Feb 3/13

   Another week of training comes to a close and hopefully that much closer to my goals. Here's the data.

   Monday was another great core and weight training session. My body is still getting stronger and the core workouts getting harder. I like to use some yoga poses in my training. It's not what everyone thinks it is. I do a full yoga workout every third week of my training rotation to supplement my weight training. Yoga is very difficult and amazing for building strength, balance and flexibility so here are a couple pics.

Boat Pose

Tony Horton's P90X version of the Locust Pose - Superman

   Tuesday was another needed day off. Coming out of my weekends full of training leaves me feeling a little flat after Monday. 

   Since I have the Grimsby 3km coming up at the end of this month I decided to forego my recovery run this Wednesday and opted for a 3km tempo. Woa. I thought I was gong to die for sure. My lungs couldn't get enough air and my body felt depleted of oxygen after the first km. After a 3km warm-up I pushed to hard at the start and dropped my pace a bit on the second 2kms. Still a PR on my best 1000m time (3:49) for the first km and a 3km PR of 12:10! Still not where I want to be, but I'll take it for now.

   Thursday was lap swim time again. I have been battling swimmers shoulder this week and had done some research. From what I found it was due to some flaws in my technique, but I didn't realize this until Friday. I limped my shoulder through my swim, but had already decided I wanted to see my current 750m time. This is the distance I'll be racing at this season. A decent time is around 13 minutes, mine is at 16:39, so i still need a lot of work. A lot. Total distance 1700m

   Friday another night off and I was going to need to rest because I was hoping to hit 26km again on Saturday.

   Saturday morning and I was ready and anxiously exited for my run. I'm still staying in my zone 2 heart rate of approximately 145 bpm. My pace is increasing rapidly though, a little faster than my legs can handle. Well it was an all around personal record day for me. My best pace, around 5:50 min/km, I made 27km with only 4 small walking breaks in a time of 2:40:35. I'm truly feeling confident for Around the Bay now. Unfortunately by the time I got home I was completely destroyed, near hypothermia, shivering violently and could barely use my legs. After a hot shower I passed out for the afternoon. I then spent the rest of the evening gingerly stepping around and had a terrible nights sleep again due to soreness. No pain, no gain as they say.

   Sunday and I somehow found the strength to go to my masters swim workout. These are the moments you begin to find what you're made of. It's so incredibly easy to just skip a workout for any number of reasons, least of which is just plain fatigue. I'm counting on the fact that some of my competitors this season will have done that and this is where a focused and committed athlete can gain their edge. I've come to the conclusion recently and am quite confident of it validity that the training is where you win the race. Little can be done on race day to change how well your body will perform. Confidence on race day also comes from the months of hard work and preparation. I'm sure I'm not saying anything that a seasoned racer doesn't already know all to well.  I pushed through the first half of my swim and began to feel much better towards the end. I saw where my weekly distance was from the display on my Garmin swim watch and decided to put in a little extra today. I made 2550m, with a weeklt total of 4250m. The most to date by far. Hopefully I can get my speed up soon, but I'll take the distance victory for now.