Training update

I got sick and lost about a week and a half of training. I only started to feel totally normal last week. I'm pretty frustrated about it, but there's nothing I can do but work as hard as I can for the next 3-4 weeks until the race.

The weight currently stands at 123, and I'm hoping to drop a pound or two (or three) before the race. If I can eat healthy and avoid the dreaded Green Tea Frappaccino, I have a shot at it. Every pound lost helps during the race.

The workouts have been great. The schedule is:

Monday: Mountain bike
Tuesday: Swim (on your own), Road Bike (typically with lots of hills followed by a transition run)
Wednesday: Road ride or run on your own
Thursday: Swim (on your own), Run (lots of hills)
Friday: Morning beach run/core
Saturday: Mountain bike ride (on your own) followed by a transition run
Sunday: Run/Swim/Run/Swim

On Tuesday I got a flat on my bike right before I was about to leave to meet the group, so I was really rushed and forgot my bike shoes. I had to do the workout in my sneakers and it didn't go so well. I have SPDs for my pedals, so I was balancing on this tiny little platforms that I would slide off of on bumpy sections. Then because I wasn't clipped in, I had no upstroke power so it felt like I was biking at 3/4 speed. Of course this workout turns out to be the most hills we've ever done on our road bikes, 6 times up and over Daly hill and back (one time up, to the bottom on the other side, turn around and go back up and down to the original starting point counts as one). It's a great workout, I just wish I could do it again with the proper shoes, I feel I didn't give that one it's full justice.

On Monday, the trails were slick from rain, so we did some exploring and tried to stay off the really big hills for our Mountain bike ride. It was fun but after a while I was rather tired of spinning out and losing traction every time I went over a rock or root. Towards the end, I hit a root and went right over the edge of the hill, fortunately I got caught amongst the trees, but one of the guys had to come back and haul me out as I was rather stuck, upside down at that! Not very dignified.

Sunday was another long day (actually, they're all huge workouts now, it seems). We ran for 45 minutes, swam the buoy line (took me about 25"), then ran from one end of the beach to the other and back (about 5 miles), and finished it off with another buoy line swim. My favorite part of that is going by Kalapawai market afterwards and getting an iced Chai Latte then going home and sitting on the balcony with my drink and a good book until DH wakes up. Doesn't get better than that!

Thursday was a baaaad day. It was a run day, and I was actually looking forward to it, thinking I was going to do well. The reality was the complete opposite. Just a few minutes into the run, my stomach started cramping up and kept getting worse. Not longer after, I started wheezing. The frustrating thing about the wheezing is I think it might actually be a physical reaction to mental/emotional issues rather than anything real. When I started to get upset about the stomach and over how much training I've missed from being sick, I teared up a bit, and that's when the wheezing started. It always seems to happen after I've gotten a little emotional. I have GOT to get the mental game under control, this is ridiculous. As it was, we went over to the conning tower hill, which is a long winding hill that goes around and around the hill all the way up to the conning tower at the top. We did repeats on that and then ran home. I'm told I ran about 8 miles. Again, here's another workout I want to try again so I can give it the justice I think it deserves. So frustrating. On a side note, I had a slice of toast with some PB&J on it about a half hour before the run. Perhaps that's why my stomach went into revolt. Next time I need to eat much further out time-wise.