Pushing the envelope

Swim: 23,000 yards (yes, you read that right)
Bike: 55 miles
Run: 40 miles

This week was a huge, huge peak in swimming yardage.  7.5 hours training time in the pool this week.  That is ridiculous.  Two months ago I NEVER would have imagined that I was even capable of doing that, but that's what this winter's focus has really been on: improving my swim.  Culminating the week of 900+ laps in the pool was a 6000 yard workout with Scott that really tested some mental and physical strength.  It was epic.

Bike miles were low but with some intensity mixed in and I'm not really ready to start riding my bike a lot yet (it's still cold...) so that's all good.

This WAS going to be a great week in running with a really good 4x2 mile workout with Kelly on Thursday and a 13 mile trail race at the Whitewater Center on Saturday but it took an unfortunate mis-step (pun intended) at the race at about mile 9.  Here is the race report from my training log:

Started off pretty fast behind Keith, Lat and Chris and it felt a little fast so I stayed a little back of them and got into a rhythm. Lat bridged up to Mike and Keith, Chris and I stayed together until about mile 3-4. Chris stopped to tie his shoe and then I went around him and got up to Keith up a hill then decided to up the pace a little bit as I was feeling good. For the next 2-3 miles I kept a fairly strong pace and then a little after Goat hill I saw Mike and just before the Weigh Station turnoff I caught up to him. I stepped in behind him but I was worried because the pace felt a little slow every time the trail would go uphill so once we got into a clearing I went around him and picked up the pace again until I got to the last water stop. I knew Lat was around a minute in front of me and I figured he was hauling butt around Green loop so I figured I would try and just hold my effort level. Going around a left turn about 3-400 yards past the water stop I rolled my right ankle pretty hard. It hurt a lot immediately and I sort of tested it out for a little bit but decided it was not in line with my best interests to keep going - despite the fact that I was in second place... - so I walked back out to the start. The pain lessened a bit as I was walked but I was still confident I made the right decision.

I'm pretty happy about this race and where my fitness is right now. I'm excited to see how corporate cup goes. I am, however, disappointed because I felt really, really good and I didn't get to have a good result because of a simple misstep. It's been a really long time since I felt this good running hard. Did I mention how good I felt?


So it's now Monday and my ankle feels better - still tight - and runnable but I'm in no hurry.  I was very sad about the race because I'm feeling very strong right now but at least it's a positive note to an otherwise disappointing day.


This week will be a recovery week for the run (although I won't drop down much at all in mileage, just the intensity) and I'll try and keep the swimming up pretty high.  




ALSO:  SAINTS GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL.  Wow.