Back at'cha

Wow, it's been awhile...

Anyway, I'll try to keep this short... In fact, there isn't much to report (I don't think)...

As mentioned in an earlier post, I had a weekend class in June that took me out of racing for the entire month... It wasn't easy knowing that as I sat in class, people were out there racing... What was even worse, are the days that we got out of class early... Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper...

Onto the "fun" stuff...

And by fun, I mean a training report, a.k.a., report on the sufferfest that this heat has brought on... I never thought I'd be one to complain about how hot it is outside, but I am now that person... Sure, it sucks to get into a hot car, or break a sweat walking anywhere outside, but when it comes to having to schedule workouts around the brutal heat, it gets a little aggravating... and what's also aggravating is that my output has taken a complete nosedive since mid-April, mainly on the run... It's absolutely miserable...

Here are some highlights of the last few weeks:

Swim: Finally (FINALLY) enjoying pool workouts... I should have kept my mouth shut when I told Kendrick that I was starting to enjoy swimming, because he's put it on me the last few weeks... and don't tell him, but I kinda like it ;) I'm finally adding distance to workouts, doing more swimming and less drills, and finally feeling comfortable in the water... Just last week, I swam my first 1,000 yds straight through--woulda been great if my watch hadn't had muffed up and I could have known my time... I've got a 1200 on deck for tomorrow and a 1400 scheduled for next week... Who would have ever thought that a year ago, my entire workout (warmup, swim, cooldown) consisted of MAYBE 400 yds, at the very most 500.... now, those are my warmups.... hmmm, progress?

Bike: distance has gone up here as well... long rides are getting into the 3+ hrs and i'm covering 50+ miles in a workout... Kendrick has me doing a lot of tough bike workouts to try to build endurance and strength/power... Over the last month or so, I've been riding hills out at Lake Lurleen (something I still don't think I'm ready for, but Kendrick keeps telling me to HTFU)... About a week ago, I had my first solid puke session on the bike while out at Lake Lurleen... 1.5 into a 3 hr ride, and I lost it in someone's front yard... Thank God I was able to get in touch with my buddy Shayne to call in the "tow truck"... I've come to realize though, that riding hills is the only way I'm going to get stronger... The flatness of Sander's Ferry doesn't really do me any good...

Run: don't wanna talk about it... I've never been, and probably never will be a strong runner (until/unless I drop another 50 pounds) so running in the heat is especially tough on me... But I do it... and I hate it... Endurance has gone from Half Marathon distance to suffering through a 5k :( I've been trying to stick to run workouts as closely as possible and trying to get them done as early as possible, but even that only offers slight relief.... Long runs have been, well, long... I FEEL the distance now that the weather has changed... Back during the winter when I was training for Mercedes, long runs were easy... well, "easy'ish"... I've been trying to watch my heart rate while training and trying to avoid spiking, which is hard to do, especially during rides on hills, or runs anytime after 8:00am... it totally sucks, but I'm hoping all this suffering I'm putting myself through pays off with some good races...

Speaking of races, I've got 2 on the calendar.. Sunfish in Meridian, MS on July 10th, and Heart O' Dixie in Louisville, MS on July 24th... Sunfish will, I think, be a fast and fun race... At 1/3 mi swim, 18 mi bike, and 5k run, it's the same distance as my very first race... I'm hoping to do well, since I've been working on swimming a LOT... hoping to not collapse during the run...

Heart O' Dixie is already making me nervous... 800m swim/27.5 bike/7 mi run... clearly the longest race I've ever done... All I know is that I can make it to the run... I know this... The run itself will be a different story, since I've heard about how hot it is, and that there's no shade, and the run is rolling hills... all stuff I'm not looking forward to... but, the more I think about it, I used to think that sprint races were long, and that running more than a 10k was impossible...

I'm on the tailend of my last build week (thank God) with a recovery week next week... man I can't wait to rest... in fact, next Thursday, I have NO workouts scheduled...

what the hell am I gonna do with myself? hmmm, prolly practice transitions, that's what...