We had a rough week here to be honest, one marked by niggles, discomfort, and difficult workouts, not to mention some real wrenches in our schedule that wreaked havoc on our mental states. Let me explain:
- Tuesday Jason came home from work walking rather gingerly. I could see the problem immediately: a back spasm of some sort. This kept him sidelined for a couple of days while he waited for that to calm down. On the same day I woke up with intense shoulder pain that kept me away from the pool and wrapped in ice for most of the rest of the week.
- Wednesday (I think--the days are blurry from last week) we found out that because IMChoo's swim start is later than other IM races, the entire completion time limit is a bit shorter. Every swimmer still receives 2 hours and 20 minutes to swim, but athletes need to be off the bike still by 5:30 to continue in the race. So that basically means a shorter bike time period because we're getting in the water later than anticipated. I'm genuinely concerned about making the bike cutoff.
- Thursday: we found out the local pool where we've done all our swim training since the algae took over the local lake will be closed the final three weeks of our training due to maintenance.
- Friday: Jason completed a monster bike ride mostly indoors due to thunderstorms and then took his transition run outside. He survived.
- Saturday: While Jason did some work for SDTriNews.com at a local sprint, I tackled my biggest ride so far of 80 miles outdoors.
- Sunday: We both had our longest runs of training so far (and supposedly the longest we'll have to do but I'm skeptical regarding that promise). The legs felt a little odd, and the trainer promised me that this particular day the run would "be an education." So anytime I felt like a puddle of goo in the middle of a particularly humid day, I just tried to ask myself, "What am I supposed to be learning?" That helped. A little.
In short, we survived. I read a great article called, "The 7 Habits of People With Remarkable Mental Toughness" at Business Insider last week, and I thought about that often, especially after receiving discouraging news regarding the cutoff times and the closing of the local pool. The elements of this article came into play repeatedly this week. When Jason's back acted up or when his run didn't go like he had hoped, what could he do? He could learn from it and move on but not dwell on it and draw discouragement from it.
As I said, when I was out slogging through 18 miles in the heat on Sunday afternoon, I learned much. A few lessons in particular stand out:
- My body can always go just a little farther than I think.
- The discomfort will subside.
- Success depends on a support system.
We had LOTS of help this week to help prepare us for Choo. I had one friend who rode the first 22 miles of my 80-mile ride with me. The same friend also acted as "home base" for me, providing me with a cold rag, ice water, and chocolate milk once I finished the ride. Jason had a friend who biked with him while he completed his t-run and then ran some with him while he did his big run. That same friend kept him company at the sprint tri and even took some pictures for SDTriNews.com. Fifty miles into my big ride I purposefully passed near the house of a friend who lives in the country, and she re-filled my water bottles with fresh, filtered water. And then with three miles left in the hardest run of the year, I stopped at another friend's house, and she refilled my bottle with ice and water (that 24 ounces was gone with a mile left--yep, it was that hot and humid).
So, yeah, this was a challenging week. I think we both have a recovery week this week. I know I do, but I can't tell if Jason does nor not just by looking at his mileage. Sometimes the mileage just seems big no matter what.
Six weeks left . . .
