First Week Back

So my official first week back has felt pretty good overall. I wonder now if I should have given myself the full 10 days recovery before I started back up and if that would have prevented me from getting sick, but since I was feeling poorly after just a short swim, I doubt it.

The nice thing about this first week is that it has been mentally manageable, and nothing that ached or hurt or seemed too tough. I need some of that while I build back up. I can conclusively say that my body came off of the 1/2 marathon in great working condition and without any noticeable injuries. For me, that is a huge accomplishment. It's actually more important to me to have remained healthy while training for a challenge than it is to complete the challenge. I KNOW I can finish something - no one can stop my bull-headedness, but can I be Smart? That's a little tougher. I can officially call the 1/2 a success and move on.

Tri for the Cure is my next focus. It's a 400m pool swim, 8 mile bike, and 2.25 mile run - which finishes at the track of Chandler High School, which is pretty interesting. My goal is to push hard on this one - and get in 1:20 or under. (10, 40, 30)

I signed up on Friday, so now I am officially in. I think the swim will be pretty easy - if only because it's 1 by 1, and it's in a pool. It will be the easiest swim of my season, I can say that. I'd really like to work on my speed for the bike a little. I don't think I'm going to be passing a lot of speed racers, especially on my mountain bike, but I would like to get the bike done in under 40 minutes. I think it's possible. Hopefully my new stationary sprint/stand up work will assist with this. The run is the run. I will continue to get outside once a week to run, and hopefully that makes the difference in my race comfort level.

The hardest thing is going to be maintaining my consistency because I see some heavy travel in my future. I need to be able to get some work done wherever I am, as long as it is smart work (like no running with only 4 hours of sleep) and not at the detriment of my health (I'm talking about you swollen legs and feet from flying).

And since I'm home today, I'm going to go run three easy loops of the Bike Park. Happy Weekend!