Back In the Saddle... Hopefully

It's been a tough couple of weeks, I had fantastic training in January I was swimming, biking, and running three times a week for each discipline. Then one day I went for a swim with Amber and I felt like I couldn't breathe, I tried to run for a bit afterwards but it was no use- I was sick. Arrrggghhh, I have been feeling so good lately that I was starting to think I was invincible but just when you get a little too confident, your body lets you know who's in charge. So for the last couple weeks I've been taking it easy and it was only yesterday where I had a workout where I could say that I feel like I'm back!! Man it felt good.

Sunday Amber and I did our usual 2k- 2.5k swim and then bike, the plan called for a 2.5hr ride but after an hour my legs had given out. I knew it was going to be a tough day, my legs were really sore from the 13 mile run the day before but I never thought I would have to call it quits after an hour. No problem, I'm learning that the training plan is a good guide to keep me on track but it's not set in stone. I can't feel guilty about missing a day or even a few days if my body is not responding to the training. It's better to take the time off and come back fresher and stronger for my next workout. It's taken a while to get that through my head but now that I'm an 'older athlete' (turning 38 on Saturday) I know that my body cannot recover as quickly from hard workouts like it used to. That's okay, Chris McCormak won the IM World Championships last year (at age 38) because he trained smarter, not harder. There is still hope for me yet.

So yesterday the plan called for a 2hr ride and a 15 minute run. I felt bad that I hadn't taken Harley for a walk since Monday so I decided to do the 15 minute run first with him. I'm sure people in the neighbourhood thought I looked ridiculous running in my big boots, snow pants, ski jacket, toque, heavy mitts, face warmer, and ski goggles but it was -22'C and I did not want to be out there long. Harely is always excited to walk when I get home and I didn't want to keep him waiting for another 2hrs until I was finished my ride so it was better to start with a short run. The ride started out okay, but 90 minutes in I started to feel a little lightheaded. I shook it off and drank a little more but 10 minutes later I realized I was bonking hard. I ran upstairs to see what I could eat and I downed about 10 powerbar bites Amber bought on the weekend. My jaw was getting sore from all the chewing but they helped and I started to come around for the final 20 minutes and had a great ride finishing 70kms in the 2 hours.

I hope this means I'm on the mend, I hate down-time and the next couple weeks are going to be the most important for the race. Two weeks of hard training and then two weeks of active recovery and it's go time! I'm looking forward to riding outside as much as I am racing again, I'll give it my best effort and then spend a week laying on the beach and riding the country side with Amber. I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday.