Surreal training...

Lately, it seems I'm in a constant chronic fatigued state. This morning was no different, it was difficult to just wake up, I was dead tired.

I thought today's training was going to be easy, all I had was weight training and a running speed work session. It couldn't have been farther from the truth.

From the moment I got up, I was busy working on my computer. By 1:30 pm I realized I needed to take my bike into "Wheels" for new tires, wheel truing, new brake pads, a tune-up and I wanted them to look at my crank, it was making noise.

Rather than take it in a week before the Ironman, my plan was to take in now and ride it for a few weeks before the race. It gives time to let everything settle. The last thing I want to do is take my bike in a week before "D-day" and find out on the bike course that something wasn't adjusted correctly.

On the way back from the bike shop, I stopped at the YMCA to do weights. It was a mental battle to get out of my truck and get started. I knew if I got dressed and did that first set, I'd finish the workout. Which is exactly what happened.

When I got home, Alyssa told me she wouldn't be able to go to Kona for the Ironman. The same week of the race is her mid-terms exams and she can't miss them. Jamie and Barb can't go either, they couldn't get the flights to work. It turns out, it's only going to be Alice, Reid and myself going to Kona.

What really sucks is Alyssa's birthday and Thanksgiving is on the same week that week are going to be in Hawaii. Alyssa doesn't seem to mind, she says she has lots of studying to do, but it bothers me. I don't like the idea of her being alone on her birthday and Thanksgiving.

After I found out that she couldn't come, I booked our flights and hotels. The good news is the flights were free, I was able to pay for them with air miles. The hotel was a different story, I had no idea where we were going to stay.

I called the Ironman travel agency, I googled condo agencies, I called many properties, I talked to condo owners and wasn't sure what to do. The hotels and condos stretched from the race start to 25 miles away and were more expensive than I had anticipated.

In the end, as luck would have it, I called the cheap hotel we stayed at 23 years ago and they had two rooms left and I booked one of them. The hotel is a two minute walk from race start pier and finish line. It's in the heart of the town and walking distance to all the action AND it's cheap. For 11 days, with all taxes in, it's only costing me $1300.

It took me four hours to find and book flights and hotels. During that time, I ate two large plates of "Sheppard's pie". The worst part of working on something and eating at the same time is you don't know "what and how much you ate".

I must have eaten 5 lbs of "Sheppard's Pie". I ate so much of it I was feeling sick to my stomach. THE LAST THING I WANTED TO DO WAS RUNNING SPEED WORK.

Mentally I was a beaten man. I really didn't want to postpone my running speed work session until tomorrow, that would be my third consecutive running speed work session postponed until a day before my long bike ride. I'm sure doing running speed work the day before my long bike was the cause of my "slow and weak" rides.

A key to the success of my training and consistency is my ability to visualize. I often visualize myself doing a session and feeling good about it, or I visualize how "crappy" I'll feel if I don't do it. Tonight, I had to visualize "how slow and crappy my long bike would be if I postponed my speed run until tomorrow". The pain of having another "shitty" bike ride motivated me to get out the door.

In actual fact, I can't believe I got out the door. It was dark, late and a cool 16 C outside and I just couldn't visualize myself running around a pitch black track for over an hour. As I was driving down my street, I decided to see if the Corpus Christi High School track was open, they have outdoor lighting.

Even as I was driving to the school track I still didn't believe this session was going to happen. I was pleasantly surprised to see the field gates open and the lights on. A football team was doing some night training on the infield. I started my warm-up run and still didn't think this session was going to happen.

Many times during the intervals I thought of just quitting and going home, all I could feel was "Sheppard's Pie" sitting heavy in my stomach and every once in a while I'd "burp" it up. It was a disgusting feeling. Not until the last 4 minutes of intervals did I know I was going to finish, it was a "suck it up" session.

I've been doing these "super run sessions" and they are supposed to be the hardest, today it was back to the track for a speed work session. I find track work harder than the super runs. As much as I wanted to quit during every interval today, I didn't and it wasn't easy. I was most proud that on my last 1 minute interval I ran a 3:18 per km pace (5:20 per mile) and hit a record high 168 bpm heart rate.

I finished up stretching and couldn't believe I did tonight's session. It was surreal. Never in a million years did I think I was going to start, yet alone finish tonight's session. Other than the major endorphin high after the session, I got no joy from it. I still don't believe I did it. It was just a "grind it out" and "pray for it to be over soon session". It was 10:15 pm by the time I got home.

At one point during the run, I realized Kona was not going to be an easy or fast race. Today in Kona it was 84 F. There is no way I'm going to be acclimatized to the hot South Pacific air in 5 days, especially after training in these cooler fall temperatures.

Aside from finishing both training sessions, I had a couple of other positives today. The first was my weight was down to 185 lbs and the second was my "butt cheek" is feeling much better after yesterdays post training hot Epsom salt bath and stretching session.

Weights - 45 minutes

Speed Run - 1:07:01 / 14.59 km / 4:35 per km pace