Curveball

I had a GREAT training week last week.  Like, seriously great.  I completed ALL of the workouts on my schedule - 9 workouts for a total of over 16 hours and 157 miles (4 swim, 105 bike, 48 run).  I felt like I was getting stronger at biking and swimming, and still keeping up with my running.  I rode my bike, outside, 3 times - 2 of those times on my own.  I ran to Prather on Sunday.  Like, all the way from Fresno.  It was a great week.  And then came Monday...

I swam in the morning, according to plan.  A bike ride was on the calendar for the afternoon.  I was ready for another big building week.  Until I started puking at 3:30p.m.  So much for that. On Tuesday, I could barely move off my couch.  On Wednesday, I went back to work but even that was exhausting.  No appetite = no food = no energy = no workouts.  Wednesday night, I charted out a plan so that I could 'make up' for all the missed workouts on Thursday and Friday.  I dragged myself out to run Thursday and barely made it through the 3 mile warmup loop before I went home and crawled back in bed, achy, tired, and nauseous.  So I decided this week is just a bust.  And that's ok.

I spent sometime really studying the training plan I'm using from beginnertriathlete.com.  Like most marathon training plans, it builds for 3 weeks, then has a recovery week, and then starts to build again.  I played a Tetris like game of rearranging the 14 weeks I have left so that I can count this week as a 'recovery' week.  I even rearranged it in a way to make the week before Boston Marathon a recovery week so that I might actually have a chance to go into it with decently fresh legs.  It was a good exercise - to acknowledge and accept that it is a guideline and that I'm in control to make it work for me.

This weekend, I'm giving myself the freedom to listen to my body.  Tomorrow, I will go with Team in Training to run Yokhl Road down in Exeter.  It's one of my absolute favorite runs.  I'd like to get 20 miles out of it, even if they're slow, but I'll let my body be the guide and just enjoy the run.  It's supposed to rain all weekend too, and I'm just not confident enough on my bike to risk a rainy ride, so I'll let the weather be the guide on what I do Sunday.  Maybe the only biking I'll do is to take my bike to the shop to get my new zebra print handlebar tape and clip-on aero bars put on.  I'd be ok with that : )

Regardless, I will start fresh again on Monday, and build for 3 weeks until it's time to recover for Boston.  I'm also going to start to focus more on nutrition.  This week was a painful reminder that I'm pushing my body to the limit right now, so my immunity is down and recovering is hard.  So yes Katie, I may even eat some vegetables,  And yes, Mom, I will take my vitamins.  At least for the next 99 days...