She-Ra Scores the Hat Trick!

Yes, that's right, members of the Collective and the Swarm.

She-Ra has completed a Hat Trick by achieving breakthroughs in all three triathlon sports on consecutive days:

2/7/2006: Highest ever average watts for 2x15' FT intervals of 167 and 171, at LOWER HEART RATES THAN FOR THE FORMAL FT TEST LAST THURSDAY.

2/8/2006:
AM Workout: Fastest 200's so far this season (the main set was 10x200, 15" RI, 1-3 descend, 4-6 negative split, 7-9 descend to faster than #3, rest 2', then #10 all out), and they felt GOOD and I was swimming with GOOD FORM the entire time, so now I KNOW I CAN GO FASTER NEXT WEEK!!!

PM Workout: Repeat of last Wednesday's tempo run, only added 5' more tempo time, same speeds but HR was just not moving up much and it didn't feel hard so I increased the speed. And it still felt too comfortable! So that means I NEED TO RUN FASTER NEXT WEEK.

See now the thing with all of this is it means I have to GO FASTER NEXT WEEK IN ALL 3 SPORTS. And I will do my best to achieve that. Here comes Peak #2 for Ralph's 1/2 IM. I can't believe the fitness level I have, especially since I know there's MORE ROOM FOR GROWTH! After Ralph's then I begin to pile on some volume (14 hours is not so much to me) and see if I can maintain the speed gains over longer distances. I am SO blessed for all of this to be coming together seemingly effortlessly; yet the work behind it has been, well, something else. I've never worked at this level before, and it's paying off in spades.

Now lest you think this is something that just "happens" by training a lot, that's only a small part of the story. It has been accompanied by an increasing level of mindfulness and some extra special attention to the care and feeding of the machine--lots of stretching, more strength work and a conscientous effort to minimize stress that I can control. With all that has come a sense of peace and calm that I carry into every single workout that I do and also into my workday activities. I have built a strong foundation that can carry me through so many things, and while none of us enjoys being tested emotionally, by being used to testing myself weekly in sport and knowing where I stand, it gives me confidence to withstand all sorts of other things that come my way that I generally don't write about here. Not like my life is all peaches and cream! But it's the best I can make it, right now, and that's all there is.