Much better...

Yesterday was a tough day, I was tired, unmotivated and couldn't force myself to swim. I'm 9 days away from IMSG and need to finish my training strong. I woke up knowing today I needed to comeback strong.

First thing I did was turn on the weather channel and it said it was going to rain all afternoon. That meant one thing, I needed to train in the am if I didn't want to train in the rain. It wasn't easy, it took me a while to mentally do it, but I got dressed in my cycling gear and got out the door. It was so foggy I couldn't see more than 50 meters in front of me. I made sure I had my bright red blinking light on my bright yellow jersey.

It was a speed work session, by now I should have done about six, this is my second. Normally with a week before Ironman this speed work session is supposed to be the easiest. Instead, I went back a week and grabed the schedule that had the hardest bike speed work and I did it on two major hills, Bell School Line and number 14 side road, it's a total of about 12 minutes of straight up riding, not easy.

From the start my legs felt like cement. I've don't think I've ever remembered them feeling so bad on the bike. They hurt when I pedalled and had nothing. I kept thinking back to the steam room and hot tub and wondered if it had anything to do with my legs. At one point I was depressed I was going so slow, 26 kph, then I realized I was going up a hill. I couldn't tell where I was with all the fog.

I was very proud of myself that I didn't mail this workout in, I gave it everything I had and chose to take the toughest route. There is nothing like finishing your first session of the day by 9:40 am. Even though my legs were pumped and hurting a bit I was undeterred and planned on continuing with a running speed work session on the track. It would be my first running speed work session of the year. Again, normally this would be my sixth. Again, I chose the toughest workout for my first. The main set was 3 x 1600 meters.

It wasn't pretty and it hurt. I wasn't at my fastest, however I was happy that I did the first 1600 averaging a 3:52 (6:13 mile) pace, the second was a 3:58 pace and the third was a 4:00 (6:26) pace. It hurt, I was hurting and could hardly wait until the sufferfest ended. My heart rate hit an all time high for me, 168 bpm.

I only allowed a 40 minute break between the bike speed work and the run speed work. I had to pick up my truck from Acura. It took it in for a grinding yesterday and they called me telling me it was ready. The issue was under warranty and was a transmission software update and it was free. The best part was it worked, no problems. I was so happy about that. It even seems to drive better. I'm glad I took it to the dealership, my non-Acura garage didn't know about the upgrade and had they heard the problem they would have been pulling stuff apart and I'm sure the cash register would be ringing.

After the run the endorphins were flying, that only happens with speed work. I felt on cloud nine and my body and legs felt like they just finished a mini-race. I got to work at noon and worked to 5 pm and got lots done. I had my weekly update meeting to put together the yearbook business plan. It was funny, I spend 2 hours on my spreadsheets which looked like I spend all weekend or longer on them. Even one of the guys said, "Good work Bryan" after I explained the logic and math behind the projections. The one thing I am proud of is I'm a good budgeter. Rarely over the years have my numbers not been accurate.

I was going to swim after work and decided to postpone it until 8 pm. I knew I couldn't bail and if I don't hit the pool by 3:30 pm then I have to go after 8 pm, between 5 pm and 8 pm is swimming lessons and no lap swimming.

When I got home it smelt great, Alice had made soup. She's a great soup maker, it was vegetable beef. I had 3 bowls of it. Awesome stuff and will even be better tomorrow after sitting a day. By 7:30 pm I was out the door and to the pool.

Most of the time I dread swimming and when in the pool look forward to it ending and every once in a while the swim is enjoyable and you don't mind swimming. Tonight was the later. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I knew I would before the session, I liked the speed work interval order on the Mark Allen plan. It looked fun. It was so much fun that I think I may have even swam an extra 100 meter or more, I lost count of one set.

It was a speed swim session and my sore shoulder from Monday's swim felt great, no discomfort whatsoever. My goal was a minimum of 3000 meters and I was able to get in 3500 meters before the pool closed. It was one of those swims that I could have kept going had the pool not closed.

It's amazing the difference a day can make. Also, my new truck is great for running speed work. With the leather seats it doesn't absorb the sweat, unlike my old fabric seats which would stay wet for a long time. It' would even get my street clothes wet when I had to use the car after my speed work sessions.

One last thing. I went for a tan and burnt the crap out of my rear end. Next time I'm wearing underwear. I went in the super bed and it was hot. I was sweating like crazy, especially from my butt. I think the water under my ass was vaporizing and the steam was burning me. It was painful and I even had to look at the clock near the end to make sure the machine wasn't broken and I was frying. Lucky it ended a minute later and I was dripping sweat from head to toe. I wiped the bed, had I not I'm sure it would have grossed out the girls that clean up afterwards. The machine also freaked me out this time, I felt a little claustrophobic and was thinking horror movie, like someone could burn to death.

One last, last thing. Alyssa's done school, here last exam was today. Her first year is officially over and I'm sure she'll be on the honour role. She really kicked ass this year. I'm so proud of her, I know how hard she worked and it wasn't easy and she took it all in stride, nothing phased her. I could never do what she did, I do not have the ability to learn in a school setting, I have major respect for her, she's definitely got smarts.

Speed Bike - 1:20:16 / 36.67 km / 27.4 kph
Speed Run - 1:00:53 / 12.54 km / 4:51 avg pace
Speed Swim - 1:22:43 / 3.5 km
Tan - 10 scary minutes