The First Ten Days - Do Over, Please?

Although technically the training week isn't over till tomorrow, I definitely don't want to include it in this week.  It's been a bit of a mess.

Last Saturday seemed to be the start of it.  I had a field power test planned for Saturday.  It was ridiculously cold to be riding, even for me.  (and without some crazy tradition egging me on).  38 degrees on the bike ... sheesh.  It reminded when I first started triathlon, back in Calgary, and I went out on the bike in 59 degrees (up there of course it was 15C) and cut it short because it was too cold.  Now granted, I probably wasn't wearing the right clothes - I was a newbie...had no idea what to be wearing, or that it was so much colder on the bike than on the run.  But I've learned a lot since then, and here I was, out in 38 degrees to do a power test no less.  The power test was to re-establish my zones appropriately for the upcoming training blocks.  Those of you reading who don't know what a power test is - trust me when I tell you it is not exactly "fun".  It's pretty much a 20 minute all-out effort.  I went out to Columns Drive, and did a few loops (5 miles each) warmup, and just as I hit the lap button to start my actual test, the hub battery on the PowerTap died.  Seriously.  Understand that this battery has been changed only twice in the 3+ years I've had my PowerTap.  It seriously couldn't have waited TWENTY more minutes to die?  LOL. I finished the ride anyway, putting real ownership to the Crazy Canuck identity.

Sunday I woke up and was sick again ... the same thing from just before Christmas, returned.  ACK.  Knew I wouldn't get the 8-9 I was supposed to run done, but went out hoping for 5 or 6.  One loop in, and struggling to run on the downhills I knew it was time to pack it in.  Texted Coach, and the instructions were clear - no run on Monday, and easy workouts on Tuesday IF I was feeling better.  Monday I drove up to Richmond to return to my stint at the current client.  Tuesday morning I went to the doc, and thankfully I tested negative for the flu.  I did get prescribed a stronger antibiotic, and Coach decided that Tuesday would be a day off after all.  Wednesday I did a 30 minute bike, and man, it was so much harder than I expected!  The antibiotics had some unpleasant GI side effects, making Thursday's bike not so great.  Just didn't have much energy.  I did 35 of the 45 prescribed.  Friday I was feeling much better, and went to the pool for my swim.  Imagine my surprise as I walked out to the pool deck to find cameras, a gazillion people, and only one open lane.  Apparently they were shooting a commercial.  Unbelievable!  And I've really never seen more than 2 people in the pool before, and yet the one lane left open for us to swim in contained 5 people.  They were all pretty slow, so the actual workout was not a possibility, so I just did 2000 straight swimming.  I did manage to find a number of opportunities to put in a fast 25 or 50 as well. The good news is I felt pretty great after this swim! 

Coach continues to remind me that you have to take it slow after an illness, to avoid a backwards slide. And that 'Nooga is a long way away.  "We have to be smart now".  I imagine this has often been my problem in the past...too eager to get 'back on track'.  And it ends up getting worse.  So I've been particularly careful to follow this week's revised (several times) schedule.  And you know what, today I did the revised workouts - no long run, but a strength session, an 1800y swim, and an easy bike followed by a quick 20 min run.  And I feel fantastic.  Ready to take on this next week (including tomorrow).

So, lesson learned, and shared - go easy coming back from an illness.  Pushing too hard too early will only cause a relapse. It's another example of my growing list of 'as in life, so in tri and vice versa' examples.  Sometimes you have to slow down a little to get faster, and this is definitely one twist on that truth.

Happy Training

Kat