Uh oh.

I am now less than 10 days from my event. And it is possible that I am getting sick. I have not been sick during any of the 20-30 weeks of training, but am currently dealing with some congestion and sinus related issues. Like always, perfect timing. The good news is that the problem is mostly in my head (I don't mean mental problems, I'm speaking of physical, in-the-head, sinus related issues). My physical condition makes me sound terrible and feel rough at times, but I have managed to not miss any workouts. . . . yet.

The best course of action, allegedly, is to go ahead and work out if the sickness is in your neck and above, and rest if the sickness is below your neck -- drinking plenty of fluids in either case. Today I am not sure where my malady is located, but I believe it may be heading towards my chest. My plan for today is to drink a bunch of o.j. and chase it away. I only have a 40 minute run scheduled tonight, so I am considering skipping it if I don't feel well after work. It appears that I have a pretty busy weekend, so some rest would probably do me good. I better restock on NyQuil. I love that stuff.

I got my wetsuit in the mail yesterday. I obviously don't own one, and didn't want to buy one (they are pretty expensive), so I rented one from an online company. They ship it to you a couple weeks before your race and you send it back shortly thereafter (or you can keep it and buy it for a discounted rate, with an additional credit for your rental payment). It wasn't very expensive, and I fully expected to receive a crappy suit with holes in it. But I received a very high end, seemingly new. It seems to be a pretty good deal.

Also, I have had one major obstacle clear up for my race week. I hadn't mentioned it on here, but I have had a big trial scheduled to start Monday and go through Thursday. As with all trials, though, there was a real possibility that it would have gone through Friday. If that happened, my triathlon would have been shot because I would be unable to get to Panama City Beach in time to register on Friday. Anyway, I say all that to say this -- my case has settled, I don't have trial next week, and I am planning to leave town on Thursday afternoon. Not only does this make my final training week much less stressful, It really helps having a more locked-in plan about leaving town.

Woops, it appears that this post is long, boring, and contains absolutely nothing of substance. Oh well . . . . that can't really be a surprise to anyone.

** Last night I did a bike trainer workout that lasted a little less than an hour and a half.

LATER.

Out of pocket

I was on the road and in meetings all day, so I didn't have a chance to post this morning. Nothing substantive to say. I'm about to go home.

*** Last night I ran 6.5 miles in 1 hour. This morning I swam for 1 hour.

See you tomorrow.

Because It it Important to Me.

"Because it is important to me" should more often than not be the reason we do what we do. It couldn't be much more simple than that. Of course, at times you have to do things that you would prefer not to do, that's life. But you should always be working towards something you believe in - not just do things because they are expected. I decided rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and articulate this thought, it would be better to include the following quote from Steve Jobs' commencement speech to Stanford in 2005. These few sentences sum everything up better than I could in 10 pages of rambling text:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

***Last night I did nothing (other than swimming in the morning). Not on ly did I have an off day from training, but I had an out of town hearing cancelled at the last minute. After work, I went home, had dinner, and went to bed early. I'll be back at it tonight.

Double Doozie

Went to Double Decker this weekend and had a good time. Jessi, Bryce and I left the house Saturday morning about 6 and headed to Oxford. I was signed up for the 10k at 7:30 and a 50 mile bike ride at 9:00. Everything went well. I finished running and Jessi took me to the bike start where I got signed in, changed, had a snack, and was off.

This was the first organized bike ride I've ever done and it was actually a lot of fun. I rode the whole way with my buddy Jon (and a few straglers we picked up and dropped along the way). I felt great and hammered out the first 30 miles, and then came the hills. Of course, at this point Jon started laughing hysterically (mad scientist-like) and bounded nimbly up the mountains, while I did everything I could to keep up with him.

I guess if I had anything of value to share from this weekend it is how much nutrition matters while doing workouts of this length. Being hungry and underfueled not only makes your body tired, but it does strange things to your mind. At times during a long workout everything is great, but if your nutrition is insufficient your attitude goes bad. Everything seems terrible, you feel tired, and all you can think about is how much you want to stop.

Here's the simple answer -- If you begin to get overly tired or have negative thoughts (about anything) during a long workout, then you most likely need to eat something. You can pop a gel, or eat a few cookies and be back on top of the world in no time. The bad thoughts and feelings aren't real, but are manufactured by your brain in an effort to protect your body from what you are doing to it. You just have to learn how to interpret the signs your body is giving you.

After the physical portion of the day, we walked around the Square for a while and checked out the festivities. It was packed, but we had some lunch, spoke to a few friends, and went home.

*** Weekend Tally -- Saturday morning I ran 6.2 miles in 50:17 (8:07 pace), and rode just under 50 miles in approximately 2:35:00 (we probably averaged around 18 mph).

Sunday afternoon -- I ran 6 miles in 55 minutes (which was neither easy nor fun -- I don't believe I ever fully rehydrated after Saturday).

This Morning (Monday) -- I swam for 1:15. Lots of sprints and kicking drills.

I will be running pretty crazy for work this week and probably won't have time to post much, but I will try and keep up.

I Haven't Pontificated Lately. Here Goes . . .

Fear of something bad happening in the future is one of the things that separates humans from animals. Animals feel fear when faced with an immediate danger or a belief/sense of immediate danger. But only people have the incredible ability to fear something 1) that isn't happening now, 2) that they believe could possibly happen sometime in the future, 3) even though it isn’t even likely to happen, 4) and that most likely will never happen.

Of course there is a purpose to fear. A healthy dose of fear will keep you out of some hairy situations (I'm hoping Bryce develops a little fear soon, our neighbor is running out of surgical glue). But more often than not, it seems as if fears are unnecessary, unfounded, and serve no purpose other than holding people back from achieving their potential.

Maybe there is a way to feel fear and acknowledge it, but then move forward without allowing it to control your actions. What do you think the odds of something happening should be before the fear of that thing changes your life?

If I jump off a building, I will get 100% hurt -- therefore, I have made a policy decision not to jump off of buildings.

If I jump off a rock formation on the side of a river, maybe there is a 10% chance of injury -- If it looks like a normal rock formation, I may or may not jump. If it is a super cool rock formation that provides a photo opportunity and a good story, I'll give that a shot any day.

I guess everyone has their own level of risk they are comfortable with. But I would hate to miss out on a good story or a photo opportunity just because there is a slim chance of something going wrong. Most things worth doing, actually, include a certain amount of risk. Life without risk, or fear, would be pretty boring.

*** Last night I did a 1:30 bike trainer workout -- 30 min. warm up, 6X4/2 intervals, and 25 minute cool down.

This morning I swam (mostly drills), and plan to do a short run tonight in preparation for my Double Decker festivities tomorrow.

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.

Work, Work, Work

I've got a lot going on today work-wise. Will try to check in tomorrow.

*** Last night - bike trainer for 1:20 - mostly cranking a hard gear.
This morning - swimming (1:15) - mostly interval work.