Wedding Prep

July 10, 2008




This weeks highlights:

A full work week , one swim, one bike, a bunch of running miles. Tuesday consisted of a epic trip to San Fransico resulting in an epic dress followed by an extra 6 extra hours of work to pay for the fabulousness I aquired in SF.


The wedding planning is coming along quite nicely and with those details in place it's time to get training for IMAZ. People ask me if I ever have a hard time staying motivated to train. "Not really". Fabulous dress=uber training time. Sometimes I do think about this answer more carefully. Training means there are things I'm not able to do while I'm logging those miles. There are just so many things I love to do and so little time. People talk about post Ironman depression. I don't think I have that, I can honestly say I am struggling to have patience with the recovery process (low and slow mileage). I haven't had much time to train lately because I have been catching up on things I misplaced :) while training. I always come to the same conclusion I love to swim, bike, and run. I'm constantly drawn to the chance to take things to the next level. (sprint distance--->olympic distance--->1/2 IM, ---> Full. There are pros and cons of this. Pros ...you accomplish a lot, Cons...potentially loosing interest in the things you love because you have already done them. Today was one of those days where I was reminded of why I do these things for pleasure. I finished my day at work with tired legs and planned on a four mile run. A 9 mile run Wednesday and a swim/bike combo Thursday I knew Friday would leave my legs with little stomp. I thought about calling it a day. There was no way I would beat my average pace from the other day. A small part of my brain wondered "what's the point of running if you are going to go slower than you can on a good day. The better side of me remembered that there is something about an evening run in La Jolla that can't be beat no matter what pace you run. I laced up my trainers and headed down the hill.

Yes... I was 20 seconds/mile slower today. In the end, with the sun setting and my I-pod playing, I was glad to be out there for an extra 1minute 20 seconds. Hmmm, think about what I could have cheated myself out of. The San Diego area is a great place to do these things. I have such great camaraderie.

As for recovery:

Today is July 10th:

Mentally I feel recovered. In fact I feel slightly cranky from sitting around too much. I really don't feel like I have done much training wise for the past month. I can't tell if my body is deconditioned from tapering and recovering or actually tired from Iron man. Mentally I'm ready now to be in the shape I was in at Wildflower. I'm over "recovery." I'm done being slow. I start each workout willing myself to be in peak form when I am actually a long ways off. I start each workout a bit too hard and bonk before the end. This is not at all my style, so I bargain with myself by saying it's good sprint training. ( that's the Pollyanna in me). I also think I'm existing on a little too much coffee which probably is a culprit in the flash and crash performance. I know, I know caffeine is evil.... well try getting up at 5 a.m. It's not that I am that much slower right now, it's that I have too work harder to go the usual paces. It's a bit hard and humbling to face this but I know the only way out of the "shape" I'm in is to be patient.....and to be humble. I realize it may take more motivation to go out and go slow. So this is my motto weather I run a 7 minute mile or a 12 minute mile at this point I just need to do it. No matter how slow I go at this point by doing it I will look that much more fabulous my wedding dress ....right? What could be better than a swimmers back, bikers butt, or runners legs????