Twofer--I DON'T SUCK!!!

And also I received some prizes in the mail today...he he...these things got me through two great workouts today.

Why does every day feel like a time trial to me? Oh yeah, because IT USUALLY IS. At least when I ride my bike or swim or run tempo. Let's see, that would be 5 out of 7 days per week. No wonder I've been a little frazzled.

Yesterday all I did was my last, mega, hurt-every-single-muscle strength workout, nothing else. Today I thought was swim time trial day, so I got mentally prepared for that, but then when I looked at my schedule, I saw it was really scheduled for Wednesday. Oh well, I'M DOING IT TODAY, DAMMIT, since it would be a short swim and then I'd still need to do a bike interval workout.

As I exited my house, I saw in my mailbox a package that I knew was from Shelley, and I knew what was in it (see above), but I didn't open it--I decided just knowing it was there would give me some more motivation in the pool.

I warmed up, did some fast 50's, and it was GO TIME. My upper body and arms felt the effects of yesterday's strength workout, but too bad, here it comes,1,000 yards. The last time I did one of these I sucked at 1:47/100 yards, and that was when I unilaterally decided I needed to be swimming at least 10,000 yards a week. Yes, I do drills every workout, too, but at some point you need to be in the pool a lot to have more "feel for the water," and I find that for me 3 solid swims of about 3,000 yards plus one or two more of 1,000-1,500 yards is perfect. So I started doing that, and I could see as the weeks were going by that I felt stronger in the water, definitely, but with the strength training peaking as well, not so much faster, but a little bit, you know?

So I swim, and I feel like I've got a good pace going, and several times during the bout I'm thinking to myself, "I can't let the Collective down." Man, we are all ON FIRE lately, and here was another chance for me to come through. I finish the 1,000 yards, feeling like I put out a good effort, and I look at my time. Now, I was a math major in college, but sometimes for the life of me I can't do simple arithmetic when my heart is jacked up after fast interval work. So for about 2 minutes, I'm like, "Wow, I still suck." And then it hits me, DOH!!! I figured wrong, and I DO NOT SUCK! I screamed at the top of my lungs and pumped my fists in the air, "YEAH, BABY!!!" My time was 16:52, which is 1:41/100 yards. Now I am no Brett or Shelley, but that is a solid time for me, and that will get faster as my training marches on, especially since the strength training drops off next week.

I AM SO HAPPY!!!! So I am so excited when I get home and I open the package, and I was expecting the Collective beads, but then I also get BUTT MODEL!!! He he...I'll be wearing these pretty much all the time except during swims. They seem to be pretty powerful.

But wait, there's more. Act now and you get this fine set of Ginzu knives.

I had to do a bike workout, including 2x15' at FT watts. As you may have seen from my goals last week, I upped the ante, and now it's not good enough to "meet" my current FT watts--I need to BEAT them. So I power up the bike and get in a solid warmup and then here we go. I always "work into" the watts, because you can't just explode into an effort like that (except, well, when I do a sprint race and then pretty much it's balls out as soon as my feet are clipped in). Since I have a luxurious 15 minutes, I go relatively easy for the first 5, and am averaging 167. That would be fine (current FT is 165), but hey, I can do better. The Collective knows that! So I march on up to 173 after 10', and decide that's plenty good enough, and then I just hold it.

One interval down, one to go. When I start my second interval, it always feels harder to keep the same cadence, so I tend to shift into one higher gear. This was no exception. After 5', I'm only up to 165 watts, though, so I am going to need to work. I think back on my awesome swim TT and fire up my legs (which by the way are still sore as hell from yesterday's strength workout), and just let it all hang out, and watch the watts tick up until I hit 170 after 10', but no, I need to meet the FIRST interval, so I push extra hard for the last 5' and get back to 173 watts.

I have to go get a well-deserved massage now, over and out, I tell ya the Collective is a force to be reckoned with! Tomorrow I will just relax through my 3,100 yard swim workout and an easy 1:05 tempo run.

LIFE IS AWESOME!!!