Ok sorry about that....

So the title of this post kinda tells it all. Sorry about that last post, that was a Mr. Negativity poking into Blogger and rearing it's ugly head. Since I got that out of my system, there have been a few "wins" in my world lately and I'd love to tell you about them.

First off, triathlon. Just saying the word makes me smile because I love it so much, and I love the training too. When you feel down, it's easy to let everything consume you and just wallow in your own misery for ever, but I think in triathlon's bigger meaning and purpose, it teaches you that you can do things that you thought impossible and you can get through those tough times. (sometimes it just takes a little mental fortitude...)

So in training this week (and I'm going to steal a bit from a blogland friend and fellow IMFL finisher, Bolder) we are going to start this post out with the numbers...last week was the first week of 2007 that I finally crested the 10 hour mark for training hours per week. Last year I think I was still cranking out nice 8-10 hour weeks at this time of the year and I bet it was slower than what I'm doing now (while keeping a moderate heart rate thru training of course.)
This graph above is how I kept track of my total training hours in preparation for IMFL. The first week of training was obviously January1st, 2006 and that is why there are 52 weeks listed on this graph. Week 44 was Ironman week and that is why is is GREATLY reduced afterwards.

The key was unfortunately cut off in this picture, but Blue is bike hours, red is running hours, and yellow is swimming hours. I came from a strong swimming and running background from high school and college sports and I decide the bike was my limiter and that is why there is a TON of bike hours put in to get me up to speed.

And all in all, I think it paid off. 2006 was my second competitive season of triathlon and I was able to do okay and finish an Iron distance race. I was pleased. Although in my narcissistic mind, I'm always thinking of ways to get faster and better and train more, so this year after a hard few weeks I had some "wins" in my training.

First off this week was a 90 minute bike session on the trainer indoors. Not an ideal ride, not my endurance ride, but just a nice spin, keeping it in HR zone 1 (the lowest recovery zone) I was spinning watching the Tour of Qatar on Versus and 60 minutes in I noticed I was holding in the middle of my HR zone (right on, yeah!) and averaging 23.2mph. Wow, I was kinda floored, but I could feel it in my legs. I have never averaged more than 22 on the trainer last year and I didn't mess with the resistance from year to year, so this is a HUGE win, because I was at the same heart rate, but going MUCH faster. Free speed eh? For those of you who wonder, I ended the 90 minutes averaging 23.4mph....not too shabby.

Second workout win for me was a pool workout. Before I had only done one session a week and I could get by on that. This year I'm trying for 2 sessions a week. I decided to do a short 2k workout with 2 x 1000's. no warm up, no cool down, just straight schwimmin. I hopped in and hit the wall in 13:47 after my first one. Not bad. The second I knew I would struggle to get under 14 minutes and decided to pick up the pace the last 200 yards and brought it to the wall in.....you guessed it 13:47. Pretty cool, it was nice to swim fast and not fade. I was again excited.

The last win for me was a hill workout that I have been doing at least twice a week for the whole year in the snow at a local park. Each week it is hard to run under 8minutes with all the slush and ice and crap around. This week, I made it back to my place in 44:47 (which translates to sub7:30 pace....)

So I guess the moral of the post is this, when life is getting you down, stick to what you know and love, it can only bring you joy. Keep at it, consistency is key and just know that your hard work will pay off soon enough. Take care and train hard everyone. Cheers.