Whining

I had a big training week last week, and it gets more intense this week, and more intense the week following, and one more friggin' really intense week before I get some sort of taper for Ralph's 1/2 Ironman. Did I say my training is pretty hard? I'm not complaining, and it's generally not like me to whine, but I see many others doing it, so I thought I'd indulge in a little myself.

When I woke up today, I was tired. Dead tired. Muscularly tired. Fatigued. The week that was caught up to me big time. Not to mention I had trouble falling asleep last night, even though I was pretty tired.

Did I want to get out of bed at 5:15 when I heard the coffee pot click on? Hell no. Waah, waah, waah. I was tired. I was comfortable in my big bed. Once I had fallen asleep last night, I slept pretty soundly and enjoyed a few interesting dreams. But I did not want to get out of bed. Waah, waah, waah.

I knew if I was going to swim I had better get my ass on the floor and stretch first, as I could hear my damstrings talking to me and also my back was acting a little creaky. The stretching felt good, and at least I could moan out loud without anyone judging me or making stupid remarks like, "Are you going to be OK?" Yes, dammit I'm going to be OK I just have to warm myself up a little bit before I throw my tired body into a hole in the ground filled with water so I can get more tired, so I need to eat more and then do another workout and get more tired and eat again and one more workout and more eating. Waah, waah, waah.

Did I want to swim this morning? Hell no. I always know going into a swim tired I am going to not like it so much. Waah, waah, waah. I went anyway. 3100 yards. The pool was too warm. But I swam the full 3100 yards. And I even did pretty good on my 100's, much to my surprise, even as I could feel my arms and lats about to fall off and my legs not having any power.

Waah, waah, waah. Then I needed to lift weights a few hours later. In my power and endurance phase, this week the power exercises moved up to 3x8 from 2x8. So an extra set there. I was tired when I woke up, and I was tired after swimming. But I made sure to eat a couple of bananas, drink lots of water, and even had a snack of cheese with salt to get ready for the weight session. God, I was freaking tired when I started lifting, but I still had strength. Waah, waah, waah. I decided to work my legs first today, just to punish myself even further. I figured if I got that pain out of the way first that when I had to run later maybe some of it would be gone. Waah, waah, waah.

Apparently I had plenty of strength to get through a solid hour of strength workout. And did I say it hurt like a mother and left me wanting to curl into a ball on the floor and cry, "MOMMY?" Waah, waah, waah.

More work, and actually I was quite lucid for a training session I attended and focused attentively for the entire time. But of course, in the back of my mind I kept thinking, "I have to freaking RUN yet today." Only this week I wasn't stupid--I ate lunch during the training session so I wouldn't be all depleted going into my run. And I also had some Black Forest brand Gummy Bears. Did you know that 1 serving is 17 bears? Like I freaking care. I can eat as many bears as I like, and you won't see any excess weight here. Waah, waah, waah.

Finally, it was time to run and believe it or not, I didn't feel too badly. Some friends of mine were at the Y, so I did some chit-chat and got on the treadmill, and surprise, surprise, my HR was in the dumpster. Like I didn't see that coming! But no matter, my legs felt fine, probably because I knew I "only" had to run for 50', easy to steady, with 10' of strides. The run was a cinch, and then I came home.

WAAH, WAAH, WAAH. Man am I T-I-R-E-D. All I can hope for is that I fall into a deep, deep sleep (no alarm will be set!) and that my legs come around for my bike session tomorrow. Something tells me they will as long as I EAT THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF MY HOUSE.

The funny thing about all of this is that Mondays are an EASY day on my training schedule. Ah, the power of perspective! If I'm going to whine, it's going to be on an easy day. But I'm done whining for now. It's not like me. What IS like me is to train freaking hard and grow stronger. And I'm doing that. It's all good. I will rest, recover and get stronger from today. When was the last time I bailed on a workout? I can't remember. I don't want to.