Mar 17/13 - I Needed a Week Like This

   Anyone know where the hell the nice weather is? Yes I'm aware that I seem to be starting every blog post this way but seriously. It's the start of spring this week and it's still so damn cold outside. After even a short run I'm a popsicle, the orange one no one likes. Anytime I've ever seen a variety box of popsicles in a freezer all the grape and cherry are long gone and it's a third full with orange. I think we are all universally sick of winter and orange popsicles. 

   Well that was quite a tangent. Sorry back to our regularly scheduled programming.

   Monday was another crazy long and far too stressful day at work. Installing door locks, yes finish carpenters do that too. Unfortunately for me it was in the home of people already living there and the wife had a horrendous cold, which she was desperately trying to give me by coughing all over everything in the damn house. I wore a particle mask like a frightened citizen from the 2003 SARS scare and bathed hourly in Purell hand sanitizer. I also drank about a gallon of lemon and chlorophyll water in hopes of staving of the illness. I guess it worked because I survived unscathed. By the time I got home that evening the day was a washout.

   Tuesday my boss texted me that he had diarrhea from bad cheese he ate. For anyone following my blog and not keeping count that's 5 missed days now in 8 weeks. I was already up so I decided to hit the gym early that morning and free up my day. I used this gift of a day off to work on my bikes and run a bunch of errands. 

   Wednesday my legs were finally feeling well enough to try and run again. An easy day at work helped too. I took off in the daylight around 6:30pm, but it was almost -10C with windchill and I felt it. I kept the beast inside me under-wraps and managed to control myself to a meager 6:24min/km pace. The nice part was I took off with no idea where I was going and ended up on top of the escarpment overlooking Hamilton at dusk with the most amazing view of the city I've ever seen.

   Thursday and it was back to the pool with my friend Steph. We get to chatting and forget swimming sometimes, but that's what friends do. 1350m, a little under where I should be for my weekly session, but nice to have someone to keep me motivated. My kicks are a lot stronger and more consistent now and I'm staying far more level at the top of the water. It does come at a cost as I can feel my heart rate climbing from the extra exertion of kicking for propulsion. Also my window of opportunity for air got smaller as I keep my head more level in the water during breathing.  All in all my swimming is getting technically better, but I need to get more laps in.

   Friday and another night off to chill with Christine. We snuggled up and watched movies. Does it get any better on a cold winter night? Don't think so.

Post 25km icing session

   Saturday I nervously headed out for my long run after a nice egg wrap for breakfast. I say nervously because of last weeks injury disaster. While most people are tapering for ATB for me it's more important mentally for me to get close to the distance. I need to have the confidence that I can make 30km and the only way for me to build that is to come close in training. I held myself back once again to a modest 6:18min/km pace. I felt good and monitored my legs very closely from the command center in my head. I've always had the ability to "detach" myself from myself. What I mean by this is I actually picture my consciousness as sitting inside my head like a commander on the bridge of a ship. I'm in control of my body and receive feedback from it. The difference is I make decisions from this feedback and "command" my body what to do. It doesn't have the ability to tell me when to stop, I tell it. It wasn't until after the 21km mark that I really started to hurt. I determined it wasn't injury and pushed the last 4km through the "pain cave", a delightful place endurance athletes end up where the only thing you can focus on is the agony you're experiencing. Lovely. Home to ice off and on all night while every single muscle, tendon and ligament became inflamed. it hurt to think about walking.

Bike & Multimedia set-up

   Sunday morning and after 9 hours of coma like sleep I actually felt good and could walk, uhm somewhat. I was doing a great impression of Frankenstein anyway. Got on the bike trainer and squeezed out 25km while watching "Grandmas' Boy". The laughing kept me distracted enough to finish.

   Not to bad of a week after last weeks fiasco. Next weekend it's Around the Bay. At this point my only goal is to finished uninjured. I have the Jordan 5km two weeks after that and that's a race I actually have a chance to place in if I can keep my legs in good shape. I can already tell my first year as a runner/triathlete is going to have a giant learning curve. How else do we gain experience, but through our triumphs and failures.