Survived another big week

Where do I start?

First, I wondered if I'd feel at all OK on Monday after Sunday's warmup then race then run afterward. 2 weeks prior, I felt absolutely shelled on Monday and took the day off. This time, I thought I got the nutrition and hydration right for my long swim the Friday before, felt pretty good Saturday for a bike and run and then the race went well on Sunday and I hoped I'd come close to covering my calorie replacement for the day.

Monday morning I woke up and was predictably a little "crusty," but felt that a swim would do me good to loosen up if nothing else. I only had to swim 2700, so I went and got it done, and immediately ate another breakfast afterward, since I could tell I was low on carbs. While the swim felt great, I now felt like I'd been hit by a truck, but after the oatmeal kicked in, I felt like I was up for running, and so I did an easy 50' run at lunchtime and felt like I was coming around.

I had to attend a 2-day offsite training seminar for work Tuesday and Wednesday. Since we would be sequestered during lunch, I shuffled my workouts for Tuesday-Thursday, since I wouldn't be able to do lunchtime workouts on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Tuesday I had to get my 1:25 bike in first thing in the morning, which meant starting at 6AM, and my body was just not into it. I had enough sleep, but a trainer ride at that time of day is rare for me, but I slogged through it anyway and figured I had some residual fatigue from Sunday anyway.

Wednesday morning I thought I'd lift for 1/2 hour and then go and do my run, which starting this week for about 8 weeks or so, is a nice track workout with 5k and 10k intervals included. I was careful not to do anything with my legs in my lifting session, and then headed to the Y to run. I did the 10' warmup on the treadmill (which prevents me from running too fast when I'm supposed to be warming up), and then hit the track, where, surprise, surprise, it turns out I'm running a little faster than a year ago. YA THINK???? After all that running I've done since last September, I assumed maybe I should be a little faster, and the indoor tris more or less bore that out, but now this workout was just 3 days later than a race. I continue to be surprised that I can turn in a decent run performance just about whenever now. Still, once I finished the 1-hour blitz, my legs were a little sore, but I stretched a little bit before heading to the training class. When I got back home after the session, I worked for about an hour and then lifted for about another 1/2 hour.

Thursday morning I swam just 1900 (it was supposed to be a threshold test, but my training is just too nutso and changing all the time for me to be "on" for these, go figure), and then I ran for 1/2 hour. I normally would have done that short run on Saturday after my long ride, but I was going to change things up for the weekend, so I got it done Thursday morning. Later in the day I did another 1:25 trainer ride, and just did not have biking legs (the story of the week, I guess), but I finished it for time with craptastic power output.

I had decided I would do a "big Saturday" by combining my long swim and long ride, which meant that Friday I could sort of sleep in (for a change!) and just do a 50' easy run, and then later on finish up my strength work for the week. Even though I hadn't trained more QUANTITY by Friday than normal, adding that track workout just 3 days after a race was enough for me to feel sort of tired on Friday anyway. But at least I didn't have to swim 2.5 hours! Still, I had to make bottles for Saturday so I'd be ready to roll before 5AM.

Yesterday I woke up at 3:45 so I'd have time to choke down 650 calories before I began working out. I needed to be in the pool at 5AM in order to get 3 hours of time before Masters started. I'd mixed up 3 bottles of a new Infinit mix that contains a bit of protein, as I've been advised to try and start taking in some protein for these long workouts. I putzed around a little and started swimming at 5:07, but still managed to get in 8700 yards by 8AM. The Infinit seemed fine, but it also had less caffeine than my normal mix so we'd have to see how that went. Since I'd sucked down so many calories before I started, I couldn't finish all of the Infinit, but still did pretty well.

I went back home to hop on the bike, and I'd decided to not use Infinit but just Gatorade and gels. I am not sure if that was the mistake, or the protein Infinit was bad, but I just never felt good on the bike. I am going to attribute it to the Infinit, and in 2 weeks I'll switch back to 100% carbs for comparison. Anyway, it wasn't like I needed to ride HARD, but I wanted to and just didn't have the oomph I was looking for. Or maybe I am just growing tired of 2:30+ trainer rides. Maybe the 4000 yards of pulling wore me out. Who knows? I was just glad once I got done, and I treated myself to a huge serving (more like 1.5) of the lasagna I'd made and frozen last month or whenever that was, and it was great. I also had Endurox R4, then a Ghiradelli treat of caramel-filled squares and a small mint-flavored Milky Way. I figured that a 6-hour workout entitled me to some treats! For dinner I had 2 meaty lamb chops and a big pile of spaghetti with homemade pesto chased with a couple of beers. Once I finished working out, the remainder of the day consisted of laying around and watching the Olympics. I really got into the 30k cross-country race, and enjoyed watching the teamwork of the Swedes--it was more like a bike race!

