Yesterday I did my first official track workout--5K and 10K pace intervals. I was bummed after my dismal, pathetic run in the indoor tri last Sunday, but I felt ready for this. My schedule (stupid coach!) didn't have me doing track work until 2 weeks later. I've been barely training for the last 3 weeks (about 12, 14 and 13.5 hours), which was most definitely called for, but come on, I can only go low for so long.
Ludacris: How Low (Official Video) from DTP TV on Vimeo.
I was hitting sub-8's on the 5K intervals, and right around 8's for 10K, which is the fastest I've gone in a few years. And they didn't feel that bad (although I was grimacing and cussing on my last laps of each repeat), so fingers crossed, I will go faster. We will see on Sunday when I slam some serious tempo work into my long run. While I felt predictably beat up yesterday (I did a hard 2200 swim right after the run), I feel absolutely awesome today.
My swim experiment with daily (whenever I'm swimming, that is) paddles and pull buoy seems to be working. I am able to swim really fast (for me) with them, and it is showing in my non-toy swimming speed during warmups, and while I still swam my usual pace on Sunday, it was solid, really not much effort. The experiment is teaching me to be OK with a higher heart rate while swimming, which is tough for me being so bradycardic.
Biking is also coming along in a huge way. Racing on Sunday again reminded me of just how hard I can go, and that is showing up in my workouts this week. I did laugh during the race on Sunday, since I could see my heart rate on the bike, and it was good 'n high for me (high 130's), but my sense of it was "it's just a number." That's why I no longer use a heart rate monitor--at some point, I would become concerned over seeing the high numbers. Fuck that noise.
Now comes the really fun part. Last year, while I was "resting," (and I do mean that figuratively, since WTF 780 hours is not exactly slacking), I decided I needed to move heavier weight in my strength sessions. I had experience with the heavy stuff, but it can be dicey mixing high volume triathlon training with heavy lifting sessions. So last year was perfect for going a little bigger. While I did my really long stuff in December/early January, I had to back off the weights, because that is just what you do if you are going to pile on the endurance training. But now, I am back on them, and this week I am noticing that I might be able to dump on even more weight very soon!
I suppose my evolution as a triathlete, which has occurred over only 11 years, at an advanced age, is probably right on schedule, in terms of being able to truly handle the high volume, and now, possibly also much heavier weights. Plus a good dose of high intensity work! Is that cool or what?
Hence the title of this post. Whenever I feel like this, I have a bit of a sense of foreboding that things may come crashing down on me at any minute. But I am being very watchful of how my muscles feel, and they seem fine. My only concern is the inability to sleep for more than 7-8 hours a night. This may be due to the lessened volume, underestimating my metabolism (which, of course, was seriously jacked up a month ago), my recurring winter darkness confusion (this has happened to me before I began training so much), my age or hormonal factors (but come on, I am done with that shit I thought) or some other factor. I do sleep quite well for the first 7 hours, and if I can't fall back asleep, I force myself to stay in bed for at least another hour. I am not yet at a point where I feel like I should see my physician, although I did ask her to write me another scrip for sleeping pills, and she asked whether I was OK, extra stressed, etc., and I said NO. So unless something else rears its ugly head, I have to just roll with it. If any of my three blog readers have ideas about this, please pass them along.
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