I can’t believe I left you all hanging about how my “naked” long run went last Tuesday? My apologies, but good news, it went well! I didn't miss music or podcasts at all, and simply settled into my thoughts and surroundings while clicking off the seventeen miles with a smile, most of the time. It was definitely my favorite long run of the Ironman CDA build thus far. Speaking of IM training, let me catch you up on where I am currently in swim/bike/run land.
SWIM:
Finishing up a workout last Friday.
After a solid block of swim training from February through March, my slightly sharpened swim edges felt sanded down, and it showed last week in the pool. I didn’t complete a couple of workouts as written, and missed the one on Wednesday all-together. honestly, I had a complete collapse in confidence last Wednesday, and decided to use the off day to shift my engines down to neutral, pause swimming for the day, and do some deep thinking. I was back in the pool on Thursday, but didn’t feel good again until my swim Friday morning. All systems are firing so far this week, I have completed and enjoyed every swim workout, but the doozeys are still on deck, so stay tuned…
BIKE:
At the bottom of the Santa Susana Pass. AKA, my Valley crush.
I need to hustle on the bike front. My bike fitness is not picking up as quickly as I would like it to be, but I am riding more which is wonderful, (and a necessary), plus, we added a weekly hill repeat workout on the Santa Susana Pass. The SS Pass is the treasure trove of the Valley. It packs a punch including climbing, descending, and overall bike handling skills, I love it, and am grateful that I finally threw my arms around it training for my DIY Iron(WO)man last Fall.
However, I swapped my date last Thursday with the SS Pass for a long call with my Mom about how conflicted I felt about racing again, (Should I keep competing?), triathlon in general, (I love coaching, do I need to devote so much time to my own goals anymore?), and this blog-writing streak, (it's A LOT.) After listening to my long-winded rant, she responded with the golden advice, “This isn’t an overnight decision.” Thank you, Mom!
I did sit with those conflicting feelings for another twenty-four hours, and accepted that I am in a different place today than I was before the pandemic, or my hamstring injury, hammer toe debacle, and bout with pneumonia, i.e. it's been a while since I've raced well, but I do love to compete, and I live for the entire race environment and experience, frazzled nerves and all, so although I’ll be rusty, if the race is on, I’ll be there.
On a related note about stress, reading this about how stress can be viewed as positive vs. negative could not have been a more timely choice while navigating my crisis of confidence last week. I strongly recommend it.
Stress arises when something you care about is at stake.
This book is FANtastic.
RUN:
Finally, I want to wrap up this triathlon training update circling back to how it started, running. I know, very off brand for me. :) In any case, I want to note that even with a couple of rare down days last week, both Sunday’s Track session and Tuesday’s Tempo run were breakthrough workouts, and even more importantly, they were a Ton 'o FUN! I didn’t blow the glass off of my Garmin with super fast speeds or anything, and there is still plenty of work to do with pacing, but I felt strong, controlled, comfortable, and most of all, I just felt good.
Post terrific Tempo Tuesday run.
Happy HUMP Day!!
The video today is not a song, but rather the incredible TED talk the author of the book I mentioned above, Dr. Kelly McGonigal, gave about stress. It is a MUST WATCH.