Week Nineteen

This was the week after the play, and the week before vacation. My students were acting crazy and I was fighting a cold. I took a sick day on Tuesday to rest, and I probably needed a little more than what I took.

It's hard to decide when to train and not to train when you are sick. When I coached the summer run team, my rule of thumb was that if you had fever, don't train, and if you just have a cold with no fever, the exercise will probably help to kick it away sooner. I'm not really sure how good that advice is.

I started the week doing what I was supposed to do. On Wednesday, we didn't have an official track, so I went to the Simpkins swim class. I feel that I learn so much there. The instructors are great at giving specific feedback, and I know I am really improving in my stroke. I knew ahead of time that I wouldn't have time to do my training on Thursday, so on Wednesday I put in my hour run, running around Lighthouse field with my dog happily off-leash, leading the way.

On Friday, I started my after school choir and dance group. These are fundraisers for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Both groups are going to be great, but by the time I got home, I was feeling exhausted and feverish, and I knew I wasn't going to get into the pool. Instead, I got into bed and was asleep before 8:00 that night. On Saturday, despite lots of hours of sleep, I still felt really sick, and I decided to make that day my rest day and put my long bike ride in sometime next week.

By Sunday I was feeling a little bit better. I took another class at Simpkins at 9:00, and then ran 13.5 miles afterwards. I experimented with walking for 30 seconds every 10 minutes on the second half of the run, and managed to negative-split by a minute! That was one of my longer workouts, by combining the swim and, well essentially, a half marathon. By the time I got home, I was ready to crash again.

I'm realizing the significance of increasing my sleep as my training increases. My body needs a lot more healing time.

It's also starting to hit me: what it is I'm training for. Sometimes someone will say to me, "Wow, I just can't imagine doing just one part of that, let alone swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112, and running 26.2!"

Sometimes I feel like I can't imagine it either. I am putting my blind faith in the training calendar, and am just going to keep going forward as though this is a goal that is absolutely attainable.

It is all mind over matter, isn't it?

:-)

This week's summary:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: spin 60 minutes, run 2 miles (20 minutes)
Wednesday: run 60 minutes, swim about 2300 yards
Thursday: nothing (Wednesday's run was Thursday's workout)
Friday: nothing, unless you can count teaching 9 and 10 year olds a hip hop dance to "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" (I was sore afterwards, after all.)
Saturday: sleep, sleep, and more sleep (I owe me a 4 hour hilly bike ride which will be done next week.)
Sunday: swim about 1700 yards, run 13.5 miles

NUTRITION NOTE:
In between the swim and the long run, I had a power bar, a package of sports beans, and water. During the run, I had electrolyte drink about every 10 minutes, and half a powerbar at the turnaround. Energy level was okay, but stomach was a little queasy.

BODY CHECK:
I didn't ride too much this week, so I'm not sure how that hammy is doing. Today towards the end of the run, my right sciatica started burning a bit.

Fundraising to date:
$11,016 (thanks to lots of registrations for our Choir for a Cure and our Stomp Out Cancer Dancers!)