me, even though I agreed to set my own pace and I’m an experienced endurance athlete. I just went too hard on a couple of hill climbs (it’s hard to resist – who wants to be dropped by another old guy?). I started the run, which was to include three 3-mile loops, and after the second loop, at 93°F and about 100% humidity, my body said, “No way!” So I stopped, cooled off, and had a homemade ice-cream instead.

Did I do the right thing?

This is a critical question. Sometimes the answer is, “No, I chickened out,” and sometimes the answer is, “Yes! I would not have gained anything, and I risked an injury.” In this case, I most certainly did the right thing, though the non-Paleo ice-cream is questionable, especially as I rarely eat ice-cream anyway – but it was delicious.

How do you decide?

Here are my thoughts on the matter:

1. This is an extremely difficult question, for which I have (a) both kept going against my ‘[false] better judgement,’ as in the 2008 Lake Placid Ironman, with the encouragement of my great coach at the time, Chris Hauth, where I finished fine, and (b) stopped running at 17 miles into the 2009 Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon, with a sub-4 hour marathon in the bag (1:58 at 13.1 miles and picking up the pace), which was followed the next day by the sorest hip flexor (psoas) in years that lasted the next three weeks – it would have been an injury if I hadn’t stopped running. My psoas didn’t hurt while I was running, I just knew something wasn’t right, purely based on experience. Sometimes for stopping it’s yes and sometimes it’s no!
   

   Rory and I stopped to rescue this turtle from certain death on the roads. He/she was a nice little chap who watched me pick her/him up, which is unusual, almost as if he/she knew we were there to do help.

2. Don’t beat yourself up, learn from it, and during a ‘post-mortem’ decide carefully whether you made the right decision. I’m sure I did for my 80/10, because I am clearly overtrained and exhausted the next day as I write this. NOTE: you will want to stop in the last 10 miles of an Ironman, however well trained you might be, so be ready to tough it out or drop out – it’s your call and it’s your life.
3. Think about the positive aspects of the workout, such as saving yet another turtle on the road, which made yesterday’s ride well worthwhile for me (see photo!).
4. Don’t try to make it up the next day because you can’t, just modify your training plan with the help of your coach – I’m taking a rest day, then an easy (only swim) day, followed by a long run the following day, and then back to my pre-taper training for the week.
5. And move on! You had yet another lesson, and you ‘lived to fight another day.’ Well done!

The skill needed to address this critical question comes from experience, lessons from great coaches, and knowing your body and that of which it is capable on the day.

Choose wisely, as injury is only one little mistake way, whereas you won’t do your best unless you tough out the difficult workouts. Classic life paradox!

-k @FitOldDog