Shell shock

For the first time in quite a while I'm pretty shelled from a training point of view – I had a fantastic week of training last week, and I'm really seeing the "results" of that training.  I'm tired.  I haven't been this tired in a while.  As a result I've made a concerted effort to slow down this week and just focus on some volume (and rest) rather then speed/power/pace.

I've done OK on most fronts, but it hasn't been easy – my running partner John dragged me through an hour run yesterday at 7:16 pace or so – after that I had a good ride with my friend Matt.  It was a 3 and a half hour ride where we averaged right about 18 mph – it was pretty much just what I needed – some good endurance work, but not hard.  Just riding.  I need to do more of that.

It's great to drop training PB's like I did last week, but it's dangerous because you contantly like to beat them – Gordo had a blog entry on this exact line of thought today – I think it's a great read.

In a way it's interesting that I find myself thinking these thoughts after a great week of training, and then when I do my daily check of Gordo's blog he has an entry on that exact same subject (much more eloquent then I write though).

I just need to remind myself to chill and do the work – there is no need to race in training.  Forget about those mini goals (beating Terry, going a 4:12, etc) – and go back to this goal – 8:59:59 Ironman (51/4:50/3:10) and focus all my athletic energy on what it takes to do that.

That was a nice aspect of training for Arizona – I had one race on the calendar to focus on.  I didn't have the temptation to make compromises in order to excel at a mid-cycle race – I was able to purely focus on the metrics I determined as critical to my sucess in Tempe.  And it worked!

In that light I've got a 10 mile run tomorrow morning – and I'm not going to let John force me to run faster then I should.

Wish me luck – seriously.