Jackie D - Week 41

Week 41 - starting Monday 25 June 2007

Original Scheduled hours: 15hrs 0 mins
Revised Scheduled hours : 14hrs 40 mins
Actual hours: 14hrs 51mins

Oh boy was I sore at the beginning of this week! Like sore that I haven’t been for months and months. Good sore though - must be getting stronger.
This week was supposed to be a repeat of last week but because kids are home I knew I had to do my long stuff at the weekend so I was left with more intense stuff for the weekdays. Having not got up early enough for a lake swim on Monday I then just didn’t know what to do because I didn’t think I should do another BT workout on a consecutive day. Help Mary! She came to the rescue. Apparently many of us are having our little “falling apart” times at the moment - and she just picks us up, dusts us off, turns us around and sets us on our way. We revised the first couple of days to a long continuous swim at the pool in the evening and some less intense stuff the following day.

Well, whether it was guilt of “messing up” my original schedule or what I don’t know but I decided I was going to swim the 2.4miles in the pool that night, so I did. I have never really done a long continuous swim in the pool before because it is so boring and I lose count of the lengths. But I prepared myself mentally and it was OK. And I felt as strong at the end as I did at the beginning of the 154 lengths of the 25m pool. Yahoo!

I got to do that horrid run, bike, run brick again this week though - so Mary wasn’t THAT nice to me as to take that away! It went OK and I felt less sore afterwards. All good stuff.

For someone who usually gets the long stuff done mid week it is a bit disconcerting to get to Friday night and know you have 9 hours of training left for the week.

This was my first long ride at a weekend and it was so much less stressful than usual. Usually I am worried that I won’t get back in time for the school bus, especially if I have a flat tyre and what do I do if I need rescuing for some reason blah blah blah. Saturday was free from all that. Fred took the boys on a boys day so I had all day to do my bike ride without worrying about times and knowing he was on the end of a phone with no work meetings etc if I needed him. It really was a pleasant change. I chose a hilly course on purpose - riding down to Naples via a back way and then back up - back up that long climb on the CR12 that Mary mentions in her log - think it was more than 10 mins for me though! But I did it, without standing up either.
Today was the day I tried my revised nutrition strategy properly of Powerbars and Gatorade. Oh dear! They sat very heavily on my stomach and I ended up making 3 major bathroom stops - luckily I had planned my route around gas stations to pick up more Gatorade and water. I was a bit surprised because I have been using Powerbars- just not in the quantity I need for proper nutrition. More thinking to do on that one.
I passed the memorial where 5 high school graduates had been killed in a car crash a couple of nights previously. I was so angry that they had been stupid enough to be driving when they shouldn’t have but it is so, so, so sad that I just couldn’t stop the tears falling.
I also tried a new sunscreen on this ride. The stuff I have been using (and the stuff I am told they have at LP) seems to wash off a bit with spills from my aero bottle and I end up with blotchy red legs every time. Well this time I tried kids, Huggies extra waterproof stuff under my usual stuff and success! I still had the weak left hand problem after about 3 hours though and had to use my palm of my hand to change the back chain ring. Weird. Perhaps three weeks rest will help.

The long run was the last workout of the week. I did it on Sunday evening but that was the plan after a day out with the family (fruit picking - yum!). This was a kind of nutritional breakthrough. It all started when a fellow triathlete who knows about my nutritional woes with gel was trying to give advice about the flavours he likes. And then he said it - the words just struck home - he said “I have such a sweet tooth I look forward to my next gel” Well! NO-ONE HAS MORE OF A SWEET TOOTH THAN ME! SERIOUSLY! So, I decided my woes must be psychological. I took gels and water and set off for my 3 hours. Every half hour on schedule I chose a flavour and linked it to something yummy - like cooking my grannies old recipe for vanilla fudge, or chocolate pudding or making flapjacks and then I tried to savour and imagine it as the gel. Well, it worked to a degree. I ate all the gels I planned - first time in ages. I think I am going to continue with this strategy and move it over to the bike too - then I will have my original working nutritional strategy working again!
Sometime after 2 hours (and after an expresso gel which maybe linked) I started bouncing. I just wanted to shout and jump in the air yelling Yippee. I was nearly there. Everything I have worked towards since last October and this was my last workout before taper.

I have done it. I have trained and I AM READY

BRING IT ON!

3 WEEKS TO GO