Picture Day...

I may have a beer or two tonight. I'm not sure. The plan was to wait for tomorrow night, but I may change my mind. Like I did at Christmas as a kid, I may decide to "open one of my presents on Christmas Eve".

I'm now adjusting nicely to this off season rest thing. My legs are just starting to feel semi-normal. I can tell I need a few weeks off to let them heal fully and this recovery rest is going to be a good thing over the longer term. I've already noticed my Achilles is starting to feel better.

My weight is still high. In the mirror I think I look better than normal and then when I stand on the scale I'm 185 lbs. Mind you, yesterday I had some Vietnamese food for lunch and about half of the meal was probably salt. Regardless, I'm telling myself not to care. As far as I'm concerned I'm on a three week vacation.

I was thinking that all sports have an off-season and athletes get back into shape once the season starts up again. I've heard of "muscle memory", where the body can quickly get back to its highest level of fitness much quicker than it took to get to that level originally. I've experienced it first hand. After a 15 year layoff from triathlons, my body not only got back to my old shape, it actually exceeded it.

I'm also going to do my best not to use the bathroom scale anymore. I'm going to try to judge things by how my body looks, how my clothes fit and my training and racing times. A few months ago I went about a month without weighing myself and I didn't miss it at all. I actually felt liberated.

Since I started weighing myself again, it sets the tone for my day. If I weight less, I start the day off feeling good and if I weigh more, I start the day off on a sour note. I don't like the idea that the scale dictates how I'm mentally going to start my day. That's why I'm not going to weigh myself very often. I'll probably do it once a month, just to keep a record so I can compare month to month and year to year.

I received the professional pictures from Clearwater today. I posted them to my blog on the race report page http://trainingpayne.blogspot.com/2009/11/race-day.html Overall I was happy with them. They definitely captured how I felt on the run. On the bike picture there was this in-shape intimidating looking guy. I checked out his number and I beat him by over 3 minutes using my non chain breaking time.

I've also been thinking of my 2010 upcoming Ironmans. I've been thinking that I may do one of them with a full out effort. For half Ironmans, I don't even pace myself, I just go at almost the same pace that I would for an Olympic distance race. I've been wondering if my body could maintain the same effort for a full Ironman. Is the intensity level reduction only a mental barrier?

I remember in the past I would never think of doing a half Ironman full out. Now it's the only way I race half Ironmans. Is it the same for an Ironman? Is it just a mental barrier that needs to be broken? If I was a betting man, I think the race I'm going to experiment on and go full out will be Lake Placid. I'll have nothing to lose. If I don't qualify for Hawaii in China, the only way I'd qualify at Lake Placid it to go full out, especially with such a strong field. And if I do qualify for Hawaii in China, then I have nothing to lose at Lake Placid.

What's the worst that could happen? Other than bonking severely on the bike, having to walk the entire marathon, taking IV's, throwing up, injuring myself, crawling over the finish line, hospitalization or the worst, not finishing. What's the best thing that could happen? Having the absolute best F**king race of my life!!!

I've done the calculations and think the race of my life would be between 10:05 - 10:15. I'd need a 1:15 swim, a 5:15 bike and a 3:30 run, with lightning fast transitions. I think I have it in me if I maintain my training intensity, lose 7-10lbs and have the courage to risk blowing up to do it.

Off Season - Rest & Recovery

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