Wednesday, November 17, 2010

HOW TO BEAT THE BLUES

I hope I don't see this place for awhile
After a couple of days of struggling and feeling horrible I'm happy to say I'm back on track. How do you cure the taper blues? Two days of hard but short workouts at two venues I don't plan on seeing for awhile. Then put your fast race wheels on your bike! 

Tuesday was another drag day of still feeling like I was caught in a fog. I got home and my scheduled workout was a 10 mile bike followed by a 5.5 mile run...whatever. I did get some inspiration form a Homes of Hope donation to my website that evening and thought if people are donating to my cause, I need to get off by butt and train! Getting out on the bike with my aero race  wheels got me fired up. Before I knew it I was hammering down the road at 26MPH in my aero bars. After four days of having the blues I was feeling like an Ironman again. The run went just as well running my first "warmup" mile off the bike at an 8:27 pace. I had to tell myself to slow down as I'm on taper heart rate restriction. That night I went to bed starting to feel confident in my training again.
I have a love hate relationship with the track.
Wednesday for me was a 2,000 yard swim in the morning and a short track workout of :30 min. in the evening doing intervals of 400 and 100 meters. I've been swimming twice a week now for almost a year and I still do not look forward to going to the pool and swimming. Today was different. This is my last workout before Ironman. The last time I stare at the black lined tile going back and forth lap after lap with only an occasional random band aid floating along the bottom to break up the monotony. You can find plenty of motivation driving to your last swim workout...it's like visiting the orthodontist for the last time.
My track workout later was incredible. I love the track and I hate the track. I love it because it's flat, you can run faster, meet interesting people and its different from my 14 mile long slogs. I hate it because my track workout is about speed and pushing your speed to its limits with the idea that you will eventually get faster if you don't throw up first. Usually I feel tired at the track after my morning swim but today was different. I was running 400 and 100 meter hard intervals like it was nothing. It didn't hurt that I had some high school cross country boys on the track racing me a few times while they were supposed to be cooling down from their workout.
Tonight my confidence in my training is renewed and tomorrow I'm off to Arizona!

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