Last Day of January and a Little Race Report

Thought I should check in here for all 3 readers of my blog ;)

So I had my "day I thought I might be sick and took a complete day of rest instead" on 21-JAN, then I trained well over the weekend. On Monday, I felt suitably worked over, but still managed to swim. My legs felt a bit sore (not just fatigued), so instead of running, I just walked on the treadmill, doing a hill workout. Didn't feel tired doing it, but as soon as I got off, I felt super tired. This is not uncommon for a Monday. Being at work is just "that much more" stress that it can put me over the top, fatigue-wise.

Tuesday morning when I woke up (after having slept 11 hours), my legs were SORE. I am pretty good at distinguishing fatigue from sore related to a particular workout, but this was much worse. It was my body telling me to rest my legs totally or things would just get worse. So I did. I had a run and bike scheduled, and I just skipped them, hoping the one day of rest would be all that I needed.

Wednesday morning I swam again and when it was time for my tempo run, my legs were feeling pretty good, and I had a really good run, so good call on taking Tuesday off. I ran again Thursday morning, and did a hard ride later on which went well.

I wasn't looking forward to Friday's long swim. I know I technically don't need to do all these long swims right now, and I know I have the fitness to build up to 10k whenever I want, but the reality is that doing a 2+ hour swim before work is a different animal, and if I get out of the groove for just a week, they seem to tax me more than I'd done one the prior week. Which was the case. I only swam 6700 (should have gotten in 7000 but I jabbered too much before starting), and even with all the right nutrition and such, I was pretty whacked the rest of the day. I had a small desire to make up for my lost Tuesday run, but instead I finished lifting for the week. I do find that I feel better after the long swims if I do about 1/2 hour of SOMETHING. I am so used to a morning and then mid-day workout during the week that it has become almost necessary.

Saturday I only had to do a 2:15 trainer ride because I would be racing on Sunday. The mental ease of this "short" of a ride compared to 3 hours was awesome. Initially I hadn't planned on running afterward, but I thought what the hell, 20 minutes shouldn't hurt, so I did, and it didn't feel too bad. When I finished, I watched World Cup Skiing (alpine) for a couple of hours. I have become addicted to it, especially since Ivica Kostelic is in the overall lead. He's Croatian, like me, so I am rooting for him. Whenever I'm on the trainer, I've been watching Universal Sports, and I've caught a lot of skiing and just started following it.

Sunday morning I felt a little worked from Saturday's workout. I think I've been biking pretty hard, but the Ergomo on LGL is shot so I have just been basing my intervals on speed. I may be riding harder than I think or vice versa. I know my heart rate is in the dumpster, as I just never feel like I'm taxing my heart anymore (more on that later). I had written a warmup for the race of 15' on the treadmill and 15' on the bike (and whatever swim I could get in at the race venue).

My legs actually felt pretty good running, so I guessed that I actually had a bit of race day adrenaline going! What a nice change of pace! When I got on the bike, same thing. I had a slight concern I might be warming up too hard, but who can say?

I got to the club where the race was being held with not much time to spare. I did check out what kind of bikes they were using this year--some alien things I'd never seen before, and neither had anyone else. They put you in the most god awful position like you are going to fall into the display unit, and the saddles are designed for a 10 year old's butt. Oh well, everyone has the same issue.

I got into the pool and it was pretty cold for me. I had a gutter lane and was next to a big guy that I pegged as not the greatest swimmer. I was so concerned about gunning it on the swim or hyperventilating that I just took it super easy--TOO easy. I did feel like I was getting slammed into the wall with waves much of the time. When I got out, I wasn't the least bit winded, so yeah, I can swim faster than that. My volunteer lap counter remarked at how fit I am. It wasn't because of my swim speed, though!

When I got on the evil bike, I had no clue what strategy I should use. A friend said that the resistance was more than you might suspect, so I stuck with what I had used all the other years on the Precor bikes. It seemed to work for me, and I got in more mileage than I thought I would, which seemed to confirm that my bike training has been spot on. But I think I can do better in the race 2 weeks from now.

I did have to lay on the floor for about a minute after I got off the bike, so I think I gave it a good go. Now onto the run. I have not felt good about my run speed for a few months. It seems to be coming back to me, but I have felt like I've been struggling. Still, I just wanted to just run evenly and not slow down. I left my watch with my bottle of Infinit on the sideline.

I just took off and let the rabbits go. I kept telling myself "it's just 15 minutes" and tried to keep a steady pace. I did not look at the race clock because I didn't want to know how much I was sucking. I did get lapped once by a few people, but I also lapped 4 or 5 people in my wave. If I had taken off my headphones, I would have known that I stopped a bit early, and I could have banged out another 1/32 of a mile maybe. I did go and look at the results board and see that I got 2nd in my AG. I was a bit surprised, because I figured I sucked enough for 3rd, but I was good with 2nd. The woman in 1st aged up this year, and she's a much better swimmer than me, but I was surprised she didn't pass me on the run. So maybe there's hope for me in the next race...

I never felt that "heart jumping out of my chest" sensation while running. I think my heart rate just doesn't go too high anymore. I can wear an HRM on the treadmill and bike, but I hate the way the chest strap feels, but I might give it a go just to see where it is.

I got a massage and then headed back to the treadmills to run 1:15 (which sucked), caught the end of a friend's race, got another massage, watched the elite wave and then headed home. Even though I'd gotten about :35 of massage, I felt compelled to stretch some more at home. I got lucky that Universal Sports was just beginning to show more World Cup Skiing, and I got to see my main man Ivica win the Super Combined.

Today I managed to swim 3,000 yards in the morning and actually ran for :20 at lunchtime. I am still pretty tired, and will need a good night of rest to recover some more tonight. I am being watchful of my fatigue status because I have a "real" race in 4 weeks--Gasparilla--and I need to be 100% healthy for it. I have been training A LOT, but I also need to keep my eyes on the prize--my "A" race isn't until November. Still, I expect high performance out of myself all the time, so it's a delicate balancing act I have to follow.

In other news, I'm really enjoying baking stuff for my breakfast. Muffins are so damn easy to make, and you can fudge the ingredient composition a bit unlike for say, a cake. Last Friday night I made some carrot/raisin muffins, and I punched up the protein content with some wheat germ. They are really tasty! On Sunday I made a walnut cake (OH NO!) because I had some walnuts hanging around that needed using. I calculated the calories in the entire cake and decided that 12 pieces were in order, and I can have a slice whenever I want! I have also been cooking up a storm this winter and have to be careful lest I have no room in my freezer.

Now I will just wait for this alleged blizzard to show up. Other than making it inconvenient to get to the pool (I can walk if I have to), I'm all set. I have plenty of food, Gatorade, beer. I'm not looking forward to moving a bunch of snow, but it will need to be done. I may swim tomorrow morning just because Wednesday is supposed to be hellacious, and then I don't have to go anywhere until Friday, so by then the roads should be passable.

Hope everyone has a great week!