Day 319: One More Week

Less than a week, that is--a week from today I'll have attempted the triathlon, and know the story of that experience. Of course, I hope it will be a success, but maybe it's worth establishing what "success" would mean to me at this point in my journey. I do tend to lower the bar for myself, to take off some pressure before races, but the truth is that the bar for simply completing this triathlon is already really high, and I can honestly say that completion is what is on my mind and in my hopes. It's going to be challenging, no matter how much training I've put into it. But I think that's the whole point.

I swam this morning, as usual, and for some reason I never got going very quickly. It was slow, but steady, and took me 35 minutes to swim 1500m. Not getting faster, getting slower, in other words. And then I went for another 700m, for a total of 2200, in 50 minutes. I should really stop counting laps. I liked when I just swam steadily for an hour and didn't really know how far I'd made it. But my brain is now in the habit of counting. What else to do underwater?

Think. Reflect. Be present.

After the swim, I went for a run. My calf was hurting, again, so I decided to play it by ear and only ended up going 4km instead of my usual 5. But what I did was a series of sprints each lap. I would sprint about half way (which on this track is about 125m), and then ease up for the rest of the lap, and then sprint again. I started with a warm-up kilometre, and for the second kilometre I ran steadily but fast, and then sprinted intervals over the last two kilometres. It was hard. I didn't feel like I'd really pushed myself enough by the end, but there's something different about race week. I was aware of every twinge and ache today, and worried about over-doing it.

I didn't do a thing yesterday except sit in front of the computer and type, but I did run on Saturday, just a joyful outside run, fairly late in the day, an improvised route that turned out to be 8km. I pushed the pace, but wasn't wearing a watch or checking time, just running smoothly and joyfully. I think it was probably around 5min/km, or slightly faster. I still don't understand how I ran that 10km as fast as I did. Will I ever run that fast again?

When I got up this morning, I wondered: will I get up early next week, when the race is over? Or will I go back to my old "sleeping-in" habits? It has been hard to adjust my life to the early mornings, and it does require naps and careful scheduling. On the other hand, I always feel so good after starting my day with something energizing. It will be interesting to see what I push myself to do (or not do).

I would like to train for a marathon this fall. And I'd like to run a 5km race, just to kind of round off my year of races. I do like the interval training, and it really pushes me mentally and physically. I love running.

I'm rambling. It's a tired morning, I'll admit.

:::

Last week: five runs (wow, that's a record; but none were long); one bike ride; four swims (but one was super-short, my first dip in the lake); one yoga class (boo--too tired for my Thursday class, and didn't get to anything else over the weekend, though I have been stretching more often at home).

This week's plan ... hm, still under construction, and I will play it by ear according to energy levels, etc. (note: the plan does not include Sunday's triathlon): four runs (all fairly short), one bike ride, three swims (including one in the lake), two yoga classes.