Oh, Crap!

A lot of my focus lately has been getting in my training while keeping my body healthy for quick recovery. Well, this week I got slammed with a pretty bad head cold, which is now moving to my chest. I've already missed 6 training sessions this week - at a time when I really can't afford to be missing any!

Ironman is only 30 days away. The next 48 hours for me is going to be nothing but making sure my body is better and able to handle the stress of the next couple weeks.

It's so close, I can taste it!

Mental Blecchhies

This week I had a case of the mental blecchhies (see a few posts ago for the physical blecchhies). My body is working fine, but getting myself motivated, especially on the days with two training sessions, was a bitch. Knowing that I've only got about 6 weeks left and can't derail myself now, I asked a three friends who have about 8 Ironman finishes between them if they ever felt this way and what they did.

Thank goodness for friends! All three of them experienced the same thing, and all three got through it by telling themselves that it is ok to miss a workout every now and then. It is ok to substitute a chicken breast and Endurox with chocolate chip cookies and a mojito for a recovery meal.

So one night this week, after a pretty decent swim I walked to the nearest convenience store and went home with a pint of Ben & Jerry's. I don't even remember the flavor, but it was sooooo good. I, of course, ate the entire thing that night - all 1,000 calories of it.

Now it's the weekend and I'm feeling pretty good. The only thing on my training schedule was a recovery run, which I did with Meyer this morning. Tomorrow is another 5k race, and I'll be shooting for 19:30. Back in May my coach said he thought I'd be at 19:30 by the end of the summer. I laughed. Now that possibility isn't that far off. We'll see tomorrow.

Case of the Blecchhies

This weekend I got a case of the blecchhies. Yeah, it's pronounced like it looks. It isn't good.

I went to my coach's open water swim camp yesterday morning. We started out at the Glade pool - a surprisingly nice "community" pool, with lap lanes and all. We went through a lot of drills that Kevin and I had already gone through. We got our swim stroke videtaped. And mine showed that my body position still sucks.

After the first session, we all planned to meet at the Beach Patrol Station on the beach at 2:00 for the second part of the camp.

That gave me time to go join Meyer at Seaside Jewish Community Center, where we were sponsoring the Kiddush. I'm not sure if I had a reaction to the food or what, but around 1:00 I felt like crap - upset stomach, tired, achy...the works.

So no second part of camp for me. Kevin and I agreed to meet this morning at 7:30 for a little one-on-one session before the next group session. But I woke up feeling just as bad as I did yesterday.

Ugh!

I NEED to get time in the water, especially the open water. I'm frustrated as hell and I'm starting to really worry about the swim. 2.4 miles is so long for me.

I just have to keep plugging away at it.

Lows and Highs

Wow, I just realized how long it has been since I last updated the blog. Then I realized how many ups and downs I've experienced since my last post.

Shortly the July 4th holiday I began hitting a mental wall. My training was ok - not great, but ok - but my mind just wasn't in it. I think I was questioning all of the time and effort and if it will really be worth it. At this point, if I'm not working or sleeping, I'm training, and I've had to put just about everything else on the back burner. I'd signed up for the Dave Reynold's Biathlon, picked up my race packet the day before, and then just couldn't do it. I was in bed when the starting gun went off.

In not doing the biathlon, I was able to have two days off of training in a row - something I hadn't had in a while. I guess it was good for me, because the training for me since then has been better. Last Wednesday I got in a good speed workout - hitting 2:50's for six half-mile repeats. And last Friday I had a pretty good speed workout on the bike with my coach. We did nine 1.2-mile repeats and really pushed it.

The speed work must have helped me in last Saturday's Seashore Strider 5k race. I took second in my age group and had a PR of 19:48. I felt good enough to run the route again as a cool down, and then add another mile by running home.

Yesterday I got in a good 3-hour ride. Only in southern Delaware have I been able to do an out-and-back ride and experience headwinds both ways. I was wiped out, though, for the remainder of the day and napped most of the afternoon.

I already got my 60-minute run in today and will be swimming this afternoon. This is going to be a tough week of training but it will get me ready for my "push" phase over the next month.

Only 62 days to go!

MIA?

Lately I've been missing in action. Or more like, missing from action.

A couple weeks ago I had my awesome running interval workout with the group, followed by an tough bike interval one-on-one with my coach. We also worked on my transitions which will save me some time during races.

But for the past week I've been battling a cold - seems to happen every time there are major changes in the weather. I haven't been running, biking or swimming at all, and it's making me very nervous about this weekend's race. While this isn't one of my A priority races, it is still a big one, with competitors from all over the country - 134 men in my age group alone!

