不調。

毎年春から初夏は調子が悪い。冬場のマラソン練習でたまりにたまった疲労に逆襲されるような感じ。さらに花粉症に追い討ちをかけられる。シーズンオフ気分にひたって体重増加。モチベーションもどーんと下がる。ま、ここ3~4年ぐらいはだいたいそんな感じだ。

しかし、今年はそれに輪をかけて不調だ。体重の増加も著しく、身体のむくみや疲労感もより顕著。足指を打って怪我をしたり、先日のトライアスロンではスイムでおぼれそうになってDNFしたりと、どーもいけない。身体感覚がどうもヘンだ。なんなのだ、これは･･･、と思っていたところ、こんな記事を読んだ。トライアスリート、藤原裕司氏のトレーニングエッセイだ。
http://www.tri-x.jp/article/?p=112

人間の身体には生理的リズムがあり、パフォーマンスが順調に向上していく「順調期」と、疲弊した身体をリセットして復元させる「適応期」と呼ばれる期間があるそうだ。この適応期に気づかずに無理をするとドツボにはまり、長期的スランプに陥るという。読んでいくとあてはまる点が多数（無気力・疲労感・食欲ありすぎ・むくみ・倦怠感etc）。どうも今の私はこのドツボにはまっているようだ。

思えば今年は面白いほど体調の波が激しかった。

●年末～1月
大阪国際マラソンのための走りこみ月間で、過去最高のマイレージを刻んだ。疲労はたまったが特に故障もせず、走りこみの成果も実感できた。

●1月下旬～2月中旬
ターゲットレースをまずまずのタイムで終えた後、なぜかさらに調子が上向きに。マラソン3日後の5000mタイムトライアルでシーズンベスト。トラック練習でもスピード、スタミナ共に非常に充実。「もっともっと走れそう」というハイな気分になっていた。

●2月中旬
ある日（それはスキーに行って帰ってきた日）を境に突然走れなくなった。身体が重い。息が切れる。タイムがまったく出ない。つい3日前まで絶好調だったのに。

●3月
1月のトレーニングの貯金で東京マラソンをとりあえず完走。その後花粉症期に突入。日に日に体重増。モチベーションゼロで腰が重く、トライアスロンのトレーニングになかなか移行できない。

●4月
スイム特訓&バイク練開始。ランのマイレージは当然落ちる。トラックのタイムがどんどん落ちてくる。そしてどんどん太る。異常食欲。肌荒れ。身体のキレがまったくなくなる。

●5月
上旬に足指を怪我し、ランお休み。また太る。スイム特訓、オーバートレーニング気味に続ける。バイクは週1ペース。中旬、新島トライアスロンで呼吸困難DNF。トラック練習では絶好調時のキロ30秒落ちペースでせいいっぱい。ラストに必ず脚がつる。

●ここ1週間
異常食欲が収まり、とりあえず体重は微減中。ランはキロ6分ペースのジョグのみだが、なんとなく“底打ち”感が出てきた。調子のベクトル、上に向くか!?

・・・藤原氏の記事では、4週間が1周期だというが、私の不調は足掛け3ヶ月。どっかの「適応期」に対処を間違えてドツボにはまったのかも知れないし、別の理由もあるのかも知れない（今週、貧血検査の結果を聞きに行く）。

調子の波、というものをこんなに顕著に経験したのは初めてだ。トップ選手はこういうことも含めて調子を合わせていくのだろうな。人体とトレーニングの関係の奥深さを実感している。

Bike, swim and run weekend.

Saturday, 107km mountain ride from Sagami-ko to Yamanaka-ko out and back. Lots of hills, mostly ups for outwards and fun down hills for backwards. I saw gorgeous Mt. Fuji in Yamanaka-ko. I love mountain ride. Swam in the evening. 300m x 5 with wetsuit on. Tight, but managable. I haven't decided wheater ro buy new one or not.

Sunday morning, just went out to Yoyogi Park and ran 21k with iPod on. 6m30s/k pace. Took a swimming form lesson with Ma-san in the evening. It was good. I should take it every week from now.

