Running Into the Pain

Today I had the pleasure of an incredibly tough interval run workout.

The workout itself was over an hour, but the main set was 5 x 1km at above race pace. I wanted to puke. I almost puked. My lungs still hurt, one hour later.

And I feel better than I've felt in a long, long time.

The trick? Running "into" the pain. If it hurts, push harder. I blew up on the last interval, which tells me I was working pretty hard.

Unfortunately, the workout has seemed to abrogate my ability to write long sentences. I suppose I'll have to put my thesis chapter away for the evening, and start again tomorrow :)

Food for Thought

Imposter? I think so.

Homely Muse

This past week I was on campus every day: TAing, invigilating external exams, training, and trying to work on my thesis. The problem with trying to work on my thesis on campus is that there are too many distractions, and too many other things to do. Which lead me to the decision that starting in March, I am giving myself one day a week at home so that I can work. I need time to gather my thoughts and prepare to write. If I'm running from place to place on campus, I don't have time to settle and prepare, and instead I sit and stare blankly at the computer screen while trying to compose my thoughts. Having a good working environment is crucial to the writing process. And right now I don't spend nearly enough time in my home office.

Training has been going very well. It's been a busy week, but I feel strong. I'm running and biking well. I'm not swimming as well as I'd like, but that will change soon. The best workout of the week was Tuesday's run:
After a 15 minute warmup and some drills/strides, the main set was 3 x (5min Zn3, 1min Zn4, 3min Zn1), followed by a ten-minute cooldown. I felt really good, and was really able to push on the Z4 bits. I'm running well for the first time in a long time. It makes me happy.

February is a new month!

It seems like I always talk about how I'm "back on track," or "getting better," but this weekend marked the end of my inevitable late January funk, and saw some solid training and mental prep for the upcoming race season. CoachC has me on the "fast boat," and I can feel myself getting faster and stronger every day.

My best friend, Pam, and I decided that February 1st is the new January 1st. Since January was so crappy, the first day of February now marks the new start to the year. It also means we're one month closer to summer and sunshine.

I'm chugging along quite well in training with my newly discovered "don't think, just do it" attitude. CoachC and I have had long discussions about the pros and cons of being a "thinking" athlete. Now I'm trying to take every day at a time, and just go with the flow. So far so good. Sometimes I have to trick my body into thinking it's less tired than it is, so that I can get those second (and sometimes third) workouts of the day in. But I'm always filled with a sense of accomplishment when I am finished.

This weekend R and I also decided that we would get up early on the weekends and try to get all of our training done by noon so that we could have the afternoons to relax. It was a great weekend and despite the four workouts, I feel refreshed and ready to tackle this upcoming week. Today is a rest day, and I plan to take full advantage of it by propping my feet up, lying on the couch and reading Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana.

This week looks to be a good one at 12 1/2 hours: 3 workouts each of bike, swim, run, plus two strength sessions.

Looks like I'm going to have to start buying more groceries ;)