IMAZ - 8 weeks

Totals for the week: Swim 2500 yards, Bike 110 miles, Run 0 miles.

Not a good week of training. Thankfully, this was a recovery week. Training was hindered by an out of state business trip and contracting bronchitis along the way. I missed a 7m run, a second swim workout, and my long run for the week, which was supposed to be 17m. At least I got in 2 bike workouts. My long bike was supposed to be 110m, but I cut it short at 80m. Imagine that, a "short" 80m bike ride? Ha! I could have finished the other 30m, but it would have been ugly and probably hurt my recovery from the bronchitis. The ongoing challenge is to know when to push through fatigue, tiredness, soreness, sickness, etc... and when to stop. Managing volume versus intensity is another challenge. I have accepted that every workout is not going to be a PR. Sometimes, you just have to do it to get the miles in, even if the pace is not what was expected.

Swim: did one recovery swim of 2500 yards. My recovery times now are what my fast times used to be. So at least my swim has improved somewhat. Unfortunately, this is the shortest part of the race.

Bike: Did a 30m bike on Wed night. My heart and legs were not into it though. Too much family drama going on for me to concentrate. Did ok on the workout anyway, but not as well as I could have. Biked 80m Sunday on my trainer. It was beautiful outside, but since I was getting a late start, I stayed on the trainer. Many people say they hate riding on a trainer. I've grown to like it ok. It removes many elements (weather, cars, dogs, hills, etc...) but makes it too easy to quit when I get tired. When you are 20m out from home, you have to ride home anyway. Can't quit. Watched lots of old movies and Ironman DVD's though.

Run: no run this week. The bronchitis zapped me.

So this next week is really critical for my training. All weeks are critical, but with only 8 weeks left and me not being ready for the race, I can't slip up now. No room for error and lots of room for improvement. This is one of the main reasons why I signed up for IMAZ in Nov too. I wanted to know that I had a second chance in case something or anything hindered my training or performance for IMAZ April.

At the moment, I feel pretty good about getting through the swim and bike in the times I set for myself. But I am a long way off from being ready for the run. At this point, it looks like a run/walk effort of some sort.