I think I'm finally getting over the cold and may attempt to do the group intervals tonight, but I don't want to overtax my body just as I'm on the mend. I want to be 100% by the weekend.

Great Run, No Swim

Yesterday was a full day for me, but I got up early enough to get a great run in. It was only 50 minutes, but a good one nonetheless - first half in HR Zone 2 and second half in HR Zone 3. And once again it felt great to be running outside and not on a treadmill.

After running all over the place doing errands, I got back home with just enough time to get in a recovery swim before the Y closed. I packed my bag, headed over, checked in...and stopped. All lanes were full, which presented a problem. Either I get two people in one lane to allow me in and we swim circles or I wait. Knowing how much lap swimmers here love (he said dripping with sarcasm) to swim circles and knowing how much I really do hate it since I'm not a strong swimmer, I decided to wait. And wait. And wait. And I never got in the water.

There's always been a tug o' war between the lap swimmers and the classes/rec swimmers at the Y pool. Lap swimmers feel there aren't enough lanes and the pool is too hot. I don't care about the temperature, but now that I'm swimming more often I have to agree that there aren't enough lap lanes. Or I feel that the lifeguards should be able to add/subtract lanes when the situation presents itself.

Anyway, I beat myself up a bit because I didn't get the swim in and I really need to be working on my swimming. And looking at the week ahead, there are going to be more swimming/scheduling conflicts. But I guess I should be happy that I at least got the run in. Ugh! This is frustrating.

Life Gets In The Way

For nearly the past week, I've completely sluffed off on my training. Bad timing with an "electric issue" at the Y pool pre-empted a swim workout. A long weekend trip to New Orleans, while a lot of fun, sabotaged several potentially good workouts. And a staff meeting tonight that ran 30 minutes over what it should have prevented another swim workout (because the pool closed before I could get in it.)

Lately life has been getting in the way of my workouts and I need to change that. Luckily this has been a recovery week so the workouts that I would have done were planned to be less intense (and there were fewer planned.) While I can't stop working (I'd hate to give up those creature comforts like eating and sleeping in a bed) I can change my training schedule.

So New Year's resolution #2 - since I've already broken #1 by letting 10 days slip by without a post - is to start getting up earlier to get my workouts in before I do anything else. I'm not going to let life get in my way.

Psyched Out

I got my first four weeks of my training program today. My first thought was, "alright, this is going to be hardcore and will put me in the best condition of my life."

Then reality set in.

I'm not a strong swimmer. In fact, I'm not even a good swimmer. I've been working on my technique but I know I have a very long way to go before I'm even remotely efficient in the water. So when I saw my swim workout for today, I realized that the distance was more than twice what I'd been doing lately and that I was supposed to time myself for several parts of it. (And this was all after doing a running workout today.)

I panicked.

I completely psyched myself out to the point of being sick. I feared not being able to do the workout. I feared having to tell my new coach that I couldn't do what he wanted me to do. My fear got the better of me.

I'm dreading having to tell this to my coach. It's only my first week and I've already let him down. Worse, I've already let myself down.

I feel like crap.

I have to make tomorrow different.

Page 8, Question 3

Question #3 on page 8 of my questionnaire from my soon-to-be coach deals with staying positive when things don't go well during a race.

I didn't fare so well on this one today.

I started out slow and with some tightness in my shins. That continued for about two miles. I've run through that kind of tightness so it was no big deal. Once the shins loosened up, I felt better but I wasn't able to speed up.

I hit the trail at about the 5.5 mile mark and suddenly hit my stride. Miles 7 through 13 were much much better. But then I started dropping on mile 14. My energy was sapped and my legs were burning. By mile 16 I was jogging four minutes and walking one. I trudged through the last few miles and finished the 20 miles ready to drop.

I'm feeling ok now, 8 hours, some hard-core stretching, plenty of fluids, a hot bath and a generous application of muscle cream later.

I have one more long run left before I taper for the marathon (27 days away). I WILL do better next time.

No Run Today

I would have done a 15-mile run (longest one thus far) today but...

The past 3 days have wiped me out. Yesterday was the Dewey Beach Sprint Triathlon, which benefits the local YMCA, which is where I work. So I worked some pretty ridiculous hours, and then spent about 8 hours yesterday doing physical labor in the hot sun with very little food/water. So when I finally ate a real meal last night my body rebelled - big time.

So today is a recovery day for me. I'll be back to my regular running schedule by Tuesday and look forward to my long run next Sunday.