Just keep sleeping... er, swimming

Confession time: I have yet to make it to the pool this week. I've already skipped two of my three planned swims. Ugh.

Monday morning I was still recovering from being ill Sunday night. Last night we went out to celebrate my brother-in-law's 25th birthday and got home later than I would have liked. I had good intentions to get up early and hit the pool, but when I woke up a few minutes before my alarm I knew that wasn't going to happen. When my husband's alarm woke me again from a sound sleep two hours later, I knew I had made the right call.

I try not to beat myself up when stuff like this happens. My rational side says I'm a professional trying to fit my triathlon hobby into my extra time, not the other way around. I have family and other personal obligations. I'm not going to make every workout. And, let's be honest, I'm no fun to be around when I'm short on sleep.

The perfectionist side of me thinks I'm never going to improve if I keep slacking. I should have known better than to go out to celebrate on a Tuesday night. I should have sucked it up and gone to the pool anyway, no matter how tired I was. Am I committed to becoming a better swimmer or not?

On the plus side, I did squeeze in a quick run before we left for dinner yesterday. And if I needed extra motivation to get to the pool Friday morning -- this is it!

Week in review: 17-23 February, plus weekend FAIL

Another week in the books. I started off the week strong, and by the end of the weekend it had all fallen apart. OK, maybe I'm being a BIT dramatic, but let's take a look:

Swim: I made it to the pool three times this week, including my longest swim ever when I took advantage of having Presidents Day off. This is about all I can hope for in the winter, so I get a pat on the back for this. I totaled out at about 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Bike: Two shorter sessions and one longer session, totaling 4 hours. Again, this is about all I can hope for during the winter, so another pat on the back for me.

Run: One long run and one shorter run, for a total of just under 2 hours. Not great -- I need to be getting at least one more shorter run in during the week. I had good intentions on Friday evening to do some speedwork, but I was so tired, and my husband wanted to watch the rest of season 2 of House of Cards... so I opted for being a lazy bum instead. I've got to get out of this habit.

Other: Again, thanks to our past presidents, I got an hour of yoga in for the first time in MONTHS, and it felt great in a horribly painful tight-muscle-y way. I also got an hour-long weights video in, and did about 20 minutes of heavy and body weight exercises (pullups, pushups, etc.). I did not do any of my pre-hab exercises or plyometrics in this week.

Overall: About 11 and a half hours.

Let's take a look at a few more graphs for comparison. This is how average split times compare for women ages 35-39 at half-Iron-distance events:






And here's last week's training without the "other":





So, to take away, more running! I don't want to cut back on my swimming, since three days a week is about the bare minimum for improvement. Maybe I could fit in a few extra minutes on the bike here and there, but more running will be the top priority this week.

As far as my weekend FAIL, I had to cut my training short both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we had family in town, so that's why I only got to do 20 minutes of my heavy weight routine. Then one of my dogs had to go the emergency vet (she's fine now, thank goodness), which left me pretty exhausted come Sunday. I got my long run in during the evening, but I didn't fuel correctly, which led to an amazing blood sugar crash. So, not was the rest of my Sunday evening ruined, but there was no way I was getting up early Monday to hit the pool.

The way this weekend ended, I'm looking forward to the week ahead. I'm optimistic I can squeeze in some extra training after work. Now, to get those extra runs in!