TeamSleepy

A lot has been going on during the past few weeks. I finished my first Century ride of the season! I was pretty pleased with my time too, I think I averaged around 17 mph which is where I feel like I need to be at this point if I want to have any chance of finishing. I felt good. The run the next day was pretty bad. It was hot and humid and I could not get a good pace going. Oh well, one week is not a big deal right. Well it turns out that this continued. The following week I had a pretty rough long ride on Friday. I was supposed to go on a float trip but that got flooded out so what do triathletes do with a day off, we train of course. My coach seemed a little to excited for me to have an extra day and he sure took advantage of it. 75 miles on Friday, 11.5 miles on Saturday (run), 50ish miles on Sunday. Needless to say its been a long few weeks. The run again was rough, I could not keep a good pace and feel like I am actually going slower lately. This week was a little more restful, if you can call it that, with a 50mile ride on Saturday, 3 miles brick run then rest. Yesterday was 6 miles, but they were much harder than I anticipated. I am feeling pretty frustrated today and lately with my progress. I sure hope it gets better, only 9 weeks to go.

I can only assume that the glazed look on people's faces when they ask me about my training is similar to the look i have when people try to talk to me about cars. As a public service announcement if you ask me how my training is going and expect a monosyllabic answer, we both might be disappointed. However, if you expect me to discuss every tiny detail and go on and on about riding, running, swimming, technique, hydration, fuel, my bike, the wind, the sun, the rain, the heat, the cold, wetsuits, no wetsuits, or countless other things that are of zero relevance to your life I will be ever so happy to indulge you. 

First off this weekend was discouraging. I missed my Friday workout (I needed some time with friends, I was starting to feel too isolated), so I decided to double my work out on Saturday. That was both a good idea and a horrible idea. First the good, it actually built a little confidence in that I can push myself even when I feel like hell. The bad news was that I felt like hell. I swam around 1.3 miles then ran 12 miles. The swim was great I felt really strong. The pool was set up for meters instead of yards which threw me at first, but once in the water I felt great and strong. I got done the swim and realized I may have left a little too much in the pool energy wise, but had set my mind to run so after a short break and a snack, I was off. I was scheduled to run 12 in 2:20:00 but lets just say it took a little longer. I felt good going out but it was hotter than I had thought and more humid, I could feel it by mile 4 and then really struggled after mile 9. I limped in feeling discouraged but not broken. The ride on Sunday was only slightly better. My knee was sore last week, actually it really hurt, so I took some time off and rested it. This was my first long ride since I took a few days off. I got 50 miles in! felt strong at the start although I was pushing into a headwind for the first 25 miles at least. I thought I would have enough mileage when I got back to my car but still needed 15 more to reach 50, so back into the headwinds I went for another 7.5. I will just say that riding 33 miles into headwinds sucks! Again, though I feel good about my ability to push, now I just need to get my pace up and I think I will feel better. Its a long race.

Ah Grumble Grumble Tweaked knee, no Hairy Hundred Chatty is the goal

A bump in the road this weekend. First it was overall a good training weekend. I ran a 10k and kept a decent pace, through a downpour. I have to say, I love running in the rain (provided its warm out). I only wish I could get my glasses to not fog up. Rainex needs to make something for this, stat. Unfortunately things took a bit a of a turn following the run. I took some down time, enjoyed some replenishing sushi and then went out for a bike ride. The first 20 miles were good, and I really enjoyed being out. Sadly around mile 20 my knee started hurting and felt pretty sore. I thought I had been doing ok with rest and limply rode back and had to get a ride. The goal is Chatty and I don’t want to risk the goal right now. Its a shame i didnt think about that earlier when I ran while my foot hurt.

This weekend I competed in my first tri of the season. I was pretty pleased with my times (i took a few seconds of my time from last year) and my new bike road beautifully. I am in awe of how well it climbs versus my older heavier cross bike (which I still love). It makes me excited for the weeks of riding to come. Speaking of my cross bike, I got 35 miles on that this weekend on Saturday, which made me feel even better about triathlon on Sunday. I took the evening off to see some friends, then Monday my first Open Water Swim of the season. Its such a different beast, i love OWS now i just need some new goggles.