Now I am Training

Yesterday marked the beginning of my full-on training plan for 2015. I had (still do) some residual fatigue from Triple Dog Dare, but felt good doing some easy workouts--a 1-hour drill session in the pool, :35 of strength work and a :30 easy-peasy run including strides. I'm fortunate to have all the weights in my home office and can sneak in parts of my strength work between/during conference calls or as "smoke breaks."

I did have to nap in the middle of the day, as I worked from 3-5AM, and the swim and weights tired me out! I don't usually go down for 2 hours, but yesterday I did, and it felt absolutely glorious! Running felt just fine, and I stretched out well before having dinner.

I still have about 5 lbs. of leftover water weight (at least I hope it's that!) from TDD. After thinking about this for a bit, I've come to the conclusion that this is because I haven't been regularly exposing myself to 5+ hour workouts including sodium supplementation. I believe that once my body is once again used to regular 4+ hour workouts ("regular" meaning at least once a week then more like twice a week), that I will no longer puff up after them. This is what happened to me the first time I did an Ironman, the first time I rode my bike for over 8 hours, and a few other events like Triple T.

Nevertheless, I need to get my body comp straightened out, and in contrast to what a lot of people do, I'm getting it done between now and 1/1. I just need to watch the snack and beer intake, and go a bit lower on the starchy carbs at dinner.

I like to establish goals for myself, both short- and long-term. I haven't yet done enough measurement to predict race paces for the coming year (except that I want to win my AG at as many of them as I can), but I know that correct body comp is critical to that. I need to do my easy workouts easy so I can do my hard workouts hard. I need to keep my laser focus on the bigger goal, which is Ultraman Hawaii in 2016.

I have a large mirror in my bedroom that used to be mounted on the wall at the foot of my bed, but when I got a new flat screen TV last year, I had it moved to over the head board, just because I like mirrors, and it's a high quality mirror that was in my upstairs bathroom before I had it remodeled in 2008. When the mirror was on the wall where the TV is now, I used to write things on it to motivate me, so this morning I decided it was time to do that again:

So now every time I look up there I will see this. #1 is important, #2 is because I think I should be sleeping more, but that may be self-adjusting as I add in high intensity workouts. #3 is because, well, it is very important, and #4 is a reminder to perform well at everything I do.

Time to see how it goes!