SUCCESS, FAILURE AND THE SIMPLE THINGS

This week made me think that the Ironman people should provide one simple add-on for paying $656 to register for their race......therapy.  For the love of God sometimes I don't know which way is up anymore.  It isn't the time commitment of training but the mental toll it takes on you.  During any given workout I can be thinking "This is ok, I can do this" or "Oh Lord I might not even make it through this workout, how the hell am I going to do an IM?".  Usually it is both alternating several times during said workouts.  The longer the workout the worse it is.  I honestly have not reached that place where the I can do this personality routinely beats out the OMG this is impossible personality.....but I know it will come.  In the meantime, come on IM people, a few gratis therapy sessions would be nice.

Along those lines I had some successes and failures this week.  For the first time in 15.5 weeks I quit on a workout.  It was a 45 min run on Tuesday.  I felt ok for the first 25 mins or so but then not so much.  My heart rate was sky rocketing, I felt abnormally out of breath and was getting heart palpatations.  I made it to 32 mins and stopped.  Unfortunately I was 1.5 miles from home so I did a walk/run routine till I got home.  While it was partly heat related (86 degrees) that was only a small part.  I actually didn't feel overly hot.  The majority was simply stress related.  I NEVER let what happens at work affect me once I punch out but I lost that battle this week.  Tues was just the culmination of too many days dealing with overpaid, inept and ineffective people who should not have a job.  Thankfully it is better now but it pisses me off that I let it affect my personal life.

Unfortunately this is the motto of a few co-workers

Oh yeah and as far as the heart palpatations..no worries.  I have had them for years and have been evaluated for them.  Thankfully I very rarely get them while working out.
     Onto the good....still making progress in swimming and actually spent 4hrs 15 min in the pool this week.  This was a big week biking with 8.5 hrs.  My 4 hr Sat ride went well and the weather was nice enough to get outside for it.  I covered just under 70 miles and averaged 17.3 MPH.  That is actually slow for me compared to last summer but it means I am riding smarter and learning that I can't ride balls to the walls and expect to run a marathon after.  My hardest bike workout was Thursday's 1:30 ride which featured 5 10 min intervals at 88-93%FTP.  I knew I was in trouble when the first one hurt and couldn't imagine how I would do 4 more.  There was plenty of moaning, groaning, hyperventilating and invoking of Jesus' name.  Thankfully Quinn wasn't home to hear any of it.  At one point I was totally convinced that my worst fear had been realized and my legs had fallen off because I couldn't feel them anymore BUT thankfully when I looked down they were still there.  Crisis averted.  I am not afraid to admit that the ONLY thing that got me through the last interval was listening to Lady GaGa's Bad Romance twice.  I also managed to successfully put my back tire on my bike all by myself which is progress. Now I need to master CO2 cartridges to inflate the tires and I won't be so mechanically challenged anymore.
     The last workout of the week was today's 16 mile run.  Since last week's 14 miler damn near killed me I wasn't sure how this was going to go.  I felt ok when I started which was good.  I ran 7.5 by myself then met Kerry.  She ran 7.5 with me which helped tremendously.  It was great to be able to talk to her and share training stories.  Unless you have done one or are training for one you just can't understand the physical and mental toll that this stuff does to you. We did provide someone with a funny story as we both tried to avoid her car as we were crossing a street and each turned the opposite direction and ran right into each other.  Amateurs!!!! My legs were pretty fatigued but talking to Kerry kept me occupied enough to deal with it.  When she was done I only had one more mile to go and I just kept putting one foot in front of the other until I was done.  As soon as I am done with this blog it is naptime.  By 11 am I will have run 16 miles, eaten breakfast, taken a shower, done a load of laundry and written a blog.  I deserve a nap.
     Onto the simple things.  The best part of my weekend was yesterday afternoon when my beautiful sissy Tray and beautiful niece Ariel joined me and Quinn at Lynn beach.  We spent almost an hour just sitting on the bench talking, laughing and enjoying each other.  It was unplanned and wonderful.  I left there with a feeling of happiness, well-being and content.....all from being with family.  The simple things matter!!!!!
16 weeks down....13 to go....naptime.