Anticipation

[Day 3]

The first practice of the year in the fall was always a big highlight of the back to school season for me. I tended to take the entire summer off from swimming, unlike some of my teammates who did summer season in the US with club teams, so the first practice of the year for me was typically after a 2 or so month long hiatus from structured training. It was the kind of thing that was both super exciting (I always missed the water) and super intimidating (as it should be when you're totally out of shape). Normally I made a point of keeping up with my swimming over the winter (our biggest meet of the year typically happened in February which meant that there was no time for slacking off or breaks in the winter) so it was a strange experience to find myself taking a break from training this winter break and anticipating the January return. I guess the timing of the triathlon off-season is still foreign to me and that's something that will take some getting used to.

In any case, I've had some nerves about me all break about getting back into the swing of things both in terms of school and training. My biggest worry is always the mental side of things. Just like it takes my body a while to get physically back into shape, it also takes my brain a while to get mentally used to the schedule and workload again. That's always the part I like least, it makes me feel weaker than being physically weak does. But I know it's an inevitable part of the process, so I'm trying not to get too psyched out about it when I'm only a day into the real work.

I also know that getting back into a consistent training schedule is also a lot like endurance racing: The first portion is always unpredictable and largely does not indicate how the latter portions will play out. It's best not to overthink things in the early game because I won't get an accurate sense of the situation until after my body has settled down into a comfortable rhythm and pace anyways. I will probably be reminding myself of that fact a lot over the course of the next few days and weeks.

So for today, I stuck to a very easy and short indoor trainer ride. I'm avoiding the outdoors for now because I haven't ventured out onto the roads in a while so they freak me out a bit and because it's cold. I will...work towards overcoming both of those things in the coming months, but for now, I'll stick to the trainer rides. Here's the summary!

Today's Workout: Base trainer ride, 60 mins
Summary:

• WU: 10 mins easy 
• Pre-set: 5 x :30/:30 spin ups 
• Main Set: threshold intervals of 8/2, 6/2, 4/2, 2/2 @ 90-95 rpm, 1 gear off 70-80 rpm rests
• Drill set: 10 x :45/:15 single leg drill 
• WD: 7 mins easy
• Total: 12.64 mi, 1:00:36, 12.5 mph

Hit Rate: 1/1 (100%) - aw yeah, we're back in business.

Some notes/realizations:

• Jet lag sucks. I woke up at 1:30 am this morning after about 3 hours of sleep, suffice it to say that I feel terrible. The focused parts of the workout felt okay but as soon as I moved into warm down territory I was pretty certain I was going to die. Part of being exhausted for me always involves feeling nauseous, and I'm sure the cardio intensive activity is not helping with that at all. Ew.
• I can't actually watch football while training. I try. I had (still have) the Pats game on but other than vaguely following who had possession and the score (and somewhat watching during rest intervals), I really couldn't actually pay attention to football. Every time I tried, the cadence fell off, so I just focused on riding instead.
• I was actually aiming for 95+ rpm in the main set but my legs feel like they're really not used to turnover. That's something I will have to work on. Maybe some short sprint sets in the next few weeks to try and ease into longer segments at the higher cadence. 90 rpm is fairly comfortable for me but 95 always feels like a push.
• I suck at single leg stuff. I'm okay for like 15-20 seconds and then the top part of my pedal stroke falls apart. I also hate working on it because it's such a struggle but I think I'm going to make a point of putting this set into the end of every trainer workout because it's important that I nail this efficiency thing. As a swimmer, I am a big believer in maximizing efficiency whenever possible, so I just have to buckle down and learn how to pedal properly.

The game is at half time, I was told by Henry that I have to stay awake until the game ends, so I'll probably go take a quick shower and watch the Pats mount a comeback victory to clinch the top seed in the playoffs, then pass out for many hours and make dinner slash lunch for tomorrow at like 2 am when I wake up. xD 

The plan for tomorrow is a pretty standard gym workout followed by a short treadmill run and a small amount of core/mobility work. It'll be a long morning workout, but the only one of the day. I'm a little bit freaked out about getting back in the gym. I always am after I'm out for a while because I'm scared of hurting myself and honestly the gym still intimidates me after all these years. (Don't get me wrong, I love it, it's just scary to move really heavy things around sometimes.) I'm sure it'll be fine once I actually show up though, just gotta get back at it! Yay shower time!

Much love,

Jess