Up, Down and all Around

Wow, training sure can have a lot of ups and downs. I guess it’s like anything in life, some days are great, others, not so much.

For me, this week seemed like it was going to be a great one, coming out of a recovery period, highlighted by a fantastic run on Sunday – I was feeling positive.

Then Monday struck...
Since both Kirsten and I were off work, we headed out on what was supposed to be a 4hr 30min bike. We decided to explore the Shawnigan and Cowichan areas. The ride started great, seeing some new patches of road, climbing some decent hills and even avoiding the rain and hail and getting a little sunshine. However, about 2.5 to 3hrs in, my body decided it was done; both mentally and physically I had hit my limit. I think partially it was poor nutrition, and I also think I was slightly underprepared mentally as I hadn't expected to go for a longer ride that day. Unfortunately I let this get to me. Kirsten was great and kept me going, and I dragged myself the rest of the way home - clocking in around 4:10. I finished that day feeling disappointed and frustrated with myself.

Flash forward to Tuesday morning...
I didn't expect much out of myself (still beating myself up a bit about the previous day's ride), but took on the same "10x 100" workout I did back in February at the start of our last "speed" block in training. I pushed really hard through the whole workout and was pleasantly surprised to find that on average I was about 10 seconds faster per each 100! What a lift it was. It was just the thing to get my brain over a 'bad' workout and back on the positive track.

Mid week was neither super up nor super down...
Tuesday night consisted of a decent short run workout. Wednesday I fought with semi-dead legs on the bike but still felt like I put in a good effort, and then I managed to have a pretty good strength session. Thursday was a rough morning in the pool followed by a pretty great run in the evening. Friday I was treated to another day off. So, some up, and some down.

By Saturday things were looking up again as I set out on a shorter - more intense - bike. It felt really good to go out for this ride, put in a solid effort and finish feeling great.

Sunday had similar "up" results. I ran about 2:20 (a two loop route) at a fairly easy pace. At the start I was feeling a bit strange as I had part of the poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (more specifically the "into the valley of death" part) stuck in my head, which, let me tell you, is not the best thing to be repeating as you set out on a long run. However, this was interspersed with some crazy pop song about being bulletproof (better I would say – at least a little more upbeat). When I finally shook "the valley of the death" part and focused on the "bulletproof" part, things started to look up. I was able to maintain a steady pace throughout and finished off strong with 8x :30 steady state pickups. I won't say I finished feeling spectacular, but I felt pretty darn good all the same.

So, through all the ups and downs, it seems the week has come full circle.