New goals = renewed energy

So last week was a tough one training-wise. I expected to need a bit of time for recovery, and built it into my plans for the week. I took Monday completely off, and then Tuesday had my first ever therapeutic massage. (I loved it, and will definitely make a habit of post-race massage. It helped that I had a line on a very good massage therapist, someone my husband has been seeing for years. He's really picky about massage, so if he gives someone the thumbs up, it's a good sign.) I was back at it, but more for my mental health than anything else on Weds. I went to the pool, something I can easily do while tired, and did some speed work. It was 50m repeats, with 1 min rest in between. I did 10, and they were all between 55 and 57 secs. Very consistent, and for me, decently fast. So I was happy. And on Thursday I went for my usual 10 k trail run. I did it with fartleks, as I often do to keep it more interesting. I finished in a hair over 58 mins. My fastest time for the route from just a few weeks back is 56 minutes. So I was quite a bit slower, but still, I wasn't upset about my time, it had only been a few days since my race after all, and I was faster than I had been on Sunday, but not too much. Interestingly, my time on Thursday's run made me feel better about my time on Sunday. Anyway, Friday I took another rest day. And then on Sat I went and swam 750 m at a relatively hard effort to see how fast I might be in an upcoming sprint pool swim tri I'm considering adding to my schedule. I wasn't really into going, but I don't feel good if I go 2 days without doing something physical. I hadn't eaten enough (more on that below) so I popped a half a banana and a spoonful of peanut butter while convincing myself to head out to the pool. Discovered a new motivational trick in that: It's what I eat before I race, and so is correlated in my mind with exercising. Enough so that my mindset immediately changed and I was raring to go! I'll have to remember that one.

On Sunday I went to the track and did 400s. And things fell apart. My legs still felt like lead, 1 week after my race. My fast 400s were over 2:00, and my slow recovery ones were over 2:30! I haven't been this slow in years. I was frustrated, and couldn't figure it out. I am taking iron supplements which usually help with this (on a doctor's advice) and have been trying to eat more iron rich foods too. My sleep has been OK. My son has sleep issues, so I rarely get a full nights uninterrupted sleep, but this week has been a relatively good one. I wasn't feeling any post-race blues, and was evening thinking of adding another race into my schedule. So why was I running so poorly?

I realized after 8 laps that despite the fact that I still had 2 maybe 3 races on my calender, I had no goal any more. The race last weekend had been my goal race, the one I had been working towards for months. It gets more complicated than that though. Last year I ran a 10 k road race after my last tri, to see if I could do it. I was sort of feeling out the possibility of doing an olympic distance tri. It went well, and so I did (decided to do the oly.) I had a similar plan this year. I decided to run a half marathon in the upcoming fall to see how it goes, testing out the possibility of doing an even longer distance tri next year (a half-iron). But I have already decided that that is not in the cards for me. I can't commit to the amount of training required. So having decided to not up my distance, the half marathon has lost its purpose for me. So my motivation to do it waned. Add that to some fueling issues, and bingo, a recipe for problems.  I am currently walking around with a mouthful of plastic temporary crowns, making it hard to eat. I got them on Friday (that's why Friday was a rest day - I spent 2 hours in a dentist's chair, and another couple still frozen afterwards). I can't bite very well, and so eating the things I normally do is challenging. It was a perfect storm.

All of this became clear while I was running my recovery lap after my 4th slow 'fast' 400. It was a weight lifted off. I did my next 400 in 1:51, my next fast one in 1:48, my next in 1:49, and my last in 1:49! Mostly it was my form that changed. I ran upright, with my core engaged, and felt my muscles working on every stride. I wasn't trying to just move my feet faster, I was moving my body the way it was supposed to move. I was knackered at the end of the workout, but feeling great.

And now I have a new goal. It is the half-marathon. After what I just wrote it might seem strange to make that my goal, rather than the Cultus Lake tri in September.  It's about weight. I have gained a lot of fitness in the past 2 years, and my body has changed shape and size, but I haven't lost a single pound and I would really like to. I don't want to lose much, 6-8 lbs would be ideal. Running is the best way I know for my body to lose weight. So my plan is to cut back a little on my intake (not too much) and slowly increase my distance on my long runs. At the same time, I will be increasing my cycling distance a bit, with an eye to next year's plans to do 2-3 olympic races. Making the half marathon my goal race also makes sense in that it is later in the year than Cultus Lake, so it'll keep me going for longer.

It was rather amazing to me how much difference all of this mental activity made in the middle of a training session! The first half and second half were like night and day.

And my day just kept getting better. I went home, had a shower, and asked the little man (my son) if he wanted to go for a bike ride in the back alley. The rain had finally let up and he was going stir crazy. When we got outside I asked if he might like to try his pedal bike instead of his run bike. He said yes. So I yelled up to my husband to get it out of the bike room, and the rest is history. He can only do it downhill so far but he thinks he can do it now, so he had his own mental breakthrough. And the pride on his face was so much fun to see.