Back at It

I had every intention of getting back on my training yesterday, however, upon getting out of bed I could not put my feet on the floor.  This, obviously, was not conducive to going to work, much less tack on a workout of some sort.  As the day went on and I tried to figure out what the hell I did, I realized that the walk through the sand to the start and the run through the sand to the transition shredded the stabilizer muscles in a foot that is already having problems.  Work was ok, not great, on the foot, hobbled most of the shift, but by the end of it actually felt halfway decent.  The biggest improvement, however, was this morning when I climbed out of bed and felt a little pull, but nothing terrible.  This is very very reassuring to me, and I am going to take a few steps forward in my training.  I am going to head out for a long bike today, and then I am going to come home and sign up for HalfIron Pocono.

I am bubbling over, and driving anyone who will listen absolutely crazy with repetitive stories from the race and from my training.  It all seems very possible now with one behind me, and I am hooked.  I want more.  I will listen to my body first and foremost, and ensure that I can stay healthy and do this, but this seems like a challenge that I can meet.

In the meantime, I have a couple Half training plans that I am going over and tweaking to fit this crazy lifestyle of mine.  With my feet, until I get them under better control, I am only going to be able to run once a week, which makes building up mileage a little tough, but not impossible.  The bike is my weak point and the place where I have the most room to improve.  I ran 10 minute miles on Sunday, not great, but for the end of the race I was very happy with that.  I don't expect to be much faster than that.  The swim, there is only so much room for improvement there.  To be honest, once I got past the anxiety portion of the swim, it was really fun, almost meditative, and I felt so damn good coming out of the water.  As long as I keep feeling that way, I'm happy with the swim.

So the bike it is, thats where I am going to put my focus while I am training for this thing.  Between morning bikes before work and hitting the trainer after work if needed, I want to pick my cadence up and start learning how to push on the bike.  The two plans I am looking at are based on 9 workouts a week, 3 swim, 3 bike, 3 run.  I already know that I can't run three times a week, so it will be cut back to 7 workouts a week, except that I think I will add a bike in when I can to make it 8.  All in all, I think this is pretty reasonable, and very doable.  We'll see whether my body agrees or not :)  For now, I'm having a blast!