DNF at Niijima Triathlon

Last weekend, I made a trip to Niijima with other Namban tri mates (Mary, Phil, Motozo, Jay and Nick) for my first triathlon race for the season. I took this Olympic distance one as a season opener and it was supposed to be a fun race.

When I looked at last year's results, I found out that third place woman's time was slower than my Oshima time last year. I suddenly got ambitious. "I might get podium."

I have been swimming a lot, compare to last year before Oshima. I joined early morning swim sessions twice a week, doing lots of drills and interval training for full 2 hours each. I also joined Saturday evening swim squad. My upper body especially arms got bigger because of it. I was the most confident ever about swimming and I was rather looking foward to it than being scared. But....

Here is the report I posted Namban list.
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Mika Tokairin DNF

My first DNF triathlon. It's ironic because this was almost first time I wasn't nervous about swim leg and I even had slight confidence from recent early morning swim sessions I have been joining.

I started with 2nd wave group and about couple of hundred meters after the start, around the first buoy, I started to have difficulty with breathing and I had to keep my head up all the time swimming with breast stroke. Lots of people passed me and even 3rd wave group was approaching me with furiously fast (I felt it that way) pace. The breathing problem got worse and worse and I started to feel fear, but thank God! I found a rescue guy near me. I held his rescue board for a while and regain my breath. The guy said to me "It should be all right. Just start slowly, don't rush, relax, you can do it!". "OK, I will try..." I said reluctantly and started to swim towards 2nd buoy.

First, it seemed to have worked out. My breathing was calm and steady. But super fast 1st wave group started to lap me with furiously fast pace (I felt it that way) and my heart rate reached to maximum level because of fear and I started to have breathing problem again. I tried to continue but it again got worse and worse and I really had to stop. "I can't do this any more, let's look for the rescue guy who helped me while ago." I looked around, and found that I was middle of nowhere (I felt it that way). But this time, I really. desparately needed help. I shouted "Hey!!!" while doing dog paddling. No one noticed me. Again, "Heeeeeey!!!!". No one responded. I panicked. My breathing problem was getting worse and worse and some negative idea crossed my mind. I shouted as loud as possible. "?#&%$(?=$#!!!!!!!!!!!", then "zgjhgbvwbiqzpwbnvtzabn!!!!" and "bnrmdohesdkfjhgakdf!!!!".

One rescue woman finally found me and started to come to me with super slow (I felt it that way) paddling, talking to me "Daijobu desuka---? (Are you OK?)". No. Definitely not OK. I was rescued and came back alive! My first triathlon of this year finished less than 20 minutes (I can't believe it all happened in such short time. I felt it was like forever).. Shame, but I am glad that I stopped. This is the first time I ever had a life-threatening moment in a race.

I don't know why this happened to me all over sudden. Some said my wetsuit is too tight. Could be true, I gained my weight and my upper body got bigger because of hard swim training (and too much eating). Some said it must be cold water. Could be. It actually felt cold to me when I went into it. Or there could be other reasons. Whatever the reason was, I have to get over this experience. I hope this will be good lessons for my future races, especially for my first Ironman in this August.

Congratulations to Mary (prize winner), Motozo, Jay, Phil, Nick and Sumie! Watching and cheering you guys was really fun and I felt it was worth coming even though I couldn't finish. And big thank you to Phil for arranging such great place to stay.

END
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Today, I went to the doctor. He is a internist and also a sports doctor Yoshiko introduced to me. He sees many marathoners. I told him what happened during the swim leg. He said, "It might be some allergic reaction. Do you have hey fever?" I said yes. He said "When your immune system goes down for some reasons, sometimes you will get sudden allergic reaction. Nervousness or too much excitement before the race can lower immunity. Over training, too."

"I'm not 100% sure, but since you are OK now, you don't need any medication. Just choose the right time for next race. Spring is not very good for who has allergy."

Hummmm, sounds like I can keep training. That's a good news. Let's hope it won't happen again in Canada.