42nd week of the 2011 season

153

This week I did not feel right while training. I have hardly had good feelings once. I am not sure how much of the feelings were because I don’t see myself reaching my real goals or because my body was not in sound. But I did have some problems with shipments and equipment that are worrying me, but these happened at the end of the week and I hadn’t had good feelings since the first session. Right now I am fully booked ad I should not back up. I am too distracted also and I am not sure of what I want.

On Tuesday morning I had the first session of the week. I started off with a swim, the swim was nothing fancy, just some muscular endurance work but I was not able to reach my training paces as I was asked for. I was too slow all the time except for the first set, it was the easiest one. Then I went to work and in the afternoon I had my first brick of the week. 90minutes on the bike followed by a long transition, the transition was longer than 3 minutes which is unacceptable. Then I ran. During the bike I just wished it was over and during the run I had a hard time focusing it took me one lap to start running slightly focused. Also running with no references made it hard. I did not know if I was going fast or not, but the being so distracted made it look like no matter the pace was, the feeling was not good.

On Wednesday I hit off the pool in the morning for a short session mostly based on technique work, I wanted t have an active recovery session. In the afternoon I had scheduled a 75minutes run. Once again I was fast, this time I did have some reference points, but I did not enjoy it as I should’ve done. I felt slow and heavy even though I trained under 4minutes per Kilometer, which at the same time this is too fast and I should’ve not done it.

On Thursday I started with a brick session. Once again I needed more than 3 minutes for the transition, not acceptable, plus I had to shorten the run. I did not feel very good on the bike but the problems came during the run. I felt some discomfort on my right knee, the one that got hit the Saturday before while playing crash cars with friends. It was scheduled a 45minutes run of which I did 30. In the afternoon I went to the swimming pool. I felt slightly better on it but not good yet.

Finally on Friday I had a session with good feelings. I swam in the morning and I was able to complete all my swims within schedule and at the required speed which sometimes it was not easy. I was able to complete 500m faster than my T-pace, I had never done that. Later that day, I did one more brick. This time I struggled a little bit on the bike and during the run I did not feel comfortable during the first lap and I was actually happier that the second lap was faster.

On Saturday, I woke up early and I went to the beach. Once there I did my in and out of the water session. This time unlike the last time that I did something similar, the swim was very short, about 3 minutes long and then I had to run and back to the water. I did not have the same feelings as the last time but it was almost everything ok until I got home. The zip of my wetsuit is broken and I am not sure that I can have it repaired. I have been searching for solutions but none of them quite fit me yet. I just wish I can repair it. I tried to get some sleep and go for a recovery run. I did not feel even good on it. Was I maybe going too fast? It could be but the times showed me that I was going slower than normal but the feeling was not good.

I had saved Sunday for the hardest workout of the week. 4h on the bike plus 45minutes running. I was slow on the bike, maybe it was because of the win and the climbs but I did not feel fast, plus I had a hard time getting aero after the 1^st hour. I met with a guy that actually helped me to go faster on one of the climbs and showed me how I should go downhill, I was chasing him fairly well until I had a couple of misshapen and I backed up a little bit. But once we hit the flat I could’ve easily left him behind. I transitioned quite fast this time and I took off for a run. It was faster than before but not quite the pace that I wanted to.

This week has not been a very good one. I did not feel good anywhere. I felt like a stranger and sometimes I felt guilty. I don’t know why I felt like this but I hope it ends soon.

Every once in a while; especially when things don’t go my way I tend to tear everything apart. Now it is one of those moments. I want to drop everything, I want to brake with everything and I want to live outside of the corset that I feel like I am.

It is hard to have goals and that such goals will not be met and it is even harder to work tons of hour for it and not achieving them. I want to fight and meet my goals. I truly want to do it but I also have to be realistic.

What will it take me to be happy after the Mdot? What if I achieve my ultimate goal? What if even I don’t achieve it I achieve the ones that could just be even harder to meet? Even though I have been thinking a lot about new races, will I want to continue? Will my lifestyle let me train? Will I want to train that hard? How badly do I want to meet my goals? It is not that I have not finished one race that I am starting to think about a new one. I have some goals that I would like to accomplish and maybe I will need to race more to achieve them.

Right now I am tired of this bullshit. What we have might be more than we have ever expected but it is not enough for me. Is it time to take action? Do I foresee a fork in the road? Our routine is no longer enough. I might have agreed to that in the past but we were all different at that moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up8l4k1YA9g&feature=related

41st week of the 2011 season

153

This adaptation week has been full of bad feelings from the beginning to almost the end. My mind, my body and my training plan seemed to move in to different directions. My mind was not focused, my body wanted to go fast and my plan wanted me to take it easier.

