Thoughts (Long)

This will be somewhat of a long post, so grab a cup of tea or a beer, get comfortable, and enjoy.

Training this week has been off and on. Lots of stuff like weather, laziness, and work have gotten in the way. But here's a run down of what I did this week.

Monday was a rest day on the schedule. I also didn't go to work due to the weather so I sat on my couch all day long watching TV. I hate that.

Tuesday was very nasty as well. Schedule called for a swim and a run. Neither of those happened.

Wednesday was a trainer ride. It was about an hour long with 5x1min fast, 2 min rest thrown in there. Avg heart rate was 127bpm. My heart rate at the end of each of those intervals was anywhere from 161bpm to 168bpm. I was pushing it. I meant to run after that, but the weather was nasty. Also, whenever I lay on the couch all day, that's the toughest to get up and do stuff and that's when I'm the most tired. When I get up and do stuff, I actually feel better than doing nothing.

Thursday was going to be a strength training and run workout with Texas Iron. Since I'm a complete pussy when it comes to the cold, I decided to skip that. I went to yoga after work and intended to go for a run after that. Instead, I went home, ate and went to bed.

Friday, I got up early and went for a run before work since I skipped running pretty much the entire week. I'm really glad that I did that. Most days, it's just really tough to work out after work before shit just comes up at work. I meant to go lift weights after work on Friday. That's kind of tough to do when you go in at 8am and don't leave until just before 10pm. I wasn't happy about that and work pissed me off that day. The good thing about that is that in strengthened my resolve to go back to school and become a physical therapist and get away from dealing with the bullshit at my job. For the run, I have an avg HR of 150 with a max of 165bpm. Total time was 27:30 for my 3.15 mile loop. Once again, about a 8:45 pace. At times it felt my heart rate was too high. I'm trying to run slower, but I just want to go faster.

Saturday was a trainer ride. I really hate the trainer at my house. I can do the spin bikes at the work gym pretty well, but the trainer at home just sucks. I watched a movie and that helped a bit. Did a total of 1:17:00 on the trainer with an avg HR of 120bpm, max of 147bpm. A very easy ride.

Sunday was a "big" run. I did 4.5 miles around Town Lake. That was the first time that I've been to Town Lake since right before IMFL. Ran that 4.5 miles in a time of 44:02. Max heart rate of 168bpm and average of 151bpm. I felt like I was above 150bpm for a significant amount of time and I don't like that. Once again, I wanted to run fast but I know that I shouldn't be doing that right now. Speed will come with time. I could start doing speed work, but my goal for this year is to just run injury free. Speaking of, I woke up this morning and my left Achilles was tight. That was the leg that gave me so many problems last year so I'm very aware when something hurts. I have to make sure to stretch a lot to keep it loose and to sleep with my foot hanging of the end of the bed to keep it lengthened at night. I may invest in a Strassburg sock to help prevent anything happening in that foot. During the run, I felt fine. Once again, my periformis in my butt cramped when I stopped. That hurt. Overall, it was great to run out there again. I missed it and the nice "scenery" in Austin. Supposedly, there was a Lance sighting but I was so in the zone that I must have missed him. Average heart rate was 151bpm. Max was 168bpm. The pace for the day was 9:47min/mile which is a whole min/mile slower than my 3.15 mile runs around my neighborhood at the same heart rate. Strange.

This morning, I checked my resting heart rate. It was at 55bpm. I think something is up with my body because it's usually slightly lower than this. Maybe it's the stress from work on Friday is still affecting my physically. Maybe I'm getting sick. Maybe I just don't know. I'm going to take it easy the rest of the day and try to rest up and get some sleep.

I had a mole removed from my butt. Yeah, I know that's funny. The unfunny part were my test results. It was benign, but they also said that it was slightly atypically and changing. Looks like I caught it just in time. That's the second mole that I've had removed, but luckily both have been negative. It's just scary to be 28 and have to worry about cancer already. My grandpa has had it at least 4 times already and I have similar skin to him. I'm pretty good with sunscreen and I will start going to the dermatologist once a year to get my moles mapped out. I just decided on a whim to have him check me out while I was getting another injection into my wart on my foot and luckily this one mole was caught. It was just scary.

Speaking of, my troublesome wart is finally going away. I've tried duct tape occulation, freezing, a prescription strength salicilic acid, lasers, and candida. Finally, I'm getting a response by injecting it with bleomycin which is used to kill cancer. It's working so far.

Finally, some deep thoughts. I'm having trouble with motivation lately. I really want to get back into training. I miss doing 10 workouts a week and having most days be double workouts with the occasional triple workout day. However, most of the time the weather outside is frightful and I'm content to sit on my couch and watch TV. I really, really do want to get trim and lean again, but something is just missing. Maybe I don't have a training partner to challenge me. Maybe I just have the winter blues and I don't like being cold even if the pool is heated. Maybe I'm just being a pussy and I need to suck it up and kick some ass. Maybe I'm letting my foot injury hold me back. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I really think I just got used to not doing the workouts right after IMFL. I know that there are at least 2 people reading this blog that'll be doing their first IM's this year. My advice to you is to schedule something immediately after your races. Ok, not immediately, but schedule a fun run 5k about a month after your IM. Doing an easy 30 mile charity ride 6 weeks afterwards. Get back in the habit of working out and training and don't get too used to sleeping in on Saturdays and enjoying beer most nights of the week. My early season is pretty light this year, but my late season is going to be tough with at least 3, maybe 4, HIMs and the Tri One O One within 10 weeks at the end of the year. To keep me going after this, I'm probably going to be doing the Distance Challenge in 2007-08 with the season finale being the Austin Marathon. After that, I'll be picking up my training to hopefully do two Ironman's in 2008. It's a lot between now and then, but I just need to keep having goals to prevent myself from getting lazy. Once you're lazy, it's hard to get motivated again and I need a swift kick in the butt right now.

Finally, I think I found a new sponsor: Get Big Guns. I'm sure this is the best way to get all the tri chica hotties to swoon over me.

Shoe mileage: 131 miles.