I wanted to, but I didn't want to

SWIM: I wanted to swim, but I didn't want to, so I didn't.
RUN: Didn't want to do this either, but I did it anyway: 6 miles in 58 mins.

I woke up on time this morning, but the mere idea of sleeping put me back to sleep. Which is unfortunate because this is the last week of outdoor swimming at CSP! That was the biggest reason I wanted to go--I won't see that pool again until next JUNE.

On top of the fatigue and lack of interest, my arms shoulder and back are wore out from some overhead work I've been doing at the house. The medallion is almost finished, and so is my swim season if I keep it up.

The rest of the morning was awful too. I had a lousy breakfast of pickens here and pickens there. Then a long day, sitting at my desk, getting stale. I was going to run over lunch but another heat wave came into town and I decided that if I'm feeling tired and sick the heat won't help any. So I pushed it later. And later. And later, til finally it was 6:20pm before I headed out the door. My nutrition and hydration were awful, yet I still wanted to run.

Actually I just wanted to hit the Reset button on the entire day, but life doesn't work that way.

Out the door, with the plan of doing the ~55min drills workout. I felt good the first 7-8 mins, then started to suffer. Then I ran into BE who just finished IML and chatted with him. I'd hoped some of his postIM energy would inspire me. I did. For about 0.5 mile.

This run sucked. By the time I started the drills I was ready to quit. By the time I reached 4 miles I was really ready to quit. It was about then that I noted my HR--high 160's! I was barely moving! :/

So I ditched the running drills and started to focus on HR. This was my first run since early this summer with HR so I didn't have a target range in mind. But this didn't feel like a 165+ effort. More correctly, the effort to run was high, it's just that the pace wasn't high. Key distinction to make. I ended up WALKING to bring my HR down to 120-130. WALKING. This sucked.

I went home and reviewed the day. Poor hydration. Poor nutrition. Poor sleep. Gee, wonder why it sucked so much?

Late Tuesday bike ride

BIKE: 1.5hrs about 21.5 miles

When the option to ride outdoors on Tuesday popped up in my Inbox, I took it. The Bird was still in the shop, Frea I hate to say I'm just getting tired of, and the Puppy doesn't go on the trainer. Why ride indoors anyway?!?

So I took the Puppy to the ride. It was just me and JM, I have to admit to some trepidation about being too slow, especially on the Puppy. It's not really a road bike, and I haven't been sleeping too good the last few nights (More on that later).

But in the end it was a good fast ride for being all in-town! JM pointed out the benefit of the high cadence needed for CX bike gearing, and sure enough he was right. It did require a steady and quick turnover to ride at a higher speed. And surprisingly I felt pretty good during the ride, the fatigue of the past few days seemed to melt away for a little while...

Speaking of the past few days...I've been...off. Off is the only way I can put it. Tired, sluggish, bored, hmmmm maybe burned out?!? Ya think!??!?

For two nights in a row I had awful sleep, and with some backtracking it might be coming from a powdered tea I was drinking those nights before bed. So I cut that out. We'll see what happens from there...

IM Songs

But what it takes to cross the great divide
Seems more than all the courage I can muster up inside
But we get to have some answers when we reach the other side
The prize is always worth the rocky ride

Sunday Triathlon, sort of

SWIM: 1hr ~1600y
RUN: 52 mins 6 miles
BIKE: 65 mins 17.4 miles

Ironman Louisville day!!!

I had to open the pool today so I squeezed in a swim. I pulled a plan out of my schedule from July that had a lot of small intervals. I did the first 35 or so minutes undistracted, took a break around 36 mins, then came back for 10 laps steady. Wound down, disappointed at going slow, but happy to get a swim done. Another tomorrow!

Then the run, which was my focus of the day. I went out to CCP to run the loop and when I was reminded of how flat it was I decided to to hill repeats on the little overpass hill near the roundabout. I'd been needing to work on my hill running form. Higher knees? Quicker cadence? Lean forward more? Not sure. I felt good on the hills, kept a nice 8:20-8:50 pace (ave'd 8:40 in the end) and felt good. The goal was to find my "forever" pace. Still don't have a HRM working, need to do that!!! Did this in the Kinvaras, finished strong and enjoyed it.

Lastly the bike. This wasn't a focus workout, it was a preview ride of an upcoming event. I was on the Bird again but unlike yesterday I was on flats and in aero. It's comfy, but not Frea. But that's not the goal here. I didn't love this ride, I just did it. But I'm glad I did it.

NUMERICS: planned for only 5-6 hours, but actual was closer to 10!
SWIM 2000y in 1.25hrs
BIKE 97.3 miles in 7hrs
RUN 12.5 miles in 1.78 hrs

Babler Butterflies!

BIKE: 50 miles in 3:55. 5900ft climbing according to the Garmin.

After 5 days of fatigue and feeling like a weak noodle I set off for some Babler hills--doing the 8-something mile loops in a butterfly ish pattern. I wasn't sure just how many miles I'd manage, but I was out to try for the most.

On Thursday, I had the Bird re-fit for SM. My fitter took a look at the bike profile and a look at the bike, and had a plan. Seat back, new handlebars, wider aerobar pads, new bar tape. More climbing power, wider stance for stability, and finally drops I can use. So I was excited to try this new fit!

The Bird was a whole bike bike. Seat is definitely further back, it's more like sitting with my knees out front. The drops are sweet and powerful. The wider aerobars make a great feel for cornering. And my fear in descending? Gone on this bike. Grabbing waterbottles-easy. Sitting up no hands-easy. And then I remember that this bike was how I fell in love with biking!! The easy rolling feeling of the Bird. :)

Up and down the hills, so easy and so fun. No scrubbing speed off on the down hills like I did on Frea. A nice stable ride, I could have done this all day. I tested different gears, seating positions, hand positions...all good. I could have kept going! Here I did 50 miles in Babler, a personal record, and I felt great.

But I couldn't stay all day. The plan for the day called for 1.5hrs of riding and here I was at 4hrs! My legs still felt fresh, sure I was tired but not wiped out. And I still managed to get a lot done at home--vestibule light and medallion work.

Piggie Recovery Week

Apparently when I'm tired it's like when I'm busy--I don't log in.

Monday: REST.
Tuesday: Lazy 1hr on the bike
Weds: tried to swim, got only 700m in before I just gave up. At 225m I didn't care anymore and just wanted out. CHG encouraged a few kick laps. Was it really 700? Maybe 600? I skipped the run to stay out of the heat, did a lazy hour on the trainer.
Thursday: 56 min run in FP, 6.5 miles, surprised to find I did 8:30's with LC and DC. Felt ok but tired in the run, but then exhausted the rest of the day. So damned tired I could barely function.
Friday: rest

It's sort of a relief to be so tired. It tells me I did all I could in the race. Or does it mean I'm not eating well to recover? Is there something else I can do? I just ate a bunch of fruit after the race. Hours later had protein. Maybe getting so low on fuel and water in race wears on me more, and that's the day.

I've had some more time to think about what happened at the Piggie:
My training is not like my racing. In training rides we stop at the gas station, we wait at the corner, we stop, we wait, we eat. In my races I don't stop and the pace is faster. There's no break or moments of recovery. So now wonder my racing doesn't reflect my training!

Pigman moon