Back in the Swing of Things...

I am almost through with my first week of training for “Phase II” of the 2008 season. I just started getting “back in the groove” mentally today. It took me this whole week to transition back into being a professional triathlete. Today I felt really psyched to be training while completing intervals on my long ride. I must say that training was a bit of a shock to the system on Tuesday when I started off with a hard track session. Wednesday was a moderate long ride (3.5 hours) with some big gear work in the hills, followed by a pretty quick run off the bike. Thursday was an interval session in the water, followed by bike intervals. Friday was a short swim followed by core and the remainder of the day was recovery. After “chilling out”, going out on the boat almost every day, eating ice cream almost every day, and having a Corona or a glass of wine here and there (If you know me now, you know I rarely, if ever drink) and completing no more than one work out session per day, you can imagine what a shock it was to get back to work! The “vacation” was the longest and most aggressive break that I have taken in years. I always take 4 weeks of “downtime” at the end of each season, but my downtime in the past, while unstructured, usually included 3+ hour rides on the bike(without a specific workout) and a decent amount of running. My “downtime” in the past was largely the freedom of not having a schedule to adhere to. This time my downtime was “for real”. While I find that many folks who do what I do have a hard time really chilling out (myself included), this time I enjoyed every minute of it!

Of course all good things must come to an end. George is back to work and so am I. I should probably put it in perspective though. My “work” is training hard and taking care of myself the best I can…how lucky am I? Now I can’t say that I am bringing home the big bucks (or even much of the little bucks for that matter), but I guess you can say that I am “rich” in all other aspects of my life, so there is something to be said about that, right?! Hopefully the greater financial rewards will come later…Hey, maybe after I win Ironman Arizona! ;-) OK, maybe not then either, but if you follow what you love, the rest will come…I think. ;-) So, back to today: A four hour ride, split up nicely as I rode the first 1:30 of it with some local cyclists on George’s cycling team (Babylon Bike Shop), then the rest of the ride solo with some intervals mixed in (they felt GREAT, by the way), then a 30 minute run off the bike descending to “fast” for the last mile (fast is a relative term, eh?). Now I am relaxing outside on the chaise lounge resting my body for a moderately long, but fairly difficult run tomorrow (oh and some beach time…guess there is still time if you want it badly enough, and with cooler weather on the horizon I’ll take the beach when I can get it!). Oh and how can I forget?! The Olympics is on and I think my favorite girls are on tonight, Beach Volleyball Super Studs: Kerrie Wash and Misty May-Treanor (photo upper right, because I am in awe of the two of them...), and of course we can’t forget Michael Phelp’s last swim for Gold and Dara Torres's 50 freestyle either. The women's marathon is on tonight too! I’ll be staying in tonight to watch it…it only comes around 4 years, so I try not to miss it.

So, I’m back in the swing of things and it feels good! My downtime is over, but I find experiences like the past 3 weeks are most special when you can reflect back on them and realize how great the time spent was. If it wasn’t over, I wouldn’t be reflecting on how great a time it was! Also, if I didn’t take the break post-Placid, I may not be reflecting on how lucky I am to be living the life of a Professional triathlete right now, and I know for sure that my body and mind wouldn’t be feeling as refreshed and ready to go either! So now I look forward to the next few months of hard training and fast racing!