Tired, grumpy, and smelly

These are, unfortunately, the advectives that best describe me these days. I am at the peak of my training schedule and I'm pretty sure this is how I'm supposed to feel. If I can make it through this weekend, my training sessions for the two weeks leading up to my race are less intense in order to allow recovery before the triathlon. I just checked my log and I've worked out 33 hours in the first 22 days of April.

I really didn't want to go on my run last night. I was exhausted after work, went home and hung out for a few minutes, and had to leave for my run just as Jessi and Bryce were starting dinner. I almost didn't go, but Jessi convinced me that I would feel better once I got started. It is possible that she just didn't want me to sit around and complain all night.

I spent the first 35 minutes of my run trying to decide exactly what a stress fracture feels like. I had a pretty substantial pain in a the middle of my right foot that got worse for almost 4 miles and then went away (must have been nothing). Then I arrived at the track where I had a few half mile intervals to run. I felt fine physically, but my mind wasn't in it. I put in a half-assed effort at the track, but got the distance done. Afterwards I ran home, put Bryce to bed, ate a big salad, and went to bed at 9:00.

Hopefully last night's early bed time will help me out. But what I really need is to get some level of excitement back. So I have made a decision.

This weekend, with the help of the Double Decker Festival in Oxford, I have created a little duathlon for myself. There is a 10k (6.2 mile) run that starts at 7:30 on Saturday morning, and there is also an organized bike ride (choice of 24, 50, and 66 mile routes) that starts at 9:00. In my infinite wisdom, I have signed up for both the 10k run and the 50 mile bike ride (I'm still considering the 66 miler, but the 50 will let me finish by lunchtime and go to the festival with the family). I will be a bit rushed getting from the run finish to the bike start, but I am pretty excited about getting in some distance under actual race-type conditions (instead of running in circles by myself).

*** Yesterday morning I swam for 1:15 (doing heavy interval work). Last night I ran 6.8 miles in 58 minutes, just over 8:30 min/mile pace (there were some half mile track intervals in there, but I haven't downloaded the data).

Later.