I don’t usually talk about Mondays if I did not train but this time will be different because here is where the bad feelings started. I woke up with swollen legs, ankles and feet. And I also visited my physiotherapist for my shoulder injury which is not feeling good yet but better.

On Tuesday I resumed my normal training. Well I have been doing the swim at the end of the day. I started with a one hour bike ride followed by 30minutesrun. It was not supposed to be a transition but I had to do it like that as I was a bit late. I felt slow in the run and it could be because of the swollen legs. After work I went to swim, my shoulder was not feeling great but since it was a fairly easy day I made it through, also I was aware that my arm would be a little sore from the treatment.

On Wednesday, I did something similar as Tuesday but shorter. It was a 45minutes bike ride followed by a quick transition with 15miuntes running where I had felt slightly faster than the day before. After work I went to the swimming pool for a good swim but it does not mean that I was feeling any better. Also I had an incident that I did not understand what the argue was because it was all solved the next day. But I left work with a bitter taste in my mouth. Then I enjoyed talking to a friend and watching the game.

On Thursday there was no morning session and there was only an easy run in the afternoon. The run did not go well again. I started fast and I ended up fast as well. Sure I enjoy going that fast but I needed to stay within the training plan and running 10 to 15 seconds faster than expected race pace is not good.

On Friday, I had a 1h bike ride in the morning and then after work I only had one hour swim where I actually felt a little bit better for the first time in two weeks. But Friday after work had been very busy because I had to take my front wheel for a check because it was not spinning well since the accident.

Saturday was a busy day and slightly off the training plan but it was ok this time, it was planned that way. I started my bike ride in St Feliu, the feelings were awful, I was pushing an easy gear but I was going very slowly. I could not understand that. It turned out my newly recentered wheel was touching my brake pad it took me about 15 minutes to realize about that, from that point I was not able to focus, I kept checking the wheel and I did not enjoy the ride. For some reason those 3h felt long. Then I transitioned in 3minutes which it is not bad when you think everything I had to do to do the transition, I had to put the bike in the car and start running with a friend. Usually I would have only run for 15minutes but he got me into running a bit longer, good thing is that he slows me down so running 42 minutes was not very taxing for me and the pace was good enough. Then I went to the beach, I should’ve not done that. I know how bad it is for me at this moment and I did not have a proper nutrition after the workout. Also it did not pay off as much as I expected. After the beach I went out for dinner with some friends but I went to sleep fairly early because I had to train the next day.

Sunday was short and easy but very important. I had to complete my last swim test which it was fairly good and low in shoulder discomfort. The test was fairly good if I take into account that I had been injured from shoulder and knee. Yes I hit my knee yesterday and I have a bruise that does not let me push off the wall very well. The result of the test was 90seconds per 100m which are the same results as the last test. After the swim I went for a 30minutes run. I was feeling fairly good even though my knee condition. I was not trying to go fast but I actually did a few more meters than usual so I guess I was going faster than normal, but ta least the feelings were good.

This week I had too many distractions that kept me from sleeping much again. I had a friend visiting the same day of the soccer game, we did not sleep much, then I had to do some chores and I also had a dinner that ended up late. But these short hours of sleep were worth the company.

She finally open up to me and I don’t see as much of a problem as she sees, I guess I am not in her shoes. I enjoy spending these little moments with her and I enjoy when we lie to each other until we decide that we did not mean anything we said. I still need to understand a few things but so far so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlXOAEvupFU&feature=related

40th week of the 2011 season

153

This has been my first crash week ever. It has been a bicycle one. Few reasons to it. Biking is my weakness, biking has low impact, my shoulder was injured and I could not swim.

I actually started the week on Monday with a run. It was only a one hour run just to get the feeling of it since last Sunday I could not do it. Afterwards I was supposed to go to my physiotherapist but we had to cancel it.

On Tuesday I resumed my training plan. I biked in the morning. Then in the afternoon I decided to go for a bike run again but this time was outdoors. This time I did not feel very safe on the bike since I had the accident last Saturday and this was my first solo ride since then. It felt like the bike and I were not in sync. After the bike ride I went to the physiotherapist to get my treatment, he used some dry needling technique and then I left for a 1h run.

On Wednesday, I biked for 90 minutes in the morning. And then after work I did my transition. It was a pretty hard day and I had to take a nap before I could do the second session. I had not had much sleep lately and I needed some. It was one of my first nights running in my home town and I managed fairly well to do in only two non identical laps my 45mins run.

