07/16/07: The Week in Review

First off, thanks for all of the comments! Even though I'm primarily writing most of this blog for me, it's nice to know some others are finding value in it.

As far as the swimming goes, keep in mind that everything's relative. In 2005 I could barely swim 100 yds without being totally exhausted. Now I can swim over 2000 yds faster with less effort, although still have a long way to go. What matters is that I'll be able to swim 2.4 miles in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes on Nov 3. Whether or not I'm better than I was a couple of years ago is irrelevant - the clock doesn't care.

This week I had planned for 4 hours of swimming, 5.25 biking and 2.75 running, for a total of 12 hours.

The actuals were 10.27 hours:

Swimming: 3.5 hours, totalling 4.4 miles. One swim got cut short because of a thunderstorm blowing through. Although I wanted to get in an ocean swim yesterday, the weather again had other plans, and I ended up inside at UNF. I did a 2x1000 plus and addition 500 after biking. I was REALLY happy with this swim, as I kept up a consistent pace after a 2 hour bike ride. Overall, a good swimming week.

Biking: 4.06 hours, totalling 74.45 miles. Strange happenings on the bike over the weekend.

On my recovery ride Friday afternoon, which I'm grateful I was able to squeeze in between storms, something flew into my helmet and bit or stung me. OUCH. I kept riding, and didn't notice it too much until I stopped. That's when it really started to hurt, and I started feeling not so great. After a couple of benedryl, a good nights sleep, very vivid dreams, the obligatory benedryl hangover the next morning, and Panera for breakfast (thanks Lori), I was good as new.

Next up on the bike was a bit of poor planning on my part. I ran out of Perpetuem and gels, and was going to stop by the bike shop on Saturday to re-stock, which didn't happen.

3 hour group ride + no food on bike = massive bonk; so, instead of doing the group ride on Sunday morning, I waited for the bike shop to open, got more perpetuem and gels, and was off on my bike at 12:30.

Afternoon ride in Florida + Summertime = Thunderstorm

About an hour into my ride, I had to duck into the Gate station on A1A to get out of the rain and lightening. After about a 1/2 hour, the storm was far enough away to ride back. Getting off the subject for just a moment, I'm always amazed by some people's brilliance. There's lightening everywhere, and I saw people going down to the beach with their fishing gear. Pure genius. Darwin at work.....

Anyway, by the time I was rode back to my car, another line of showers was blowing through, cutting my ride short by an hour. I definitely need to stick with riding in the mornings from now on. Overall, fair week of biking, cut short by an hour due to lack of planning on my part :(

Running: 2.71 hours, totalling 17.95 miles.

Saturday's weather made the afternoon perfect for grabbing a bite to eat and a movie. Note to self: chicken wings, fries, beer and movie popcorn is not ideal pre long-run nutrition!!

After the afternoon's indulgence, I put in a 1.75 hour, 11.29 mile run. The run was more of a challenge mentally than physically. After an hour I felt very lethargic - big surprise there.....I sucked it up and finished the run anyway.....Pretty good week of running, and I give myself bonus points for finishing Saturday's long run even though I didn't particularly want to; unfortunately, I have to subtract points for eating like crap Sat afternoon, knowing I had to run for 1.75 hours later in the day.

All in all, a fair training week.

A couple of things I did well:

1. Got in all three swims, even when the weather didn't cooperate
2. Finished long run, after afternoon indulgence
3. Salvaged 2 hours of planned bike ride

Lessons learned:

1. Plan better. It's not like I woke up Sun morning and suddenly realized I was out of perpetuem and gels. I could have picked them up at any time during the week and instead waited until the last minute.

2. Do bike rides in the mornings - see #1

3. Either run in the morning, or wait until after the run to indulge.

Live with purpose....Enjoy the adventure