Will & Heart square off against my ailing body

I've come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to give 100% of myself in three weeks...... I will be under trained and not 100% physically ready...........with that said my only goal is to finish Ironman Arizona.

My hammy has hurt all week........

Mon: Core

Tues: AM: swam 2200 yards.....30 min aqua running
PM: Yoga

Wed: AM: Core
PM: Yoga

Thur: Same as Tues

Fri: AM Core
PM: Going to Yoga

Note that there is no biking going on........... I hope to test out the leg tomorrow and see how it feels.... if it reacts positively I will go longer on Sun. I am planning a decent swim (around 2500) and a long aqua run.

After consulting a few friends who helped reinforce my decision I am going to lay of the next three weeks in hopes that my hammy will make huge gains over the next few weeks. So basically I am starting my taper early and what I have in the tank is what I will take to IM with me........ If (when) I blow up my hammy it should be in Arizona and not here in NC training!

I had hoped to do a 100 miler this weekend but to do it on a strained hammy just so I can say I did it makes no sense...... of course I was still planning to do it up until yesterday....... I am such a guy!

I hope to put 5 hours in on the bike this weekend (in two days) but I am going off of feel. I am taking Motrin and Flexeril right now but want to get of them next week. The hammy feels so much better than earlier this week but it isn't great.

I'll tell you though, I'm tired or working out and would just like to go into hibernation mold to let my hammy heal..........I have been struggling with it since Apr, thought I had kicked it in Aug.......it came back end of Aug and has really been kicking my ass since The Dukeman 1/2. I am so looking forward to the off season so that I may heal my body.

Its been a long time since I was sick of working out........ I can't wait until this is over and I can choice to work out or not. I wish I were more excited..... I mean I am excited but it would be such a special thing if I were healthy and could give it my all..........What I mean is, I'll give it my all but my all won't be what I know in my heart I have to give.

Don't worry, my morale is still fine and if I start to feel better it will sky rocket. I have the will and heart now I just need the body to cooperate!

I will never learn!

Thurs: skipped bike to let hammy rest.......... did some core/ weights

Fri: Ran with one of the companies.......not my choice......obligation....ran a little over 3.....too easy...no issue. Went to Yoga after work and much to my dismay it was cancelled.

Sat: Had a huge day in the pool......3500 Yards.......that's right, I swam 2 miles in 1:34.......... I felt decent doing it but was drained by the end.... I am only .4 away from the IM swim...........am going too take it easy this week and then go long again next weekend.

Sun: Bike 72 miles, 4:03............went on the same route as cranking for crones last weekend. I didn't realize I had a tail wind until about 1/2 way to the turn around.....I should have known it was too easy.... I was cruising and feeling great the first two hour. I turned around at 1:58 knowing that a headwind faced me for 36 miles...........it wasn't as bad as last week though....

Stopped for water at 2:10..........some mini van full of church goers cut me off going into the church parking lot at 2:15........I came within a foot of being a hood ornament........I was so pissed!

For some reason I thought I could maintain the same pace going back as I had going to the turn around point..... I was working way too hard..... I started to feel twinging in my hammy...... I ignored it though and pressed on......I finished w/ an ave pace of 17.5 which is slow for me if I were healthy but good for me with my hammy.....I felt fine yesterday afternoon but it started to hurt last night...........it was throbbing when I woke up this morning.............I am such an idiot......

My plan is to rest it today and see how it feels tomorrow. I did core this morning and will do Yoga tonight. I want to go 100 miles this weekend. I have 3 more weekends to train before IM AZ.

One month, 1 Day

That's right........ IM Arizona is creeping up on me! My enthusiasm is guarded though due to my ailing hamstring. It just isn't right and I know I should be resting it instead of training on it but w/ 140.6 miles in my future.......what choice do I have. I do know one thing...........I will crawl over that finish line if I have to. It does feel like it is getting better though so maybe I should rest it?

Monday: Yoga
Tues: AM: Freezing ass cold.... well not really but the coldest its been....sub 40 degrees..... Bike: 1:32.....25 miles, slow, cold and 45 minutes of darkness..painful
Lunchtime: 2000 Yards, 1823 meters in the pool.......was suppose to do more than that but I am weak. Plan to do a big workout on Thursday.

Wed: AM: Ran 3.66 in 30 min, 8:24 pace........felt it in my hammy........ go to straight aqua running the rest of the week.

I think I will lessen the long bike this weekend and put 4:00 in.....and then go to 6:00 the week after. I might also do both Sat and Sun 3:00.........not sure yet. It sure would be nice to have someone to ride with....... I could really use the partner in the swim though.

Cranking forCrones!

Dead Last..........that is what place I came in on Sunday for the Cranking for Crones Metric Century Charity Ride. Are there places for a charity ride? Still though, last place.......this has never happened to me.

I was actually using the ride as a change up to my training and to help a good cause. The ride started only five miles from the house.

