after hours

For the record...... I didn't even try for Ironman Canada. But 2 of my athletes got in!

I stood in my garage at 5am Thursday morning and all I could think about was closing my eyes. Then I did something I never do. I went back inside. I got into bed and I slept until 9am.

9am?

9am.

To me that's like waking up at noon. But I needed it. I also had the luxury of doing something that in my book is dangerous..... I moved a long workout to 5pm.

We all have that time of day that is good for us to train. I am a morning person. Blame it on years of age group and college swimming. 4am practices to be out of the pool by 6 to be home by 6:30 to be to school by 7 to be back in the pool by 4pm.......

That kind of schedule programs you to wake up at 4am without an alarm clock.

Training at night to me is like death. I hate it.

On tap was my traditional 3:30 trans brick with tempo efforts tucked inside. It was cold. I wore a long sleeve jersey! It's August for crying out loud. For good luck however I wore the Storm Trooper Jersey. My most favorite ever.

As I sometimes do I placed a piece of masking tape over my Ergomo so it would only display elapsed time. I like to see if I can hit the effort without looking. With these little gadgets there is 100% chance they will fail in a race. You must be able to find it within yourself on race day rather than get wrapped up in numbers, data etc.

You will never see me wearing a heart rate monitor in a race for that reason. While I use a Power Meter and Garmin I am not dependant on them. It takes all of the fun out of racing in the first place. If there's a girl I need to catch then I need to HTFU and go faster. My heart rate won't even matter. Go faster.

I nailed the wattages I needed to nail and it was great great fun. It got dark by the time I was done and my run was done in dark rain with the company of a headlamp. I didn't look at the Garmin but nailed the run pace as well. It was neat to run at night. I finished pretty close to 9pm but I was glad I saved the workout. I was hungry for it. This morning my body said sleep and I said OKAY!

Good times. I am feeling good. It feels really good to feel really good. It's been so long since I have felt good..... healthy, peppy.... that it feels like a Christmas present.

Sunday I get to race for the first time since Lake Placid. Now, it is a 1/2 marathon. Placed at the end of a 17 hour training week. Who wouldn't love to PR? I would! And maybe I will. I am taking aim and I will run from my heart and let my body do the following.