Almost Race Time!

It's 3:30am and I'm doing the peri-menopausal "waking up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason" thing so I figured now is as good a time as any to get my blog updated as promised.

If you listen to my podcast, specifically episode #30, you'll know that for the past 3-4 months, I've been wrestling with the idea that the Apple Sprint is supposed to be my "A" race this year and yet, because of work and my trip to Europe, I'll be woefully unprepared compared to last year. How can I take 3 weeks off training in the middle of July and expect to compete at the same level as last year, particularly because my training was weak most of June due to job pressures?

At any rate, while I was away, I thought a lot about this and finally decided to give myself permission to just go out and have fun on this triathlon. Forget about the heavy training schedules when I get back, forget about trying to PR or get an AG placement - just train the way I feel each day, then do the race for the pure enjoyment of it. Do a triathlon for fun? My, what a concept? Not sure why it took me so much time to figure that one out. D'oh!

Anyway, I obviously put too much pressure on myself and it feels pretty good to relax a little and just go with the flow. I still have to fight the urge to compete, however unprepared I am, but I am enjoying the reduced training load and the pure enjoyment of doing whatever kind of training that suits me each day. I know for a fact, I could go into the race on Sunday, August 23rd and finish it just fine without doing one more day of training so I figure any workouts I do at this point are a bonus!

After I got home from my trip, it took a couple days to get un-jet-lagged, and then, quite honestly, I didn't even feel like even LOOKING at my bike for awhile. However, I was pretty anxious to get out there and do some running so on the next day back, I did a treadmill run at the YMCA. It was my first try at the treadmill but because it was still hovering around 38C (102F), I thought it might be a good idea to run indoors that day. The next day I did a fairly easy bike ride on my own and I've been doing various types of training most days since then.

We've had some fairly heavy smoke from local forest fires so that has hampered my outdoors activities a little and I've had to my use my inhaler before I run/bike so avoid wheezing.

Here's what I've done since I got back:

July

26 - arrived home, slept, relaxed

27 - 40 min treadmill run

28 - 60 min easy bike, 1500m swim

29 - 3o min road run, felt crappy, too hot

30 - off - (busy with family party)

31 - went to pool but they'd closed the lane swimming, played in wave pool instead. :)

August

1 - Brick Intervals. 5 min bike/800m run X 5. Felt awesome, ran fast (5:15-5:35 km pace)

2 - played 9 holes of golf

3 - 1200m swim, yoga

4 - off - side pain, too smokey

5 - 8km trail run, good for first 6.5k, then ITB/knee locked up. (too much, too soon)

6 - 2000m swim

7 - Bike hill repeats. Felt great! 5 X 6min with 3:30 recovery ride back down the hill. 4-10%. Stronger than last May!

8 - Off, busy packing for camping etc.

Throughout this time, I've also done 1-3 hours of yardwork and/or cleaning the garage and basement so I've been doing some physical activity in that sense as well. Also, I've been trying to get some core work done again as well, aiming for 15 minutes per day.

The next week:

So today - August 9th, I'm not likely to do any training. I had thought about getting up early and going for a run, but now that I'm having this long wakefulness in the middle of the night, I'm not likely to want to get up at 6:30.

At 9am, I have to pick up my friend, Janice, and we're heading up to Mabel Lake where we are spending the night with 9 of the 'houseboat girls." I suppose in theory, I could take my shoes and go for a 30 minutes run while I'm there, but I know that's just not gonna happen - too much fun, food, and booze to do any serious training. :)

On Monday, I've got to be back home by 4pm so we can pack up the van and we can be in Osoyoos by 7:30pm where we will be camping until next Saturday.

I will have plenty of time to get in some training while I'm down there, especially biking, but the intensity may not be there. I will probably try to do a brick again and do at least one serious swim since we are camping right on the lake. But again, it's family, food, and wine for a week too. :)

So that's my training update. What do you think? Can Kelownagurl do the switch from competition to tri-for-fun? Only time will tell. I can tell you one thing, no matter what happens, I will still give my all when I do my race on the 23rd so you never know - maybe none of the hardcore ladies from last year will show up! lol...

Have a great week everyone! I'll do an update when I get home next Sunday!

PS Hey Paul, if you're reading this, email me if you want to get together for a drink or a coffee! We'll be at Shady LAgoon and I'll have my Blackberry.