On Thursday morning I had my recovery ride. 40minutes of easy spinning. Just to get some air in my body. Then After work I ran with a coworker. It was his first day running with me and it might be his last one. He told me he would be fast enough but he was not used to the heat. I was running very easy for me but he was almost racing. We did 10km together, then I left them and I started my second hour of training at a much higher pace, the second pace was over 1minutes faster per km.

On Friday I did 4 sessions of training. The first one was a 90minutes bike ride. The second one was my first swim of the week. I did not know how my shoulder was going to react and it reacted quite well. I felt some discomfort but I am not sure whether it was my injury or my scratch from the accident. After that I went for a 30minutes run and once I was back home I did 1h on the trainer, just to get some force work done.

Saturday was one of the toughest days I had this season. It was very hot, I was all on my own and I had 5h of riding and 45minutes of running ahead of me. The bike was not very fast, maybe faster than I could first think but nothing close to what I want to call fast. At the end of the ride it was very windy that blew all my effort after the turn around point. Then I went for the run, I did over 10.5km, which is ¼ of the marathon in 45minutes. The pace was a little slower than I wanted. For the first 7minutes my legs were not running properly but then they loosen up and I started to run much better. It was very hot and I struggled to finish. At almost the end of the run I had to stop at the fountain and get some extra water to be thrown over my head to cool off. It left me very tired but after a 90minutes nap I was recovered to do normal life again.

Sunday was an awesome day, I did not feel as tired as I expected to. I put up a show for all the people at the beach at that time. It was hot but I needed to train my wetsuit. The session was to swim for 14 minutes then get out of the water run a bit and back to the water and I did that for one hour. The feeling from swimming to running and back to swimming is fun, but the best part is after the run when you can hardly breathe and jump into the water and the next 4 strokes are just to recover from the run and then you are ready to start swimming fast again. The shoulder did not bother me much. Then I went back home, took a nap and run for one hour in the sun. It was very hot but I managed it pretty well this time.

The closer I get to race day the more I respect it. Fear would not be the appropriate word and I like the respect one. I think my goals will be hard to meet but I will fight for them.

Right now the work is done and there is very little room to improve if there is any. I have trained hard and all the work is in my legs and arms. The question is whether I have trained well or not. Did I give everything when I had to do it and did I hold it when I had to? Did I do my hard days hard enough and my easy days easy enough?

This week I also had a very strange talk with a friend. I have not had many talks like this in my life, it was probably the first time. It is nice because we both opened up but the circumstances of both of us don’t leave much room for anything. It is weird how strong we can be and how vulnerable we can be in two different moments not very far apart.

I need to let the reason to take over my heart or I will have problems. I have put a lot of effort into it and it is not now time to blow it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMgO4JyBp4

39th week of the 2011 season

153

This week has been stared by, moving back home, injury, accidents, distraction, schedule change and thoughts that I might not reach my goals, I might should have never lived this week.

As usual I started to train on Tuesday but this time it was different, I was back in Cassà. I started with a two hours bike ride before going to work. Then after work I went to the swimming pool for 90 minutes and I finished the day with a 1h run. So far so good. Although I was not happy with my swimming concentration, it was very hard to focus on what I had to do and instead my mind was somewhere else in a place that I had thought I would never go back.

On Wednesday, I did something similar as the day before, I had a brick before work, in which I had to get up very early, and then I went to work. In the afternoon I went to the swimming pool. It was easier for me to stay focus, I trained very hard and probably because I needed to have a good concentrated swim I over worked and I got tendonitis. At first I did not want to believe but deep down I knew it was not going to be good.

On Thursday, I finally swam in the morning, short and easy swim. I was focused, and even though the day before I left the pool with some pain I trained because it was an easy session and I wanted to make sure what the problem was. It did not hurt me but I was not feeling 100% good. Then I went to work and after work for the long run. I did some easy 45mins at first with a friend and then I started to train alone. After 75minutes I picked up some speed and I was able to do 5km in 20mins 25seconds, this 25 seconds I the time that I stopped to get some water, then I had some 15minutes of easy running and I finished with some 15 minutes more at a much higher speed, I felt good.

On Friday I started early in the morning with some bike riding. It was a 90minutes ride and it was hot as all week, even at that time of the day, I was sweating a lot. Then I went to work and after work I had scheduled a long swim and a very short run. The long swim became something very short. I started with the warm up and everything was ok but after doing my first 100 of the series in 85 seconds I knew I was done for the day and probably for the rest of the next week. Now my mind is to just focus on recover. I was so angry that at first I only wanted to do my 30mins run but I ended up running over 50 minutes and doing some short hills as well.