Since I had woken up so early, I was pretty ready to sleep by 7PM but stayed up until 8PM to watch a bit more Olympics before retiring. No alarm clock.

The deal for this weekend was to see if I could back up a big swim and ride with a long run. This is something I'd not done yet, and as this Ultraman training is all about trying out new stuff and seeing how I respond (especially considering that on paper I have some amazing shit planned!), I figured this was a good time to try out the combination, as in about another month, I will move my long run(s) to Thursday (and also Tuesday come May FUCKING OUCH!).

When I woke up this morning, I felt well rested (10 hours is good for that), and didn't feel gnarly muscular-wise. I wanted to start running by 9AM which meant I had some time for some other chores like dusting, dishes, etc. Well in that time, and I find this happens frequently, I began feeling tired, so I drank most of a can of Coke before heading to the Y. My body is funny that way in that if I just start training before my brain can sidetrack me, I'm usually good, but if I put it off for even an hour I start to feel tired.

I got to the Y and had to congratulate one of the trainers who had just qualified for Boston in his first marathon!. He's 23, and he and I chat regularly about this and that. So I wasted some more time, but it was fun talking to him, and then I got down to business.

When I started running, it actually felt good, so once again I surprised myself by achieving another milestone in this journey. Plus, I did a progressive run which ended with 20' at tempo pace, and that felt hard, but still I got it done, getting in 13.1 miles in 2 hours. Then I walked for 30' at 4mph changing incline .5% every 5 minutes.

All in all, I got in 17 hours regular training plus 30 minutes walking, so not a bad week. I feel pretty tired right now (expected), but better than I felt last Sunday after I finished all that stuff. So I'm hopeful I can be in good enough shape to get in a swim tomorrow morning, and then I'll bike since we are getting another snowstorm, so I'll put off running until Tuesday.

This week will be challenging again, as I hope to rediscover my biking legs, I've got another track workout on Wednesday, and I'll be back to swimming 2.5 hours on Friday before work, a 2:30 ride on Saturday plus a :40 run, and Sunday is the last of the 3 indoor triathlons (which I intend to win my AG, even though I've secured the series win already), but I need to run a total of 1:40 on Sunday between warmup, race and post-race run again. The week after will be a beast--sort of like this week--only I will be running more. I will do another "big Saturday."

I am getting better at the nutrition thing. It seems lately that literally all I do is eat, sleep, train, stretch and work. But if I get the nutrition thing right, I have a little energy left over on the weekends to get a few things done. And I am grateful for that time right now. Once it warms up and I'm running outside exclusively, that will mean less time spent driving to/from the Y, and I may even start running there to swim in the morning...anything I can do to get more time on my feet is a good thing, and 3 trips a week on foot would give me 3.6 extra miles of running per week, which will switch over to biking to the outdoor pool in June.

Arrggggghhhh...speaking of which did anyone see the ski cross qualification round? Enak Gavaggio had the most rad helmet that had a skull and crossbones on it. I saw this while I was still running (and quite smelly, I'm sure), and just lit up, pointed at the TV screen and shouted "NICE!"

I am amazed that yet again I have been able to do something new that give me just a little more confidence about this thing I am training for that maybe, just maybe, I can do it. To me it's a little like collecting so many tokens that I am going to need to pull out on the race days--the more of them I collect sooner in the training process, the more time I have to collect a huge stash, and then whether I need them all or only a few during the race, it doesn't matter because I HAVE THEM! That to me is what confidence building is all about. I have already done 11 7,000+ yard swims and now have done long swim/long ride combination twice and a few rather long runs along the way. And I am beginning to collect nutrition tokens, too, which are just as important as the training ones. So my collection of tokens is growing, even though they are damn difficult to collect! But every time I get another one, my mind believes just a little more that I may actually be able to do this thing. Even more importantly, though, is that every time I collect another token, my desire to continue training grows. Believe me (and I know I sound like a broken record), this is the most difficult thing I have ever attempted, and the voices telling me to just give up that this is too hard are present frequently. But the tokens quiet them down, and eventually they will be gone (I hope!), leaving me with the means to get the race done and finished.