Back to our Regularly Scheduled Training

This week I tweaked my Monday/Wednesday pre-swim routine to include standing on one foot a few times, at the suggestion of my bike fitter. So now my routine consists of 30-35 chinups, 60 pushups, 65-70 abs variations, 2 sets of 90" bridges on each side and to center, and standing on one leg. I still want to add jump rope to the mix, but will wait one more week as my legs adjust to running. All this takes about 20', and I've added a few more things to my regular strength routine as well, so somehow I ended up doing almost 2 hours of strength work this week. Oh well, I need it, with all the swimming I'm doing and making myself strong to withstand the amount of training I am throwing at myself.

Running went well this week--on Wednesday, the body decided it was ready for some 5K pace work, even though I was trying to hold back. Oh well! Sometimes you just need to let things happen.

Weather here has been mild for this time of the year, so all my running has been outdoors. Tuesday I biked outdoors on the MTB, since I just couldn't see being inside when it was so nice. Thursday brought some extra stress, so I decided to skip my bike workout, figuring I might make some of it up on Saturday.

Friday morning I did my longest swim workout to date--6200 yards--and it went well. I got in and started swimming and thought it was a good day to swim continuously, which I did for 5,000 yards, and then I kicked 700 and did backstroke for 500 (I'm adding backstroke in here and there just to balance out my over developed pectorals). I'm already ahead of schedule for my Friday long swims, and it got me to thinking about looking at other training I have scheduled for Fridays which is usually a run. Well I'm OK running on the same day as 2-2:15 worth of swimming, but once those swims start taking 2:30 or more, I'm not so sure. So today I once again tweaked the training plan to account for that. I can move those Friday runs to Tuesday or Thursday depending on what else I have going. But I did run on Friday, and it was a good run.

Yesterday I was thinking I'd do 1-1:30 on the bike indoors and then head outside and make up a little for my missed Thursday workout. Instead, I started out by raking leaves for about 1:45, and while I was out there, for some reason I thought I'd see if I could fire up my old Trek road bike which hasn't been ridden since 2006, which is when I got LGL. So I took that bike down from the hooks in the garage, pumped the tires and lo and behold they held air, waited a few minutes, wiped down the frame, lubed it up and got ready to ride.

I thought I'd ride for 2:30-3:00, but ended up around 3:20, maybe 56 miles, but who knows since I had no computer. And I bonked nicely, recalling I hadn't really eaten enough carbs on Friday night. I am still getting used to fueling myself for these really long swims--I know to eat well the night before, but need to get used to eating more the day of, too. Finished up the ride and was plenty tired and bonky, but slammed down some leftover Halloween candy (Juicy Fruits) and guzzled some Gatorade and took off for 1/2 hour run. Oh boy, I felt like I was running through mud, but really didn't do all that bad and did my :30.

Needless to say, I ate a lot yesterday, or so I thought, but in retrospect should have had more. When I woke up this morning, it felt like I had a hangover, but I couldn't have (2 beers), so figured it was just the shock of 4 hours of working out (more like 6 if you count raking leaves). Still, I wanted to go for a 1:30 run today, so luckily I had defizzed a can of Coke for the run, and decided I better slam one down before I started, too.

I went to Waterfall Glen and felt like I was really struggling. So much so that I thought of just bagging the run, but then I thought, hey what if I feel like this in Ultraman am I going to suck it up or what? So I kept going, and was even managing a decent pace, although I stopped every 1/2 mile or so just to stop and stretch and continued on. I managed to get in 10 miles, and I had packed a swim bag, but on the way home I was thinking food seemed like a better idea than a recovery swim. But I went to the Y anyway, and even though I took my sweet time on deck, once I got in and started swimming, it felt great, so I got in 1200 yards, showered and hit the sauna, and went home to have lunch.

I spent the rest of the day just relaxing, and now I've got dinner going (roast chicken w/garlic, lemon and rosemary, cranberry sauce which is done, and steamed asparagus once the chicken is just about ready), and have things ready to go for tomorrow's AM core workout and swim.

The Midwest Indoor Triathlon Series has been announced with official dates. There are only 3 races next year, and the first one is 2 weeks after Goofy Challenge, so unfortunately, I won't be doing that one, but I'll do the other two. It's sad that there are only 3 races, but for me, I guess it's a good thing because on the week of those things I just about thrash myself training, and next year's schedule is worse than ever.

At least once a week, I get to thinking about what I am trying to do in training for Ultraman, and I have this huge sense of fear. Which, I think, is healthy. I look at my training plan and wonder how I will get it all done, but then I put myself back in the moment of today, of now, and enjoy the fact that I still have some time on my hands on the weekend where I can enjoy cooking, reading and spending time with family and friends. When I am training, I have a smile on my face, and I know it because I get a lot of people smiling back at me. As long as that keeps up, I will maintain my motivation!