On the edge...

I was going to swim this morning, but decided to sleep in for recovery purposes. I figure from now until the race, I'm going to try and maximize the amount of sleep I get.

For the past month and especially today, I'm so irritable and I don't know specifically why. I can speculate, but I don't know for certain. It could be over training, it could be the pressure I'm putting on myself to due well at the Florida 1/2 Ironman, it could be that I'm not as fast as I thought I'd be at this point, it could be that I'm about 5 - 7 lbs heavier than I want to be for the race, it could be the amount and complexity of time sensitive work that I'm doing at the office, it could be a physical issue, or it could be a combination of them all.

In either event, I need to figure out why I'm irritable and fix it. I don't like being irritable and I'm sure those around me do not like me being irritable, as I'm very impatient and short with them. I've got an appointment with my doctor tomorrow morning to see if it is something physical.

After work, I went for an hour run at an easy heart rate pace. Strangely, I had a great run and averaged 8:05 per mile for 7.5 miles. I don't get it, on Sunday, I was gassed doing a 9:00 minute mile and today it was almost a minute faster and effortless.

At 8:00 pm I did a 4.5 km swim, I really wasn't looking forward to it, but it was my last long swim on the program before my race in May. The pool was only open for 90 minutes, so I had to swim FAST. For 1500 meters I used my fins to help speed things along. A really good swimmer I know said that using fins help improve your kick, so I decided to try them.

One thing I did notice using the fins, surprisingly, was that my heart rate got pretty high. Normally it is hard for me to get my heart rate up in the pool, but not with the fins on. After I took the fins off, my kick did feel stronger and my heart rate lowered, but was still higher than usual.

On the whole, my swim was not that fast, around 2:03 per 100. Although , with the fins it was in the 1:38 per 100 range.

I keep telling myself not to worry about my current times, my online coach is telling me my performance is going to be poor during this phase, but my body will be ready to do well on race day.

In "Mark Allen Online" coaching I reluctantly trust!

P.S. My daughter got a full time job, washing and cleaning party rental supplies. She came home so tired and her body was sore all over. As she was trying to get my sympathy, she realized that I'm the guy who training 18 hours a week and she then told me she shouldn't be complaining.