So I am up by 0700 on Sunday and out the door for a 13 mile warm up before the ride. I get to the race site, check in and then chat with Gregg for a while. There is about 30 people doing the ride and some people looked very serious. I had thought about wearing my new helmet but was afraid to be ridiculed by skinny guys with shaved legs bragging about their power output so I left it at home. I did show up to the race on my tri bike though. The course was an out and back and my goal was 17 MPH but truthfully my legs were pretty sore, I was not going to work hard and I just wanted to get miles in.

At the start a few groups formed and I made a conscious decision not to stick with any group. I wanted to ride my own ride and not try to keep up with people and put undo stress on the hammy. I hit the first rest stop at 30K and kept cruising..... I was feeling great and we had a tail wind for the out section of the course. I was cruising at over 19MPH without any great effort. About 5K from the turn around point I realized the SAG truck was right behind me and I wasn't sure why. I stopped to get water at the turn around point and the guy told me I was the last one...........I was confused and then realized about 1/2 the folks doing the ride were Sally's and turned around at the first aid station....how weak is that!

Since I knew I was 6 minutes behind the closest group and they were pace lining..... I knew it would be a long, lonely ride back. I think that 35-55 were the worst miles..... the wind was gusting over 30MPH .......as we got close the terrain closed up a bit and the trees afforded some protection from the wind..... I was barely able to maintain 15MPH (not sure if I did) but I pushed on and as we got closer I got stronger..... the 3:00-4:00 on the bike was a tough time for me. I kept telling myself 80 would be good for the day........maybe 75...man some crazy things can go through your head on that bike!

I pulled into the park (76 miles total so far) mentally drained and telling myself I would make a beeline for home.....but seeing the other athletes there stuffing their faces motivated me so I helped myself to some goodies..... put my SAG bag in my vest pocket, said good bye to Gregg and gritted out 16 more. The last two were in my neighborhood but the end result was a 90 Mile ride in 5:24.......Ave MPH isn't impressive but I feel good today (hammy sore) and am proud of my accomplishment......... a huge confidence booster just getting the miles in and as a bonus my stomach felt fine as a I had no issues with nutrition.


Sat: Huge day in the pool (for me). I decided not to go to the lake to save time so off to Healthplex where I completed 3000 yards (2743 meters) in the pool in around 1:20. At 2600-3000 all I could muster were 100s but I am happy with the swim.

Bike: 20 miles.......easy with the new helmet on. I used the visor to check it out. I am going to take it off and use sun glasses this week to see which I like better.

Totals last week:

Swim: 4743 2 workouts
Bike: 137 3 workouts
Run: 4.5 1 workout
Aqua run: 30 Min
Yoga: X2
Core/ Weights X2 45 min

There was frost on the ground this morning so I think my lake days are over. Sad but I will gain over an hour to my day.

The dancing dogs!

Was so tired and beat down yesterday afternoon........had planned to ride but the traffic was insane, I was exhausted (and weak) so I oppened up a bottle of wine instead........yes, I know I have an IM in six weeks!

On a postive note though...........I ran for the first time in a month this morning......4.5 miles.......didn't feel too bad..... not going to push it though. I will try to get a longer run in next week. Lots of biking and swimming planned for the weekend!

$16.50 a minute

That is what my new helmet cost.......... I need those eight minutes though!....OK, I don't need them...but I certainly want them! Man that helmet looks good! $132 for the Synton Comp........ I can justify a million different ways (in my head at least!) but what it comes down to is that I simply wanted it so I bought it life is short!

Such a frustrating week.

I should be out riding right now..........but I am not b/c Megan's car wouldn't start yesterday so I took it this morning to get it checked out this afternoon.........my pump is in my car.........normally wouldn't be huge deal but I got not one... but two flats on my ride Tuesday morning and my front tire held enough air to get me back......it is low this morning though...... definitely not capable of a 1:30 min ride. So Monday is a day off (drove back from Georgia)...........I start Tuesday w/ two front tire flats....luckily someone stopped and gave me a tube since I only carry on (that will never happen again)..... and I am almost late to a ceremony........I started Wednesday off with Megan's car not starting at 0520 in the morning so instead of going to work I went to the gym with her, dropped her off to work and then picked her up.......This morning........she takes my keys to work and leaves me hers' so I can't get into my office.......I break in only to see my front tire low...... and I had forgotten my hand pump on the counter and my good pump is in the jeep.......... I can't wait until Friday afternoon!

My computer at home went down last week (another issue I am dealing with) and work went nuts so there was no time to update last week. Last week workouts looks something like this:

Mon: Yoga
Tues: 1:30 Bike/ core
Wed: Swam 800M...... aqua jog 40
Thurs: Bike 60 min/ Swim 1800M (jumped Wednesday afternoon..rough landing)
Fri: Yoga/ aqua jog 50
Sat: Bike 1:40
Sun: Rest
Mon: Yoga
Tues: Bike 1:30
Wed: Aqua jog 30/ weights/ core

Need to figure out how I am going to swim and bike this afternoon. I will run on pavement tomorrow for officer PT (first time in a month)........not sure how the hammy will react......should be interesting. I am planning a long bike this weekend followed by a long aqua run in the pool on Sunday....one day this week I need to get out to the lake for a long swim..........my shoulder has been bothering me again though. I am going to go do my own Yoga in the office now so I don't waste the workout time.