Nailing a Workout and How if Affects My Mood

I did it, I did it, I did it. Three times today. Swim, bike and run. A triathlon of sorts. To wash away the mental anguish from sabotaging my own workout on Saturday (which wasn't really all that bad; after all I nailed the run, right?).

Let me just say that sleeping my normal amount was key. Normal being 8.5 hours. Also helpful was the lucid dreaming, which is typically positively oriented (I would hate to have lucid dreams about horrifying things, but I know it happens to people occasionally). Also helpful is implementing what I am saying I need to do which is to let my support network know that I am in no state to take any crap, be given "extra" work to do or be inconvenienced in any way. Yet it will happen, and I know that, but still at least I've put the word out there, so if I react badly, it won't come as a surprise.

Also helpful is knowing that I only have to work today and tomorrow this week. Even though I don't consider my job highly stressful, nevertheless, I am very aware of how differently I feel on a day when I don't work. Even better is having an actual "rest" day from training on a day of no work. When I have or take a rest day on a day when I do work, it isn't really all that restful, because I tend to just work harder!

So I went into today figuring (as I've said to people at work), "Every Monday is a new week." I guess it's a take on "Today is the first day of the rest of your life," but I don't always want to think that far ahead, and I think focusing on one week at a time (and sometimes one day at a time) is a little easier to cope with.

I had scheduled a 3,400 yard swim for myself, and Rich had scheduled a 1:30 ride/:40 run brick workout. When I looked at it on paper today, I thought something needs to give. So I decided to sub in a shorter (2,650 yards) swim workout.

Got to the pool about 6:45AM, and asked to share a lane with someone I hadn't seen there before--Brent. Brent is an awesome swimmer, and he looked friendly, so we started up a conversation, where I learned he's got friends trying to rope him into triathlon, and he has a concern with running, and of course me being the pusher that I am, I assured him he'd probably do just fine, since I know lots of former college swimmers (as he is) who are able to pick up the other 2 sports quite easily. I have to say, though, it's pretty easy to talk to a hottie swimmer dude. We can always use more hot men in the sport of triathlon!

Brent was almost done and Chad shows up, and I think Chad was a bit jealous that I was lavishing my attention on Brent, so he thrusted his hand into our lane to shake hands with Brent and introduce himself. I told Chad that Brent didn't know what he was getting into, and we all had a good laugh!

I start my workout and then Jamie arrives, and I tell him that Brent is almost done, although I laugh because many times when a swimmer says "almost done," they mean just another 800 yards or so. Anyway, Brent does finish up, I wave goodbye, and Jamie joins my lane, and we're all swimming.

So I had a good swimmer on either side of me to get me motivated today to swim harder than I normally do. At one point, I was keeping up with Jamie, and at another point, to my own amazement, with Chad. Of course he was going slowly (or so I thought), and I had fins on, so whatever. But still, like I said, it was nice to be surrounded by mojo. Chad even mentioned that I was keeping him en pointe. Unbelievable!

I finished up the workout feeling not at all tired, in fact when I started I was so wired up because I got such good sleep last night, otherwise I might not have even done the swim workout, since the key workout for today was the brick.

As soon as I got home, all I could think about was the next workout, but I had to get some work done before I started, and so I lined up what I needed to do, and caught a minute here and there to pump my tires, select today's outfits and running shoes and ensure I had bottles chilled for biking. I don't know why I even bother with regular clothes lately, since it seems I am always just taking them off to get ready for a workout!

I took off on the bike around 11:30AM on schedule, and did an easy warmup. What a gorgeous day! It was about 72 with light winds. I hoped that not too many cars would be looking to kill me today, but as always, I was very cautious initially. I did get a lot of looks because I'm still sporting my temporary tattoos which will remain until I get my massage on Thursday. I guess I look a bit aggro.

As I neared my interval loop, I could feel my mood change to "it's work time." This time, there was no easing into the interval stuff, just warmup and then it's GO TIME. Shifted into the big chainring, and started out. I thought it must be Tuesday, because that's when I usually do these workouts, but it got shifted to today because I'm riding 100 miles on Wednesday. But I still had some of my fans out, and they waved heartily every time I looped past them while they were on lunch break.

When I fired up the first interval, I could really feel a power surge in my legs, and thought where did that come from? OK, well, let's just keep it up then. And I got the first :15 done and thought, can I repeat with only :03 rest? Yep. And then once more, with feeling. They were all good intervals and spot on. And then I got to go easy for :05 and finally complete the last bit, which I should have cut short because I was running low on time, but then I thought, what the heck, I can be a few minutes late for my 2:00PM meeting or cut my run a bit short. So I got it done, the workout ended up being 1:45 and it felt great.

Now it's time to run. Since I was trying to beat the clock, I hurried up and changed into running shorts, washed my scummy face, put on my running shoes and hat, grabbed a bottle of Gatorade and I was off in about 2:30. Not too bad a transition time--it could have been faster--but it was good enough for today. It was not a race!

I started running in my typical "just keep your cadence up and the pace will take care of itself" mode, and surprisingly, my legs didn't feel all that trashed. But I could tell I'd need to work to make it happen. Looking at my watch, I decided that instead of running for :40 that I would just go 4 miles in however long it took and call it a day.

The run went well, and I was really in the zone of just doing what I needed to do, and it didn't feel like pain or bad in any way. It just felt like effort.

When I finished, I just felt great, and I still feel great. I reestablished that my bike power is right about where it should be right now (I haven't had luck with hitting the elusive 200 FTP; I'm stuck at around 180-185), and that's what I'm going into IMLP with. And I learned that even though I haven't been sleeping enough, that I've been doing quality workouts, and the numbers show up when I am truly rested.

So I guess the point of this post is that I'm just like anyone else in that I can get down on myself when I don't perform up to my own sky-high expectations, but also that I know deep down inside what I'm capable of and that on any given day, it can all unfold to give me a wonderful experience, which is what I had today. So I'll take this one, and be happy for it, yet not use it to set expectations for the Ironman.

I will be happy (I should say happiER--I haven't been unhappy) just for today and see what tomorrow brings. I feel like I'm finally absorbing all the nonsense of the last 11 weeks, and this week makes the magic 12-week classic Ironman build. So it's about time that it's all seeming like it's coming together!