Gravity is real...trust me

This journey to triathlon has been a long one for me, and I never thought I would find myself in this situation...training for an ironman. I remember back to the days when I was "just a runner." I was running half marathons, dealing with IT band injuries, eating what ever I wanted...it was a pretty simple life. I remember talking with a friend of mine who was training for the Lake Placid Ironman. I asked him how he was feeling and he said that for the first time in his life he really believed that he could actually feel the force of gravity pulling him down. As usual, my response in my head was "well, why don't you stop this insanity and realize that no human being should put their body through that kind of training?" Instead of listening to this voice, I became inspired and I hit the local pool to see if I was one of those people who sink when they try to swim (it is amazing to me the number of triathletes who are really bad swimmers...I could not go on trying to swim if I looked that bad). I had some good swimming genes from my mom, so I found that it came relatively easy to me. I bought a road bike and tried my first long ride (I think it was about 30 miles) with toe strap pedals and running shoes. It was a tough experience, but I liked it because it was something new. That summer, I did my first sprint triathlon and I finished upright and smiling. Over the course of the summer, I would do 2 more sprint races and I ended up finishing 2nd in my age group in the last race of the summer. I had been bitten by the tri-bug. It was the beginning of a very slippery slope.
Anyway, I digress. The past few weeks have been tough on me. I am not really sure why, but I have really felt fatigued...not necessarily while working out, but more afterwards. It has made things difficult as my work has gotten really busy over the past few weeks as well. All of this leaves me exhausted when I get home at night. The strange thing is, however, that I am having some trouble sleeping well at night. The human body is strange. I really believe that my body is rebelling against all of this training. Since my last post, I did my longest run ever...2.5 hours. It was a great workout. I have also had 2-150 mile plus weeks on the bike and 2-9500 yard swim weeks. Add to this the weight lifting and you have a very tired triathlete.
In the past, I have been able to bounce back from these times of ultra-fatigue. This time, I had to give in. I sent an email to Karen (coach) and told her that we need to go back to the schedule that has me training hard for 2 weeks and then resting for a week. I had been on the three weeks hard, 1 week rest schedule. I just think that third week is too much. So, I am in a rest week this week and I am really looking forward to having 2 days off from training and reduced volume for the other days as well. Hopefully, this will help me bounce back. Next week, I have a 19 hour training week highlighted by a 3 hour run workout, and a total of 9 hours of biking on the weekend (6.5 hours on Saturday, 2.5 hours on Sunday).
Gravity is pulling on me. It really is a strong force...trust me.