Weekly training report - with a lot of stuff about self-talk

I’m having one of those weeks, you know, the I’m fat and sluggish and there’s nothing to be done about it weeks. I think all women have them. I ended up having a great hill running session on Sunday, and so didn’t do it on Monday, which is when I have been doing hills. Nothing wrong with mixing it up a bit to keep things fresh. But you see, I really love running. Especially in the warm sun, and it was warm and sunny on Monday, so I just wanted to run. But I had brought my swim gear with me. I really need to ramp up my swimming, not for speed, but for distance, if I’m going to finish my goal race in July. As I headed to the pool I suddenly felt like ‘why am I doing this? I don’t want to do triathlons. I’m never going to be good at triathlons. I’m never going to win a triathlon. I’ve got work I could be doing right now, so I’ll just skip the swim.’ I then proceeded to have a little chat with myself. I am not good at doing things half way. But I have to have a relaxed attitude about triathlons, or I will crash and burn (out). I do them so that I keep working out, so that I keep working towards better fitness. My goal is to finish, not to win. Or my win is a finish. So I went on into the pool and had a great swim workout. 100 m warm up followed by 800 m at a steady pace, paying attention to form, and doing flip turns. Then another 400 m without touching the wall. I read about it somewhere as a good way to practice for open water swims in a pool. And then another 200 m with wall touches and a final fast 100 m (to practice speed even when tired). So all in all I swam 1600m. I did the final 1500 in just under 36 minutes, which is great for me. So now I’m feeling like I can finish the Olympic distance swim (with some open water practice beforehand too of course), and I’m recharged and ready for more training.

Tuesday I went to the track to do 400s. The plan was to do 5 Fast-recover sets, with the option for one or 2 more, and I ended up doing 6. I ran to the track, did a warm up lap, some dynamic stretching, then started my repeats. I have to admit, it was a rough work out. I felt like crap before heading out. I have a son who doesn’t sleep well at all (so neither do I) and I hadn’t eaten properly through the day. The latter was expected due to a perfect storm of work and family obligations that are making this week tough, and I guess I should have expected the sleep issues too, since they’re pretty constant. Anyway, I felt awful. I wanted to bail on my workout. I knew I was going to be slow. But triathlon isn’t just about the physical, it’s also very mental. And so I decided that fast or not, I was going to stick with the plan, if only to train my mind to keep my body moving when it really doesn’t want to. (I know, I know, I’ve only done sprints so how mental can they be? During the first 2 km on the run, very.) But once I got to the track it got worse. There was a woman there who was so obviously not a runner, but clearly in great shape. She looked like she was a lifter or some sort, and could easily have been a fitness model. She was the stiffest runner I’ve ever seen. And had very obviously had some work done. No one with that little fat has a ‘front porch’ of that size. That and the fact that her chest defied gravity – she didn’t bounce at all despite wearing a yoga bra – made it pretty obvious. But lest I sound too catty, the rest of her looked like the product of a whole lot of dedication and hard work. Anyway, despite the fact that it was clear she was not a runner, her slow laps were faster than my fast ones. This was really getting me down. But I checked my thinking and remembered that I was there for my workout, not hers. I am preparing for my races, not hers. And living my life, not hers. I frankly don’t have the time to look like that, even if I did have the self control and determination. I have a great kid, a terrific husband, live in one of the best cities on the planet, and have a job that I sometimes love. And I realized that she was about half my age, and the idea that I could keep up with a very fit 20 year old is ludicrous.

Wednesday was a planned rest day. It was hard to stick to the plan, as the day was beautiful and it was National Running Day in the US, so twitter was full of running stuff. But if I want to get better, I have to respect my body’s need for rest. Especially at my age. So I resisted, and didn’t work out.

Thursday I did bricks, my favorite workout. Seriously. I love doing them. I’m a very ‘in-my-head’ sort of person, and bricks are totally mental, as in, it’s really about your mind making your body do something it doesn’t want to do, until it feels OK, which if you keep going, it eventually does. It wasn’t’ a particularly challenging session. I cycled fairly hard for 16 minutes on the bike in the gym, went and ran for about 6 mins outside, then back on the bike on a harder setting for 12 mins then the same run circuit, then on the bike for 12 mins again on the same harder setting, then the run circuit again. Then I did some core work, and it was painfully obvious that I’ve been slacking off in that department since the weather got nice and I’ve moved out of the gym and onto the trails and roads for my workouts. I’ll have to make sure to be doing core work at home I guess.

Friday I went for a quick 600 swim. I was glad that I opted for the swim, as I found out that the pool where I train is closing for a month (again) for mechanical repairs. Not a good time, as I have 2 triathlons coming up in the next 5 weeks. I was just getting into the swing of swimming regularly, and my swims were starting to improve. I’ll just have to deal with another summer of crappy swims I guess, and focus more on my cycling.

Saturday I ended up going for a lovely run. It was pretty much unplanned, and I treated it as a treat, not as training. It was an old local route of mine that I really like. I started my watch, but since I couldn’t remember how long it used to take me to do, or what the distance was, I wasn’t racing myself. I just went for a slow, enjoyable run through the neighborhood. It was fun to remember how much I enjoy running. And then on Sunday I went for a bit of an impromptu run when the family went to a local lake park with some friends. Everyone but me had their bike, so I ran alongside my little guy. He tired out quickly, so it was good I didn’t have a bike, as I ended up pushing him (on his run bike) a lot of the way, and piggy backing him for another decent chunk. So I got more of a workout than I had anticipated, but it was enjoyable, and so didn’t feel like work. Family time in the woods in the summer is a good thing.