Today's Workouts (WARNING: ADULT CONTENT)

I got 9 hours of sleep last night, even though I awoke around 3AM again with my mind "scrolling." I checked in with another athlete who's doing the Goofy Challenge, and he said he's experiencing this as well. We're training hard, and our bodies and minds are all jacked up, in a GOOD way, though.

I did my stretching around 7AM, and once again it felt good. As you might have read in an earlier post, the stretching is paying off. Actually what I'm doing is a combination of dynamic warmup, some conventional static stretching and yoga. An important thing I've learned is that your body will get used to anything, including a stretching "routine," so you need to mix things up almost yearly to keep inducing the muscles, ligaments and tendons to respond. This year's discovery is that I need to include dynamic stretches. Keep in mind that the 3 triathlon sports, while considered cross training of one another, are repetitive motion exercises, and there are many directions our bodies can move that aren't expressed in the sports. So it's important to try and maintain full ROM (range of motion) by doing things like stretching and strength training.

10:40AM Strength, abs and core only, 33’. I felt just fine doing this workout.

3:22PM Bike 1:30 as WU: 10' warmup, 3 x SpinUps. Then 3 x 2' (1') Zone 3 MS: FT repeats: 10', 12', 15', 20' (2'). In aero bars, normal TT cadence. CD: 5' Easy (MS stands for Main Set)

FU-HUUUUUUUUCK!!! Not only was this workout 15’ longer than Tuesday’s interval workout (which was the same as last week’s Tuesday/Thursday workouts), the additional time was devoted to FT work! I knew this would be hard, and man, it was. I held 158, 160, 160, 160 watts for the 4 FT intervals. I could tell right off the bat that I was going to be able to work hard enough today (unlike Tuesday, where my legs were trashed from the earlier strength workout), but that it was going to require extreme focus.

I did some dry heavin’ when I finished. That’s always a sign that I worked pretty hard in a workout.

So this week so far: Monday was a harder and longer swim than last week. Tuesday was a harder and longer strength workout. Wednesday was a harder and longer swim AND a harder and longer run. Today was a harder and longer bike workout! Thank GOD tomorrow is not any harder or longer than last Friday! I need a LITTLE bit of a rest.

I just finished shoveling snow for 1.25 hours, too. I’m eating everything in sight right about now. Well, so far I've had a good size serving of pasta with my "Sheila's Wild Pasta Sauce" (recipe provided upon request, it's pretty good), and a big hunk of fruitcake, and a beer. I think I'm probably still down at least 500 calories, so there will be some snacking. I was supposed to get a massage today, but we cancelled because of the snowfall (at least 5” already), but luckily, we rescheduled for Saturday, and it will be after my 2 hour ride/30’ run brick, so that will feel really good.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Workouts should feel like a piece of cake, compared to the rest of this week. I am feeling the Goofy Challenge peak beginning to happen!