Saturday, what a day. I started early in the morning for a Saturday. I went to pick up my training buddy and we headed out. Everything was going smooth and well, the ride was not very hard but then we arrived at Cogolls where I had my first problem. Here I got my first fall, I was nearly at stop because my chain moved out of place and I usually have the ability and time to put it back but this time I did not have enough time since I was going uphill and all that. Then later on I had a bike crash. I was not paying enough attention, We had the sun on our eyes, we were moving very slowly when I did not see the car in front of me was going in to a full stop instead of the just slowing down process that had ben doing for the past meter. I braked as hard as I could and I am not sure my bike touched the car but what I did touch the car. Indeed I broke the back windshield of the car. The hole was bigger than half of the windshield. I fell on the ground and when I stood up my friend told me that I was bleeding, I did not even know and then is when I realized about the damage on the car. The police came, the ambulance but I was lucky enough to not suffer any damage and I rode back home with a bandage in my left shoulder, taking a longer route than needed because we were feeling good. I decided not to run just in case of infection or something like that.

On Sunday I wanted to go for a run, since I could not swim, but the bruise was not healed yet and I thought that it was better to take a day off and rest.

Work has also been pretty crazy this week I have worked every day of the week. Plus the training and eating I hardly had time to do anything else.

I have been a little distracted this week. I had feelings that I thought they were gone. I am trying to avoid them. Now it is not the moment to have them, bad timing. Although I am happy for having such feelings although they don’t let me focus on my goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbRAVLKtZPw&feature=related

38th week of the 2011 season

153

Due to the crazy hours at work I had to miss one day of training. The week has been complicated trying to balance training and work. Also, it has been the first week of the build period and sure it is harder than before. Volume has decreased a little bit but the intensity is harder.

So the week started on Wednesday because of too much work on Tuesday. I started the week with a long and tough swim, I was doing muscular endurance and it is hard to keep up. Then I went to work and after work I had a transition session of 105mins on the bike and 45mins running. By the end of the day my legs were tired.

On Thursday I went to the swimming pool in the morning, short session but with a lot of intensity. Then I went to work for 12h and when I finished I had the long run of the week, 2h running. My legs were not feeling fresh from the day before and for some unknown reason I only took one gel with me. The run became a hard one where I had to pull a lot of mental strength to finish strong. The numbers did not show what I wanted to see, I was way too slow, and I struggled too much in the last hill, I lost 3mins and 30 seconds from the first hour to the second, this means that I was almost 1kmh slower in the second hour. Even though the profile of the run was not the best to check the pace like I did the reality is what it is, but I need to improve the pace by at least 7seconds per km. Then I went back to work to finish some issues.

On Friday I had to change the order of the training and I was thinking to do the bike in the morning but I slept in. So I went to work and then late in the evening I started training. Since I had not been able to run in some daylight for several days I decided to start with some running first before heading the water. In the swimming pool I had another hard and long session. When I finished I went home, took a short power nap and I started my 90mins bike ride.

On Saturday I started the bike ride a little late. The course that I took was not the most difficult one. When I started I felt slow and out of feeling which I was able to overcome as the kilometers were being ridden. I was almost caught by the rain. And I finally was able to finish much stronger than I started. I felt like I could’ve done a lot more and the proof is that when I run I ran under 14mins30seconds my normal 4.2km after the long bike ride. I was not happy with my bike performance but I ended up feeling good with my run.

On Sunday, I had plan to swim on the sea but the weather was not good enough and I decied to move to the swimming pool. So, I started the day with a swim that I had to shorten it by ten minutes, although it was a tough swim of anaerobic endurance, the ten minutes that I shortened it were the calm down meters, so the main set was finished. Then I went to lunch and after a nap I went for a run. I don’t usually workout on Sunday’s afternoon because I do everything in the morning but today I hadn’t finished my sessions. During the run I felt very heavy all the time and I felt like I was running at tempo and I was happy enough to go back with the same time that I went out.

I am worried. My training times are not the times that I would like to be doing. I need to get faster and stronger and I don’t have much time to do it. Taking a close look to my plan I can’t blame it much on it. It looks well organized and I followed it very well. The problem is that I had not been in the sport long enough or that my physical capabilities are not as good as I would like to think. I just hope I don’t meet my goals because of the volume and by the time of the race with good tapering I will be able to perform well.

Also this week my mind has been a little bit all over the place. I don’t know where I am heading and what is going to happen with it but I am not quite happy with the timing and the way that I feel. Right now it is not the moment to have such feelings. When will be a good moment? I don’t know that either. But having my mind not focused on a 5h bike ride is not good. It reminds me the old times and I don’t like it. I need to overcome these feelings. I hope I can do it like I’ve done in the past. Besides, our situation is not the best for it to happen.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nahnlV-b1vc