Back to the routine...

It's amazing how your world gets turned upside down when you travel. It's fun, but there's no schedule, which is okay for a while. I didn't know if I was coming or going. The minute we got back home everything started to settle down and feel normal again. Don't get me wrong, I had a ton of fun in Winnipeg, it just felt good to get my bearings back. It also felt nice to sleep in my own bed. I ended up sleeping for 13 hours, I can't remember ever sleeping that long, other than when I was a teenager. My body must have really needed healing time, especially the blister on my toe.

My back is still bothering me after 11 days. It felt a little better when I woke up, but then it really got sore during today's swim session. I thought doing weights afterwards would help it, but I forgot my runners and tried to do weights wearing my flip flops. I managed to do only one set before they kicked me out because I wasn't wearing runners. The swim was good, I had a guy beside me that was fast and during my sets I'd push hard to catch and try to pass him.

I've been giving a lot of thought about my triathlon training and racing, especially in light of the Cornman race. For that race I put too much pressure on myself. The weeks leading up to the race was not fun. I've been reflecting and have been trying to put everything in perspective. My goal is to do longer distance triathlons until I'm so old I can't. It's the ideal sport for my mental and physical health. Yet, I'm treating it like I'm a professional athlete. My focus is on the immediate goal and not the journey, and when I focus short term, I put to much pressure on myself and it's not fun. My family will tell you I'm not too much fun to be around before a race, I'm too serious. That's not good, I don't like hearing that.

So now I'm re-adjusting my triathlon philosophy. I'm going to enjoy my training and not judge each workout or relate it to race performance or past workouts. I've decided to do the workouts to the best of my ability and let the races fall where they may. My goal is going to finish the best I can on that day, but not put any pressure on myself in the day's and weeks leading up to it. I've also realized that I need to accept that I'm going to get injured and sick and not let it bother me. I need to just anticipate that it WILL happen, especially when you train as much as I do. The key is to deal with it in a positive way. I no longer want to dwell on injuries and worry about how it will effect my race performance. I need to do my workouts and try to smell the roses along the way.

Yesterday I registered for the Whirlpool Ironman 70.3 Steelhead in Michigan on August 1st. Normally I'd want a month before races, but keeping to my new philosophy of having fun, I think it will be a great destination race, and so what if I don't set a personal best. It's just over a 6 hour drive from our house and I'm going to mix it as a business and pleasure trip. I have a printer in the U.S. who we're working in partnership with to promote a product they have developed in Canada and I want to tour their plant. They are only 2 hours from the race site and the sales rep I deal with is also an Ironman triathlete and he's also going to be doing the Steelhead race. It should be fun doing the race with him. It also looks like the Steelhead has some really good post party festivities with lots of cheap beer. I think we'll stay over the extra night and enjoy ourselves in Michigan.

Swim - 1:03:24 / 3000 meters

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