Gone But Not Forgotten

I've been mostly absent from the blog this week and have yet to post my IMRI race report. My hiatus has been due to a few things. I was really wiped from the race and any free time I had was spent resting or sleeping. I also took advantage of the lighter training load and caught up with friends. I've been out of town pretty much nonstop for the last five weeks so it was long overdue.

Since my last post I've had some ups and downs in training. On Thursday I ran for the first time since the race, just a short four-miler on the treadmill. My legs felt amazing and I had tons of energy. It made me feel like my recovery was going well. But then I had bike intervals on Friday and just could not get into it mentally or physically. I couldn't get my HR into the target range and my legs were pretty lifeless. Plus I was bored out of my mind and just couldn't find the motivation to try harder.

Today started with a great swim race in the Hudson River, a 1,500 meter point to point swim to get people ready for next week's New York City Triathlon. I hated getting up early after being out late with friends, but once I saw the river I was pretty energized. I love open water swimming and getting into the Hudson is always pretty interesting. I didn't give the swimmers around me a single thought and feel I swam even more confidently than last week. The only drawback of these races is that a majority of the field are swimmers vs. triathletes and they tend to kick really hard. I prefer triathletes who just let their legs trail behind them in the water. The current wasn't as strong as I was hoping for, but it gave me a very nice boost nonetheless and I averaged 1:19/100 yards, something I could never do on my own.

I ended up taking a long nap and being lazy all day, pushing my long run to late afternoon. It was misery from the first step from a combination of my late night, dehydration and the heat and humidity. The miles crawled by so slowly I felt like I'd never finish. I enjoyed having to stop at intersections so I could get a short rest. I thought about quitting a hundred times but somehow managed to keep going. I know not every run can be good and I've had some really amazing ones this year, but it's hard to keep something like this from making me doubt my ability to do well in the Ironman. I just need to stay positive and keep moving forward. Hopefully tomorrow's training will go well and this will be a distant memory.

Running (Thursday)
Distance - 4 miles
Time - 33:38

Biking (Friday)
Distance - 19.82 miles
Time - 1:20:00

Swimming (Saturday)
Distance - 1,500 meters
Time - 21:29

Running (Saturday)
Distance - 14 miles
Time - 2:06:33