It's only Wednesday

123 days to go and I am knackered.

Today was a double workout day.

The alarm went off at 5am and by 5:45 I was in the pool at Dynamo for a nice 2700m, then work, demanding in it's own right, and home for some easy miles. The good news is that I feel like my body is adapting to the training, everything is beginning to seem easier. The swims are hard but not as daunting as the first month and I feel the power coming around in my legs and the lower heart rates to back it up. What I am experiencing is called fitness and I like it. Today is the 14th and I have put in 17hours this month, keep in mind I pushed 20 for the whole month of Feb. While 17 hours may be a typical pro triathletes hours for halfway through one week, it's pretty impressive for me. So everything is humming along and my only worry right now is keeping injury free. My arches may present issues and I need o keep the IT band from getting angry with me, this is always hard as the weather gets warmer all I want to do is be outside running or cycling, but I need not forget my strength work that keeps me free of injury and ready to play.

Rejoice, spring is here, or at least temperature wise it is and that coupled with more daylight is something I can get behind. I really look forward to the evening workouts in the coming months.

Tomorrow is gonna be an easy recovery run followed by a Friday swim and then who knows what kind of fun I will get into this weekend.

124 days to go.

The Freakin Weakend

Delayed a bit. Good weekend of training. On Saturday I got in a swim of about 2000m and then a nice ride in the mountains of buckhead. If you have ever lived or played in Atlanta you will come to find that it is by no means flat.  I managed to 3,338ft of climbing in roughly 36miles. I also tested out some new equipment by Mavic. I recently replace my shoes with Mavic Huez, which at size eleven weigh 243 grams per shoe. So far everything seems to be clicking, I got over mental doubts of a foot issue in my arch and my it band remains a non-factor. I have not felt this good in a long time. 

February was a good month 21 hours of workouts, I should easily top that this month. 

Ouch this run hurt, but not in my feet. It was the good hurt, in my legs and lungs not the kind resulting from injury. I love being injury free! My true potential as an Athlete is on the road ahead and I fully intend to go find it and pick it up. Just the ability to put myself in the hurt locker again physically is a gift and I love it. Call me weird but I love feeling smashed after a hard workout, some of the best sleep ever comes right after. I might swim in the morning or double up and swim then bike on Sat, not decided and don't have to be. Masochistically speaking I cannot wait to bury my legs on Saturday. The order of the day will be climb, climb, climb. I need some time going UPhill!

130 left


Yesterday was all about my visit o the physical therapist. She has the unique ability to silence my worst feels, she is an Athlete whisperer. The world is burning and she stand oblivious with a pale of water to douse the tin flame at the base of my feet. I have tendency to build up smal pains into possibly being way more than they are. Most recently I was fixated on some arch pain that I had that moved back to my heel. Of course this was quickly escalated into Plantar Fasciitis in my mind and the end of training. Maggie was able to eliminate my fear and point me in the right direction. In one day she silenced a two week head full of doubts. She is priceless. I wish more people could have someone like her in their life. Today I ran for he first time in a week and pain free. Now I can focus on getting back to work.

MONDAY.

132 days and counting.

I can't think of a more fitting video on a monday morning.

Off to swim.

133 days to go.

Saw this ad recently. Really like Lochte. Nutrition is such and underestimated part of endruace sport. I am always amazed when I hear about people running a half or full marathon and they have no nutrition strategy.

134 days to go.

Did a nice ride at Stone Mtn today. Took the GoPro for a test run. Video below.

Later on I was messing around on the interweb and found list of Ironman races ranked by total elevation gain. Two things jumped out at me 1) I need to go uphill some more cause 7505 ft is no joke and 2) Louisville is pretty dern hilly, kind of shocking.

TOP IRONMAN BIKE COURSES BY ELEVATION GAIN:

1. France 11193
2. Lanzarote 10282
3. Lake Placid 7911
4. Austria 7829
5. Australia 7659
6. Louisville 7578
7. Switzerland 7505
8. Wisconsin 7353
9. Canada 6719
10. Coeur D’Alene 5851
11. Brazil 5419
12. Germany 5281
13. S. Africa 5182
14. Hawaii 4554
15. Arizona 3824
16. W. Australia 2538
17. Florida 2007

145 days to go...

Today was like christmas. My GoPro finally came in the mail and so did my Wetsuit. Woo hoo.

146 Days to go. Skipped swim this morning, body said no to the alarm clock, it likes to do that sometimes and I willfully listen. But its a fine line between being lazy and truly listening to your body. I obviously needed that sleep. I set myself up for a Tues, Thurs, Fri swim which is going to be tough. But next sat their is no practice and I intend on celebrating my roommates birthday on Friday and then heading to Athens to hang out with my family on Saturday so we gotta make this week . Going to lunch with friends and then 40miles on the silver comet this afternoon.....

UPDATE: rear derailleur is broken, this sucks, gonna.....a) run or b) mtn bike.