Just a week to go

I'm ready for this race so I can take a little break.   I'm definitely feeling burned out and ready to ease up for a little bit and recover.   No, I'm not going to stop being active, and yes, I'll still do 30+ minutes a day, but I'm going to dial back the intensity a bit.  I could use some rest days here and there, and maybe some yoga days.  I do have my long bike ride in November, but that's an easier training schedule since it's just endurance.

I think I'll have to look at my goals for this month as well.   The Apple fitness goal for August seems unattainable given what else is going on this month.   Take today, almost two hours of strenuous exercise, and I'm still 100 calories short of the 1045 calorie goal, and I'm supposed to hit that another thirteen times.    Yes, I'll probably cross it today, but I need to slow down next week and recharge for the race, and post race the last thing I want to do for the rest of the month is bust my ass.   We'll see how it goes, but I'll be ok if I miss, disappointed, but ok.   Same goes for my mileage target.   I didn't think 500 would be hard, but I barely made it last month, and that required a push at the end of the month, and I'm pretty far off the pace this month, only 31% to goal, with a pre-race taper coming next week.   So, again, I'll be disappointed, but ok with it.   I didn't expect to be in VA for a week, nor did I expect a triathalon mid-month when I made this plan in January.  Truth be told, I'm ahead of my overall goal for the year thanks to a few overachieving months so I can live with it.

The lesson from this is don't allow your goals to be so rigid that failure is inevitable.  Allow them to bend and adjust to your life, but don't give up on them.   Yeah, I'll miss a few arbitrary things this month, but I'm still in the best shape I've been in since I was 27...  Stew on that...   I'm going to compete in my second triathalon this year next Saturday.   I ran a four mile race in July.   I can run 5k's at my discretion now, and I think a 10k is more than feasible.   I have a 65 mile bike ride coming up.  I'm 99% sure I'll be working towards an olympic distance triathalon next year and a half marathon after that, and finally, I feel great most of the time, my knees and hip notwithstanding.

tldr - ready for the race and a little recovery afterwards.   Have a great friday the 13th...   More race updates coming.