It's a PR kind of day

I'm not much of a swimmer, having come into it late in life. As a result, I celebrate every victory. My victory today was taking a full 13 seconds off my 300 meter PR.

I'm not going to post my time, because it's still slow by triathlon and swimming standards. Still, when I hit the wall and saw a time on my watch that I have never seen before, my brain was full of very excited expletives.

What's funny is that most days I have a great day or some kind of breakthrough swimming, I had actually thought about not even going to the pool. Today was no exception -- I laid in bed for a few minutes thinking, "I could just skip today and go back to sleep." But I wanted to end April strong, so I eventually got my butt out of bed.

Because the pool had been full Monday, I was in a rush to get there before the lifeguard unlocked the doors. I hadn't even thought of what my workout was going to be. In the end I decided to keep it simple and try for descending 300s. For some reason, everything just came together today. And on the last one -- a PR. A big one. Boom.

I've been on cloud nine all day. Plus, this is a big boost to my confidence before triathlon season officially starts.

Week in review 21-27 April: I need more hours in the day

Not too bad of a week. I didn't hit every workout I wanted, but I got most of my key sessions in. And I got some rest and play time in, too.

Swim: Three sessions at nearly an hour each time, for a total of almost three hours. I'm proud of myself for getting out of bed early and hitting the pool those three times.

Bike: I was just too exhausted to get out of bed for one of my weekday trainer rides, but I did knock out my other weekday ride and a longer weekend ride for a total of three hours, 45 minutes. I was hoping to go for an actual outdoor ride, but I ran out of time on Saturday, and it was pretty windy anyway. I ended up taking my bike and my trainer to an empty lot we own so the dogs could run themselves tired at the same time. It wasn't ideal, but I made it work.

Run: Three runs this week — one very easy jog with my husband, one great round of speed work, and my longest run since my fall marathon (12 miles) for a total of about three and a half hours. I did the speed work I most love to hate, descending 800s, and got the last one down to a 7:14 pace — which might be the fastest half-mile I've ever run. So yeah, I'm thrilled with that. I didn't have a plan for my long run yesterday, so I just kept going until I hit 12. In retrospect, my legs were pretty sore afterward, suggesting I did too much and should have cut it shorter. Oh, well.

Other: I did my usual mid-week weights video for just over an hour, but didn't get in any additional training.

Overall: Eleven and a quarter hours.

My weekend was a bit screwy because we celebrated my mom's birthday, and she wanted to come to town to do a few things. I can't deny the birthday girl what she wants, can I? Add in after-work events and commitments three nights and I just didn't have time for much extra.

But, I did get to sleep in both weekend days, and got to check out a new triathlon store, so it wasn't all gloom and doom. I would have liked to get a bit more weekday training in, but overall I think I struck a good balance this week.

And hopefully for this coming week, I can keep the mid-week distractions to a minimum and stay on task. Plus — there are no family birthdays this week. Ha!

The countdown is on

One month til my first triathlon of the year. EEK!

I am not feeling ready, to be honest. I'm not sure what I was thinking signing up for an Olympic distance for my first race of the season. This will be only my second Olympic distance race overall, and the one I did last year was in August, so I had all summer to prepare.

I have yet to get out in the open water, although I think I only got one practice OWS last year. Plus, I've swam in this lake at least four times, so I'm not that worried about the unknown. In fact, I chose the fall version of this race for my first Olympic specifically because the swim (and bike and run, actually) is two laps of the sprint course, which I had already done three times.

I'm starting to get nervous about the bike, since I haven't had a chance to take my tri bike outside once yet this season. The course has some decent hills, and 25 miles is nothing to sneeze at.

I'm not so nervous about the run except for that my speed hasn't been coming around. I've been doing regular runs of at least 6 miles, and have gotten into the double digits recently. I have NOT done any bricks since last season, which I'll need to rectify.

One month to go! Let's see how much training I can squeeze in.

The too little vs. too much balance

            
It was a late night at the office last night, but in a good way – hanging out with people who are friends as well as coworkers. Late nights usually mean no morning workout, and that was the case today. I didn't want to have two nights of lousy sleep in a row, so I canceled my bike trainer ride and stayed in bed for a bit. And I feel great today.

Related, I came across these memes through one of my favorite triathlon bloggers, Steve in a Speedo. Sometimes, when I am beating myself up for not being able to do it all – clean house, perfect training schedule, three meals a day from scratch, exceptional work performance, long dog walks every day – I need to remind myself that I am not actually a machine. Monday morning pool sessions are great! But they shouldn't define me as a person.

Like the memes say: You are not a machine. You will enjoy eating that cookie. It's good to spend the occasional evening with your coworkers, even if that means skipping your morning workout. And that's OK.