Monday 21 February - Sunday 6 March 2011

This is 2 weeks of thoughts on training, without the actual workout logs.
Written Sunday 2/27 -This was a Recovery week with time and amount of intensity cut back. I'm way too tired tonight at the end of this type of week but mostly I just think it was a busy weekend. Training went well. Swam a 2000 Free on Sat. that was at a faster pace than my Time Trial 2150 yard swim the previous week. Not sure why that is but I'm happy to be seeing improvement because in general I'm swimming slower than I did a year and a half ago. Some of that has to do with injuries along the way. The Brick workout today - 2 hours riding outside on the road plus a 45 min run went well. In spite of the air temp being 36 degrees when I started getting layers on, my core was warm. Fingers eventually thawed though my feet didn't until I got running. I added another hour of riding to the tail end of the run so I could ride with Son1 He got a new road bike and wanted to ride with the old man. We enjoyed it a lot.


Also spent some time with Son1's girlfriend who is in training for her first triathlon with Linda and the other female family members. Iron Girl Atlanta is a sprint distance event on May 15th, 1 week before Ironman Texas. I got a chance to work directly with her on her stroke and showed good improvement. She also has things to work on that I can incorporate into her workout plan. They sent me a video of her swimming and that helped me to guide her some but being together in person is a much better way to work. The 7 women have finished week 1 of their training plan with 11 weeks to go.


Linda is back with the living now that the final Chemo treatment is in the rearview mirror. We started doing 15-20 min walks and she swam twice over the weekend: 500 yards on Saturday! This stuff still causes a great deal of fatigue but she seems to be getting stronger each day.


It probably wasn't a brand new realization this week but I did think my snacking (which I see as a weakness) from a slightly different angle. And maybe that's not even true but anyway... While I am very conscious about what I eat, especially at meals due to a restricted diet and because of training, I realize that my snacks are another matter. Often I snack on things that are healthy, though not always. And I eat too much in the snack department. So I realized that I'm not really thinking about why I should do better with snacks. If I'm hungry I should eat but I need to be aware of why I'm eating and why I should not be eating. I never think in a concrete way about having a GOAL to be a certain weight for racing when I'm mindlessly snacking at night. If I did think about what I was putting into my mouth at night and how it impacts that goal, I know I would be better under control. Yes, I workout so much that I can get away with things but that's not what I really want or should be doing. New thing to focus on.

Weighed 156 lbs during the week.

Written Monday night 3/7 - It is such a relief to have Linda feeling better. I guess most of the time I wasn't aware of the stress her treatment and recovery was having on me. She is back to work today and I was worried about her since fatigue is going to affect her with her being in the office for a full day. She did fine but came home very tired. 

We spent the weekend in Palm Desert with her brother and his family. It was a nice time. I got to do some more swim coaching/teaching as our sister-in-law and niece will be doing Iron Girl Atlanta. Also tried a to help my niece (14 years old) on the bike. Not so sure that was at all successful.


This was an unusual training week. Phil, my friend that I swim with was sick all week . Also I started coming down with Pouchitis at the end of last week which explains the fatigue I felt after a recovery week. It's the first real 'GI event' since my intestinal surgery 11 months ago. I haven't taken antibiotics for pouchitis since 1998 so instead of doing the Chinese herbs/Chinese medicine thing I decided to go the Western Medicine route. I'm on Flagyl and Cipro now and will get my "J-pouch" scoped this Wednesday morning. The pouchitis took it's toll last week, causing me to skip training on Tuesday night, a rarity. It was weight training. 


Friday in Palm Desert I did my 4 1/2 hour bike ride. (Being in the Desert I couldn't get my usual 3rd strength training in nor the long weekend swim.) On Saturday I started my 2 hr 20 min run. At :38 mark I felt a tightness in my right calf and stopped after the 3rd or 4th step, walked, and tried to start again. Stopped 2 steps later with a strain, walked home, and did no more training (missed a short run and short ride). Saw my Physical Therapist who worked on me and taped my up. No running the rest of the week. Swim and Bike are still on the table. I might try water running at the end of the week but we'll see. 


The 70.3 in Oceanside is April 2nd. I plan to be ready for it. Ironman Texas is May 21, a higher priority. I just don't want to lose too much training from this setback.