Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Rest, Rest, Rest

I am really trying to take it easy this week. This is my my first A race in quite a while so it will be nice to go in fresh. I am still learning how body reacts to training, resting, and racing. Hopefully with everything I have done this year I will figure out how many days out I really need to start cutting things back. If I don't feel 100% on Sunday maybe I need more rest (longer taper) or if I feel flat, maybe I need to include more shorter intensity stuff during the final week before the race. Like I have said before this year is all about learning in hopes that I will have it all dialed in next season.

I am really focusing on my diet and nutrition this week. I am already pretty strict with my diet but this week even more so than normal. I am making sure I am eating really lean protein, good carbs, and even cutting back on the caffeine. I also will not be having any beers this week until after the race. I even turned down going out with my friends last night to the local sports bar to watch the Padres game and Monday Night Football. I don't think I could have resisted the temptation to knock a couple back while watching the Pads take on over the Cards.

I had a pretty good talk with my coach Sunday night and was feeling pretty good about everything. He has raced on the Tahoe course a couple of times and gave me some good tips for the swim/bike/run. He says with the way that I am running right now that I should me able to make up a lot of time on the run. It's a flat run with alot of turns and obstacles. It's all about turn over. I just can't wait to go for it. This is the biggest race I have ever done and I am just want push harder than I ever have on the run.

Yesterday morning I woke up and my legs were reallyu tired and achey from running on Sunday. I may have pushed a little to hard on the way back from my run. I negative split the run by 7 minutes. It was a rest day and that's what I did. I hit the gym at lunch and rode the stationary bike for 15 miinutes to loosen up my legs and then stretched for 20 minutes. After the games last night I took and epsom salt bath and crashed around 10pm.

Monday: Rest
Lunch: 15min spin/20min stretching
PM: epsom salt bath

Tuesday:
AM: swim - Masters - 3300 yards

I felt great in the pool this morning. I only did 3/4 of the 4200 yard workout and was swimming pretty fast. I shut it down before I started to feel fatigued. I am not going to gain any fitness this week and I just need to maintain the feel. That's all I am doing today and my legs are feeling much better than yesterday.

Padres are up by 2 games over the Dodgers with 6 games to go.

4 comments:

Rachel said...

Good luck on your race coming up! Good for you for being diligent about rest and nutrition. I was at the Aquathlon last week! It was a lot of fun (I finished at the back, as usual). I also did Pine Valley last weekend. That was hard-core.

Habeela said...

Can't wait to see how the race turns out this weekend - you've been working really hard as always.

Matt said...

Hey Jdub you've really kicked some butt this season especially in XTERRA. You must have loads of talent! Is the season nearly finished over there? Im in Australia and we are just getting set to kick things off.

Matt said...

Also want to have a crack at XTERRA but can't see any races in OZ? What's the deal? I knew exterra was small but i didnt realise it was that small.