No, it’s really been three! It seems like two weeks because I was sick the week in the middle and that entire week is a blur. When I first got sick I knew I would miss a day of training. That became a week, and by the end of the week I was afraid it would stretch into a second week and jeopardize my upcoming race. Then it passed as suddenly as it came on. I took a couple of easy training days and a day of rest before hitting it hard again last week.
After being sick like I was for a week, I was a little nervous about coming back as hard as was scheduled. I knew I’d had a decent run though on Sunday and hoped it would be fine. Maybe my body needed that time off because I came back with a fury! I did a bike field test and was 20 watts stronger than just a few months ago. I feel like I could have been stronger if I’d only set up a fan in the garage to cool me off.
I had a couple of good runs, including a 5 mile brick at 7:40 pace, which I did without really pushing. That is wonderful news for me because that is faster than my planned 10K pace come race day. It gives me confidence that I can hit my target time!
I also had a couple of hard swims, including a 1500M timed swim. I like the distance because it allows me to get into a groove and work on pushing myself. I don’t like having to count the laps. It would be so much nicer if I could just go and have someone tap me on the shoulder when I’m done!
I hit the weekend super high and confident, and the first half of my Saturday bike ride was awesome. I should have realized that when you are going 20+ mph and there isn’t any wind noise in your ears, there is quite a tail wind blowing. I didn’t figure that out until I turned around and almost came to a standstill. What took me 1:20 going ended up taking me 1:55 coming back. It was a long, hard and demoralizing ride. It was supposed to be a brick, but I was already over my total scheduled time, the wind was really blowing, my legs were shot, I was upset and talked myself out of it.
I woke up Sunday to dead legs. I didn’t think I had the energy to run for 90 minutes. After goofing off for a while I finally suited up and headed on out. I couldn’t believe how badly my legs felt when I started. The finish line 10 miles away seemed forever. I settled into a pace and just ran. I funny thing happened on the run. The plan was to run a 5 mile loop twice. At 4.5 miles into the first loop it seemed like it was never going to end. Half a mile later, as I started the second loop, I felt almost done! It didn’t matter that I still had 5 miles to go, or how far I had run already. Something about being on that last lap made it easy. I even had to force myself to slow down as the pace kept creeping up. As it was my second lap was several minutes faster than the first.
All in all a good week of training. I’m very tired today, but feel like my overall strength and conditioning is very strong. I think my next race, the first one of the season could be an awesome race for me, my fastest Olympic distance race yet. I only need to focus on the good days and forget the bad ones!
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