So, the last couple of weeks of training have gone pretty well. The only hindrance has been sleep or to be more precise, lack of sleep. I missed one workout because of no sleep due to storms/power failure and freaked out dog and another because I snoozed my alarm 3 times without realizing it. I also had to scale Sunday's open water swim way back when I found I had no energy to continue and did not want to end up fish food. I had done a 12 mile trail run in about 99% humidity Sunday morning and planned on doing at least a 2 mile swim later that afternoon. I felt pretty good after the run and hydrated, fueled up and when I started swimming I felt like I had a lead weight tied to my ass. I pushed on despite mental warnings of complete stupidity and possible drowning and forced myself to swim about 1400m. Better judgement won out in the end and I quit after that. I was a bit disappointed since I swam 3 miles the previous Saturday after a 8 mile run but I think the heat and extra mileage did me in that day. I am glad I got that 3 mile swim in to boost my confidence a bit since I have the Ridges Resort 5K swim this Sunday. When I first heard of this event 3 years ago it seemed like a super crazy endeavor but something I wanted to aspire to. Well, here I am signed up and ready to go for Sunday. I am sure it will be really slow but knowing I don't have to get on a bike afterwards will be a great incentive to "just keep swimming".
As far as the rest of my training I am still sweating the bike. Rocket boosters have yet to pop out of my ass so I am still plodding along or should I say pedalling along at my usual slow speed. I have been kicking some hill ass lately so that's one good thing. Been doing lots of Hartman Hill repeats and even did one entire set in the big chain ring (just to see if I could). I have also been getting a lot of comments about looking leaner/more toned so maybe some of my extra padding is transforming into muscle mass. Come on speed....you can't be far behind, please!
Spin still kicks my ass every week (ahem, except for the couple I missed due to lack of sleep) but I think that's the point. This morning I was bound and determined to get to that class despite the fact that Betty would not go out and pee and my garage door would not open. I drove like a maniac and prayed it would not be a full class. If it's crowded its first come first served for bikes. I got there just in time to grab a bike and fired up the Garmin and no HR graph. What?? Recent firmware update deleted all my settings and apparently this too. Then it started picking up everyone else's monitor (something it has never done before). After much fiddling I gave up and decided to used PS or "perceived suckiness" to determine my HR and exertion. I think I managed adequately and achieved a fine state of suckiness by the end of class.
The last song for today's sufferfest was a mix of The Police's "King of Pain" that made me think about when I first heard that song in 1983(!) when Synchronicity first came out. Little did that silly 14yr old sunbathing with headphones on know that 28 yrs later she would be sweating in a dank, dark room while training for an Ironman. "What the F** is an Ironman?" says that girl and "Why the hell would I do that? Sounds boring and stupid". Yeah, well, what can I say?
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