Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Unhappy training...

I am only on week three of IM training (16 week program). I am not very happy with my current status. I don't know what is exactly wrong is the problem. Swimming has been going pretty well. If I did the math correctly I swam 3,800m the other day in 1hr 15min. Which would be an all time record for me, so I am thinking I must not have been correct. I did however swim normal one lap and fast the next lap on every set of my swim...so maybe??

The bike is the real issue. The bike is traditionally my strong suit. However, I am not feeling GREAT on the bike. Right now a 3hr40min ride seems really long. Which is not a long ride in the bigger picture of things. Yes, I will build up to my 7hr ride, which will be my long ride before my IM, but still feeling long at a ride of that length worries me. Could it be the ten days off in July without biking or running? Is it the impact of a slow build up to running that is impacting my biking fitness? Maybe it is that my longest ride since my last 7 hour ride (which was at about this time last year) has been only 4.5hrs. Which was back in April.

Whatever the issue, I am hoping it resolves itself, or my fitness level returns.

Running has been "going". Going is better than not going. I still feel my knee when I run, but it has yet to progress to full out pain, like it was before. However, I worry everytime a run that today will be the day the "whole" pain may come back, great mentality right? ugh! Right now my long run has been about 8.5 miles. Which is not good, but ok since I have only been running again for three weeks (and yes this has been a gradual build so not to injure my leg further).

This weekend I have a half ironman. If I had't already paid for it I am not sure I would be doing it...but it is probably a good thing to do. They say races push your fitness level up. I am not "sandbagging" it, but my expectations are not very high. I am not sure if I will run the whole run, but who knows...if my knee doesn't hurt I will do the whole run. I will use this day for a long training day, with hopes of pushing me up a bit more. Next week is a recovery week, so it is a good day, schedule wise for a race.

The only other funny thing is that in my first 27 years of life I was only stung by a bee twice. Once on my thumb in the front yard and once while I was in college out on a trail run. Last year I was stung, I believe 3 times while out biking, twice I believe on the butt. Sunday, I was out with Pedro biking and I got stung in the stomach! I was even riding aero! I can't imagine that the bees are attracted to my scent while biking, if you have ever been out riding in 90 degree weather in bike shorts and a tight top, you know how NOT good you are smelling! lol.

On a separate note, Pedro and I visited Linzy again today. She was much more lucid and was up walking around. Chyler was doing good, though I wanted to see her legs so I unwrapped her blankets and she screamed at me until I wrapped her legs back up!

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