Big Mistake!

Wow - never, ever do this! At least I'll never intentionally take a week off like that again - what a dumb move. I was finding myself tired all the time, and figured I was over training, perhaps, so I'll take a week off, regroup - whatever. Wrong answer - after two runs and a bike, I feel like I never trained all those weeks! I'm hoping I just need some time to "get back into it", but probably, most likely, I've experienced a decrease in fitness, just like everyone says, and now I've got to work back into shape again. I've got a long bike scheduled for Sunday - at least 60 miles - so we'll see how that goes.

Enter the Fray -

Well, it's time to enter into the mix of bloggers - I'm on my journey to November when I'll be finishing my first 1/2 Ironman at the Miami-Man 1/2. Lucky you, you'll get to hear about everything inbetween. So far I've had mixed results this year - I've competed in the Escape to Alcatraz Florida, Escape from Ft. Desoto sprint, and the St. Anthony's Olympic - and other than losing a bunch of weight so far this year (15 lbs), haven't had any real great splits or times yet.

So, a few weeks back, after St. Anthony's, I changed my training up a bit and went back to nothing but "base" training in the bike and run - with decent results so far. I've increased my bike ride distances to 50 miles plus for most of my rides, keeping my HR under 150 - most rides my average is 144. Runs are between 6 and 8 miles, mostly, with the same HR goals, usually averaging around 147. It's interesting when you do that, a 25 mile bike ride seems like nothing anymore, and a 3 mile run is over before it even starts. I've got another 3 weeks of base concentration, and then I'll start pushing back into some speed training again.

In 2 weeks I've got the Mad Beach Tri - its a sprint here near Clearwater, Fl. I'm looking forward to see if these 10 and 11 hr training weeks will bear any fruit. The weight is down into the high 240's - which is still on target with my goal of 245 for the Disney Olympic Tri. I started this triathlon trek at a very unhealthy 300lbs two Januarys ago - I think I can reasonably get down to 225 someday - 235lbs is the goal for Miami-Man.

Well, looking forward to a nice 6-mile run tonight, and then tomorrow (my day off from work) I'll hit it hard again with a bike-run brick early in the day, and then a swim in the afternoon - with a master's class and coach Milo. Even though it takes so long, working out at base pace allows for some really long workouts with easy recovery for the next day's efforts.