The Good and The Bad

Sitting here at my desk soaking wet. Just got back from a gym session with Derrick Raymor. Been working out with him twice a week on strength and mobility. I can really feel the power this is helping me build when I run and ride. It should help my swimming as well. It’s in a gym with no A/C and we start at 11 am. So, that’s why I am soaked.

Let’s face it, if you live and train in South Texas in the summer, you spend a lot of time wet.

Which brings me to the real point of this post. Yesterday’s run. 9 miles. I was soaked when I was done. But it was horrible. Sometimes I feel like I only talk about the successes, the wins. But maybe we learn more from the failures. Yesterday was a failure of sorts.

I had rode 75 miles on Saturday. And for me, the power being near 80% for 4.5 hours was really good. Did my brick around noon and it was so HOT. Like an oven. But I struggled through it.

I showered and ate. Had a protein drink. Evaluated my nutrition on the bike and thought I had done OK, even though I had burned over 1800 calories on the ride and over 300 on the run. Had a huge steak for dinner and got to bed pretty early.

Slept in a little Sunday am but I knew from the minute my feet hit the ground Sunday it was going to be a struggle. And it was. My coach asked for 10:45/mile pace, but 12 was the best I could do. Had one mile in the 11s but by the time I got to mile 9, I actually stopped and walked for a bit. Haven’t done that in a loonnnggg time.

So, got 10 hours of sleep last night. Trying to eat really well today and to hydrate. No other workouts today and getting a massage in a bit.

Hopefully it’s just my body reacting to my first really long IM training weekend and I will adjust. 80 miles next weekend.

Again, back to my point. Don’t want to just post the good days. They aren’t all good. They can’t all be good. When I was struggling, all those “I can’t do it”, “I’ll never realize my dream”, negative self-talk thoughts were going through my head. If you don’t have those and you don’t conquer them, the good days and the day I achieve my ultimate goal would not be nearly as precious and sweet.

I’ll get there. But I have to stick with it. Because nothing worthwhile is easy and with everything, there is good and bad.