A couple of things before we head out to the race. First, I can't believe it's two weekend in a row where we're getting up at the ass-crack of dawn. Not very civilized. Second, I can'r remember being this nervous before a race. I think I felt this way before NYC, but I honestly can't remember. Regardless, I'm full of nervous energy but I'm ready. Look for my post race update.
Happy birthday mom. I miss you and am thinking about you today.
Well, I picked up my race packet today, so I guess this is going to happen. In case anyone actually reads this I am #81. I go in swim wave 2, which is not where I would have chosen, which goes off at 733am on Sunday the 19th. The shirt is pretty cool and I'm both excited and nervous.
Wish me luck!
Yesterday marked a week until the triathalon. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not nervous, because I am, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm also excited. I've been slowing down the intensity of my workouts for the past week or so and I'll continue that through this week. I did a longish outdoor ride yesterday, I'll swim once or twice this week and probably do the 75 minute endurance tomorrow as a true Z2 workout, but aside from that, this week will be mostly walks, gentle riding and yoga to stay loose and ready. As I commented the other night, I can't get more ready.
I am disappointed that I didn't get any outdoor swims in, but I felt pretty wrecked after the drive, so a combo workout was a no-go yesterday. To be honest I debated skipping it altogether, but after being kind of awkward about making it home, I really had to do something, and I'm glad I did. Once the headache went away I felt fine.
Other than that, good week away. Stayed on track with exercise, weight stayed where I want it to, and I feel ready for the race. I'll try and post right before the race, but otherwise I'll post an update when it's done. If it goes well there are a number of races in the area and I might do more.
So.... Here we are in May again. It's hard to believe that the triathalon is only 17 days away, but I've made a lot of progress on getting ready and despite not always feeling "good" about it, feel like I'm actually in a good place. I know I was late on getting started swimming, and I know I've eased up a bit on running, but I finally caught up on my swimming prep, and finally got outdoors on my bike instead of just spin. I'm now able to swim in excess of the 1/4 mile so I think we're ready there. I rode over twelve miles on Sunday, but I knew I was ready there, so all that's left is stitching this all together. If only we weren't going to VA tomorrow... Just poor timing on that one, but Tyler turns 21 tomorrow and we have to go see Niamh for her birthday and, for reasons I can't quite explain, Merinda wants another dog... I guess because our life wasn't hectic enough for her.
All that said, let's recap April shall we.
Exercise info:
Maybe I should have started swimming sooner. I went for my first swim workout last night and I was feeling gassed after 50 yards, the problem is I need to swim 440 yards.... I dragged myself to swim about 400ish yards, but damn it was hard. I'll be swimming a few times/week to get myself in better shape for this.
I also did a restorative yoga class after swimming. My hip was pretty sore afterwards, but I believe thats from stretching, but it feels great today. Where has this been in my workout regimen? Gonna be a regular part.
I'm also going to say this month's Apple challenge sucks. Actually, it sucks a lot but I'm going to finish it and its a good thing Merinda is away. She'd be giving me the "look"....
During my workout on Tuesday Jama asked the class if we only post "good" workouts and I thought about that. A few weeks back I stopped posting workout stats pages because Jama asked if we did it to get accolades instead of good things and I wondered about that. I don't know if it's because I'm proud of my efforts or looking for praise, but either way I stopped posting that and instead will just talk about the workout. Don't get me wrong, I'm competive, but I can be competive privately instead of looking to the Echelon community for validation.
Previously, I have posted before about the "window or bug" question. I take it from one of the MIB movies where a bug is flying along and gets crushed by a car window, and I've always said that some days you're the windshield and some days you're the bug and it applies to exercise. I used to post poor workouts, or ones that I wasn't particularly proud of. I didn't do this to say "oh poor me, I had a shitty workout" but rather to illustrate that just showing up, and giving effort even when you're not 100% or even 50% is better than nothing.
Fast forward to today. I got up early and was pretty excited about the Hills and I&A combo, even if I wasn't excited about getting up at 6am. I felt ok during hills, albeit not as strong as usual, but it was during the filler time between the classes where I started feeling wiped out. I took a low impact because it was a 30 minute gap, and I struggled with it. Then during I&A I felt completely gassed. I could barely keep up and my arms were just useless. I just felt completely wiped out, hell I still do.
So why am I talking about this, because while I'm not proud of my lackluster effort, I am proud that I showed up, finished the classes and did the work. Maybe I didn't get enough sleep. Maybe it's the minor dental surgery I had yesterday (this is my guess). Maybe it's stress. Who knows. As I told Merinda this morning it wasn't anything I haven't done before, or exceeded, I just wasn't at my best.
I think I'll post this on one of the Echelon forums today... Have a good one all!
Just yesterday I mentioned I was struggling with motiviation and then today came along and I decided to just roll over and get an extra hour of sleep.
Was it laziness? Partly. I was feeling kind of tired, but there's a little more.
Last night Merinda asked me if I wanted to walk down to the gas station so she could do the lottery. She has her own health issues, the joys of getting old, and is trying to be more active. I've told her I'm always willing to help so despite having worked out I agreed. I would have preferred some Yoga but I gotta do what I can to help, so we walked down to the shell and back.
I'm not sure why, but my knees and hips have been pretty sore lately. Sure, you can blame it on the running, but it doesn't seem to correspond to those days, so I'm not sure what's causing it. Maybe I should stretch more. Regardless, I felt pretty sore last night so I was already debating pulling the plug on this morning, so when I woke up at 7am and was tired it wasn't a tough decision. I'm planning on working out this evening, and while I prefer to work out in the morning, today I'd rather miss the 20 minute power class, sorry Sam, than the 75 minute endurance later. This is especially true given that I will do tonights class even if I do the shorter one this morning. Good thing it's a moderate effort ride tonight. Not sure I'm up for getting my ass kicked today.
I've just been feeling beat up and think I need a few extra down days to recover. I haven't been sleeping well, yes it's stress, which is affecting recovery from exercise, and I really had to push to finish the March fitness challenge so I'm worn out from that. I just need to be mindful about this months challenge because if I'm not careful it's going to catch up to me again...
All that said, I feel better today. Still not quite 100%, but much better. I thing I'll go to bed early tonight since Wednesday is a run day and I chose not to run last week and I have another low impact ride tomorrow morning.
*update* I did get some rest, and, no I didn't get to run because it was raining all afternoon, so I did some restorative yoga on Wed. night which felt pretty good. Oh and this was supposed to post on Tuesday not Thursday.
