A Good Week

This has been a good week. 

I’ve gotten all my workouts in so far:  Monday was a quick run/walk to loosen up my achin’ legs.  Tuesday was a 70 min interval trainer ride.  Yesterday was a 60 min walk/run in 100% humidity (yuck!).  Today I will be getting a swim in (my first swim since the triathlon – I have really been avoiding swimming in the pool this summer, it’s just no fun!  And tomorrow I’m heading out with Eric for a 2 hour ride.  Saturday is a rest day because we’re heading up to Akron for Nicki and Doug’s wedding.  And then Sunday will be a run and maybe a bike (maybe I’ll even do a brick workout). 

Monday after I was able to get in for a massage, and boy, did my legs need it!  People always talk about massages like they are relaxing and leave you feeling rejuvenated.  I don’t know what kind of massages they’re getting, but every time I get a massage I’m in major pain and not relaxed!  I think that’s because I go in to massages with the purpose of working out my kinks.  Man, my upper legs were hurting big time while the lady was digging in to all the muscles and crevices.  Ouch!  But I will say that my Tuesday bike ride and my run yesterday felt pretty good and my legs seem to be recovered.  I told the lady that I have bad IT bands, and when she started digging in to them she said that she has felt much worse.  So hey, I’m doing something right – all that foam rolling has been paying off!  As much as it pains me, I think more massages will be necessary in the near future in order to get me through the rest of my training. 

Speaking of the rest of my training – I have 5.5 weeks left until the race.  I was looking at the calendar with Eric just to go over our schedule for the next few weeks and I said we’d be gone the last weekend in August.  He says, “What for?”  I exclaimed it was race weekend and his response was, “Wow, that’s coming up.  You better get on that training.”  Hey, thanks.

And speaking on getting on that training – how do I feel about my training going in to the last couple weeks of long workouts before my taper?  Well, I feel like I definitely could’ve done better, but I feel somewhat prepared.  It’s going to be a sufferfest, that’s for sure.  But I’m confident I can get to that finish line.  I just have to keep these nagging thoughts out of my head that I’ve been having lately on my long rides and runs – the thoughts that sneak in and say things like, “you can’t do this”, “just come up with an excuse to quit”, “how are you going to do 112 miles when you can’t even do 60 without these thoughts seeping in”.  It’s tough.  I’m going to have to face down some demons on August 29th.  But I want to cross that finish line.  I want to show that all of the time spent on training, all of the nights going to bed at 8:30 because I was exhausted, all of the things I haven’t been able to do this year because my weekends were consumed with running and biking – I want to show that all of those things were not in vain.  And if I don’t cross that finish line, then I will be giving myself a reason to do this again, and I do NOT want that!!!  So I’m going to suck it up for 17 hours (or less, hopefully!) and get it over with.  And then I will be able to say I did it and move on with my life.