Right back in the zone

Really proud of the work I did getting right back at it this week. If all goes to plan tomorrow, it'll be 12+ hours of training - 5 swims, 3 bikes, 3 runs. Biggest accomplishment in my mind was three double days in a row (Wednesday-Friday). The key there was introducing a Thursday "shake out" swim. Wednesday and Friday are big swim workouts and I normally feel like it's important for me to stay out of the pool on Thursday. But this week I tried a really easy 1500, almost all drills, focusing on really feeling my stroke, enjoying the feeling of the water, and keeping perceived effort at 3 out of 10 and below. Seriously, that low. Not only did I love that workout, but I felt even better on Friday! It's going to be tough to keep this kind of training load up during busier weeks, but definitely something I'm going to aim for.

I've also been reading some pro-triathlete blogs and following coverage of Ironman races (70.3 in Oceanside and full IM African Championships this weekend). That's been a lot of fun and keeping me motivated and excited to be out there working every day. 

Tough ride today. Big shout out to my buddy Andrew - setting PRs on all three major climbs of the day and dropping me like a ton of bricks. Was really exciting to see him feeling so good. Normally we ride handlebars to handlebars. It was a little discouraging to see how much I got set back by being sick...but also I know I'm coming off a lot more volume this week than Andrew. And he's not getting up and running 11 with me tomorrow morning :P In all seriousness. The thought I had while suffering up the last hill today was: my goal is to be the best triathlete I can be on April 24th. Not the best cyclist today. That means putting in a good effort on the bike today, but making sure not to run the tank too empty. Tomorrow's run and swim are just as important. 

Which brings me to two big lessons from the year so far:

1) The importance of lower intensity workouts. You can't have 11 workouts a week and feel gassed after every single one. Each workout has to have a purpose. Can't overstate how big of a difference it's made for me to focus on this. 

2) The importance of actively focusing on recovery. Related to the last point - you don't gain fitness by running yourself down day after day. You gain fitness by letting your body rebuild after each workout. Setting aside time to foam roll, put the legs up, eat right, SLEEP. SLEEP!!! Makes such a huge difference.

This post was a little all over the place. My mind was wandering a lot on the bike today and I'm trying to get all those thoughts out here.

Take home message: good week. Time to recover and get ready for two hard weeks before starting to taper for nationals.