SORE!

I have no idea what happened... but after feeling like Superman after Tuesday's workouts... I turned into a screaming wussy on Wednesday! I woke up sore on Wednesday morning... mostly in the glutes... odd huh? No worries though... its all part of the plan right? In order to build and get stronger you have to break down first.

I'm eating well and actually maintaining wieght... which is odd for me. I think my metabolism might actually be slowing down in my old age. I have mixed feelings about that. I've always been one of those skinny guys that can eat everything and anything and never gain weight. Basically the most that I've ever weighed is 165 lbs... which was when I was in the Army right before heading off to Ranger school (after which I weighed 132 lbs). After that I got back up to 155 and have held steady between there and 162 ever since. Maybe I should stop working out, start watching a lot of TV and drinking a ton of beer... just to see what would happen.

ANYWAY! Wednesday was a speed work day on the Amazon bark trail!

- 20 min warm-up (8:00/mi)
- 6 x 400m sprints on 3 minute active recovery (slow jog)
- 20 min cool-down (8:00/mi)

Legs felt stiff and sore even after the warm-up. The wind was really howling that day and I just happened to be doing my intervals straight into it... NOT fun! I did pretty well though. Invervals 1 thru 6 were at 1:20... consistent and relatively fast! It was more of a mental strain than anything else. I didn't really want to be out there pushing it while I was that sore... but I got through it with pretty good results. I think if I could hold that pace it would be a 5:20 mile... if my math is right... but there's no WAY I could hold that pace for longer than a mile... that's nothing but a pipe dream. After that I went into the gym and stretched and did a bit of core work.

So that brings us to today! I had to take off to Ashland after my run... got down there around 7 ish in the evening and then went and stuffed myself on sushi. Believe it or not there's a pretty good place in Ashland. Thursdays are always brick days...

- 20 min warm-up (easy spin)
- 35 min ride
- 1:10 transition
- 10 min run
- Half Ironman pace

I did 12 miles (17 total including the warm-up) on the bike spinning at between 100 and 110 rpms and maintaining an average HR of 146. Pretty happy with that. Legs felt a bit sore and stiff but loosened up nicely after the 20 min warm-up. Jumped off the bike, slapped on the running shoes and took off on the run. Averaged a 7 min mile with no trouble... felt strong... and had an average HR of 156. Overall I was pretty happy with the performance. Did a bunch of stretching after I was done. I'm going to be very religious about stretching for the remainder of my training cycle... I listened to a podcast that said that you can improve preformance thru increased flexibility up to 30%... I'm IN!

OK! I had something WIERD happen while I was on the bike this morning. I had my IPod on and was listening to a band called "Apocalyptica"... I think that's how you spell it. Anyway, they do orchestral covers of Metallica songs... all strings... violin and cello... really intense stuff. So I'm going after it on the bike just cranking away and the music is just building and building and building and my eyes are closed and my breathing is steady and I'm calm and everything comes together for a split second and I just think, "I'm blessed" and a totally tear up! Is that freakin WIERD or what??? I dunno man, but I'm just so lucky to be here, and have the family that I do, and be training and healthy and strong and I just felt so centered at that moment... it was really really cool! Brett from Zen and the Art of Triathlon would have been proud.

Tomorrow is a non-key swim in the morning and a non-key bike in the afternoon. Plan on doing some weights and some core!

Breathe...