Friday 7.28.2006 - a long thursday...

Typically Thursdays are when the fatigue of getting up early, training, and working all week starts to get to me. By the time I get home from work Thursday night and go for a run/ride I am spent. It feels good though because Fridays are light for me with just a 1.5 mile easy ocean swim in the morning.

Training prior to yesterday:
Monday
weights - upperbody/core

Tuesday
Masters swim (4100 yards)
52 min run (4 x 6min @ 10k pace w/2min recovery)

Wednesday
Masters swim (4000 yards)
weights - lowerbody/core
60 min run - easy



Yesterday was a long one. I did 2+ hour mountain bike in the morning before work and a club aquathlon in the evening. Sitting in my office in the afternoon I was already tired. Riding offroad definiely beats you up a lot more than riding on the road. So at 4:30 I left work and head down to La jolla for the race. This was first aquathlon I have ever done and it was a good time. My goal was just to swim "hard" for the whole 1000 meters and then try to catch Marc (who is a very strong swimmer and runner) on the run. Well first part was a total success. I came out of the water in the top 10 which was a complete shock to me, but it was not fast enough to catch the really fast swimmers. I ended up finishing 4th and got in a really good running race with Emilio Desoto. The run was and out and back to Scripps peir and you had to do it twice. So I looked at it like 4 laps and my goal was to just get progressively faster with each lap. At the end of the "third lap" i caught Emilio but he did not want to let me pass and kept surging. Right at the turn around I passed him and made a move and he countered and stayed with me. I kept up the pace because I wasn't sure if he could actually stay with me and as soon as he fell off my stride I made my move. I was able to put a good gap on him and just keep increasing it to the finish. The race was fun and food after was epic. Marc ended up winning the race and I was stoked for him. Maybe if the run was longer I would have been able to track him down, but I really don't think so as he had a really good lead on me coming out of the water.

Needless to say that after the race I was done... I didn't end up getting home until just before nine. I hit the shower, grabbed a Fat Tire, and then crashed. I am racing the Solana Beach Tri (sprint) on Sunday and then Xterra points series race in Running Springs, CA the following weekend. I figured I would wake up pretty sore this morning but I am actually feeling really good.

On another note... I was reading Gordo Byrne's blog the night after my last post and came across this:

"The combination of our non-athletic commitments (work, family, other) impose constraints on us that limit both our training and our ultimate performance. Most people take comfort in these limits because they obscure the fact that most athletes are not doing everything that they can to achieve athletic success. That’s not a value statement – that’s a statement of fact. Most people make daily choices that result in limits being placed on their performance in all areas.

If you want to beat someone then you have to be willing to out-train them – consistently and for a long time. Sitting around telling yourself that you are doing “everything you can” won’t achieve that ultimate result. Results come from a relentless drive to remove anything that isn’t connected to your ultimate goal. Of course, few people have an idea on their ultimate goal either."

That about sums up everything I was trying to say: I am willing to make those sacrifices to reach my goals.