Ups and downs

A little over two weeks ago, I vowed to be more committed to my training. I started off excellent with a solid week of workout capped off by a 45 mile bike ride (I wanted to post about it, but I was basically comatose the rest of the day!) and a 13 mile long run. The next week started off great and THEN I got sick. I tried to shake it off as mere exhaustion, but eventually the sneezes and stuffy nose prevailed.

From Wednesday on I was walking around with half the energy I usually do. By Friday, I was totally drained. I took the weekend off to recover which means that we missed another weekend of long workouts. By the time I woke up on Tuesday, I had regained energy and focus. It's been a great week of workouts so far, but the weather reports are calling for snow and arctic air on Saturday and Sunday... Really?! I can't catch a break. I just can't stay consistent. I'm planning to go on a run Sunday and just bundle up, but I refuse to ride with icy roads. I may do a long bicycle trainer session, but that will in no way mimic the excruciating ride of two weeks ago.
Last night I had a dream that Ben and I had gone to Florida to race in a half ironman. I woke up on race day an hour late and so did he. We tried desperately to scrounge together some GUs and get to the race cite, but as I looked out at the rough waves for the open water swim, I felt completely underprepared-end of dream. So exactly how I feel right now!
A few years ago, I used to be able to put my own training first. Now I'm just squeezing in workouts and then doing them sub-par. I'm not in control anymore.

I'll do my best over the weekend to get in two long workouts. I know that even that will pay off more than doing nothing. I just wish that I could get on some sort of schedule where training was a focus and not a hassle.

On March 11th, it will be 24 weeks until the ironman. Brian and I have a training plan that starts that day. Before which, we should be able to do 90 minute runs (check), 50 mile bike rides (we struggled through 45 miles, does that count?!), and 3000 m swim (well... Two out of three ain't bad). Hopefully, in the next few weeks, Brian and I can increase our distance on the swim, and get stronger on the bike and run. I will keep trying to be more diligent in my workouts--not just simply getting through, but putting max effort in them. Lastly, I'll try to blog about uplifting and humorous things instead of being Debbie downer all the time. This weekend, since training won't be all that exciting, maybe I'll write about our long ride two weeks ago :)