45 Min Swim: Perspective

This year I want to hit it hard. Overload my body and get a PR at Ironman Florida. But that's, well, hard. I feel like my aerobic conditioning is acceptable. But my muscular endurance and speedwork (an IM interpretation of speed) isn't there yet. So I want to get workouts in.

A good benchmark is always last year.

Last year I did three 50 mile run weeks before the race. I wanted to duplicate that magic this year. But I also wanted to get more mid-week bike sessions in. And more swimming. And more core weights. And I wanted my running to be higher quality (no junk miles.)

You know how this story ends.

But I'll tell it anyway. I've added the bike sessions in (good.) And early in the weeks I've gotten solid runs in (good.) But combined with the extra core and overall higher quality of workout that my aerobic base grants me, I'm frying myself.

Last week I bailed on a Friday workout after a lackluster Thursday. This week I started to feel bad on Wednesday but turned out a decent Thursday ride before bombing on Friday.

Today I swam with every intention of doing a 10+ mile run too. I did a core workout and then suited up. Made it to the comet. Ran. For 60 seconds. My GPS told me so. I was stiff. It hurt. My lungs crackled. I didn't want to run.

I can't say I'm surprised or all too worried. And then I had a few "perspective moments" today that helped me reduce the stress of being fried from "little" to "nothing."

Paul Kindzia called and is also somewhat fried. He's had some blown sessions and wants to back off of the weekend workout. Which I'm cool with. So this gives perspective from a friend... we all get fried from time to time. Plus, knowing that your marquis rival is not working out makes not working out a lot easier!

While my perception was that the week was crap, it really wasn't. I got some solid, if short, sessions in on Wednesday. And yesterday's ride wasn't junk. Even today I got in a 45 minute swim... that's something. I'm going to miss the 50 mile run mark by a ton this week. But that's ok. I'm doing a much more diverse set of workouts. Last year it was all run. So the perspective is that even if you don't achieve your goal, often having your goal propels you to better things than you would have had just meandering through it.

I got a call today from Paul Carriere. He had just yardsaled out near Coot's Lake on the Comet. Luckily I was near home and on that side of town. I couldn't get through traffic quickly enough. I knew that if Paul was asking for help he really needed it. I found him on the bench outside of the gas station. His collar bone is likely broken. He slammed his head. Lots of road rash. He was wincing every time the car rocked, even though he stayed positive and communicative throughout the ride. I could tell he was hurting a lot. I got him back to his car where his wife met him and they went to an emergency room. He's got a partially collapsed lung. He was riding along one minute and the next he was over his handlebars on the ground, season likely over. The culprit, we think, was an iPod slipping out of his pocket and getting stuck in the rear wheel. So that's perspective.

And Paul said something on the ride back to put even his stuff into perspective. He could have popped off the bike and injured his spine. What if it wasn't his race that was over, but his ability to walk? That's perspective.

Like I said, I'm not really sweating the slight overtraining syndrome I've got. Nor is Kindzia. And Carriere's taking his injuries with a grain of salt. Maybe we're just getting old. But we all seem to know what's important in life and as important as ironman training is, it's not nearly as important as having a balanced life full of perspective.

And, yes, I'm gonna log the 1 min of running!