Check your ego at the door

[Day 4]

Aw yeah getting back in the gym. Feeling super weak, even by my standards (not that I was ever strong to start with). Definitely just sort of gave up on my last real lifting exercise because my arms were failing me and I can only drop weight on myself so many times while my fellow early morning gym-goers look on before I tell myself that it's probably just time to move on with my life. xD Anyways, here's the update:

Today's Workout: Gym + short treadmill run
Summary:

• Back squats: WU 12 @ 65 lbs, 5 x 8 @ 85 lbs
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, 3 x 10/8/6 @ 75 lbs + drop set of 10 @ 55 lbs (last set)
• Deadlifts: 3 x 8 @ 95 lbs
• Pulldowns: alt. wide/narrow grip, 4 x 12 @ 6 plates
• Giant set: 3 rounds, full rest between rounds
• 12 box jumps
• 12 single arm DB shoulder press (seated today because my legs were blown) @ 15 lbs
• 12 single arm DB rows @ 35 lbs
• Incline bench: 1 complete set of 10 at 55 lbs, 1 broken set of 10 because I dropped the bar twice, then I decided to just call that a day.
• Treadmill run: easy 20 minute run (6.0-6.5 speed)
• Treadmill stats: 2.15 mi, 21:20
• Garmin stats: 2.03 mi, 21:08, 10:23 pace
• Core/mobility superset: 3 rounds
• 12/side of cable low to high core pulls @ 2 plates
• 20 bodyweight band squats
• Total Time: ~ 1:45

Hit Rate: 2/2 (100%)

Notes/thoughts:

• My legs were getting wrecked by the squats. They just wanted to keep seizing between sets so I had to stretch a lot. Protecting my back during that lift actually loads my legs a lot more, which I guess is the idea, but it's sad that it makes me functionally weaker. Probably going to up reps before I try to up weight, I want to make sure that I'm lifting right and I won't throw out my back again.
• Deadlifting today was the first time I'd done that since I injured myself way back in May or whenever it was. I went real light, not very many reps or sets, just want to get back into the swing of it and make sure I'm teaching myself how to protect my back through the lift. We'll see how my back feels the rest of the day and tomorrow, but as of right now, it's perfectly normal so hopefully things stay that way.
• I was pretty much ready to go home by the time I was doing pulldowns. Maybe it was because my forearms were feeling really destroyed and that always makes me just grouchy, but I'm amazed I then got through the rest of the workout somehow. There were a couple roadblocks today, including how I felt during the pulldowns and dropping weight on myself during incline bench, and yet somehow I stuck it out and finished which really amazes me. It was like one of the bad long runs, I just kept telling myself to do one more set or to run for one more song and eventually I was at the end. Good job Jess. (:
• Running after lifting sucks. As does lifting after running. Which I guess is why it's important to do both things separately and together. Separately so neither thing gets compromised, together to get better at running on tired legs and maintaining strength even when you're aerobically drained. 
• I'm really not happy with where I'm at in terms of fitness (probably because it's day 2 of real training) but I was very happy with the effort today. I could have probably totally justified doing less and just going home early, but I didn't, and I'm glad I got through it. 

In other news, my sleep schedule is so wonky. I slept from 3 pm to 9:30 pm yesterday, ended up doing some work with emails and then tried to go back to sleep but couldn't because I was hungry, so I got up and made myself noodles and went back to sleep for a few hours at around 12:30 am. I'm really not sure how this day is going to play out but uh...wish me luck...

Food/shower/school time! (:

Much love,
Jess

Back to short course!

The CSP Master's team moved indoors after Labour Day, but I hadn't been back to practice with race taper and all and finally decided to go today and it was FANTASTIC! I really like sprint days. Which makes me feel like distance free is probably not the right thing for me swimming wise, but oh well. I've definitely lost a ton of top end speed during long course time, as a combination of the fact that I mostly went to distance or mid-distance days and long course just tends to make me more of a moderate swimmer than a sprint and try really hard swimmer. So it was good to go and work on getting some of that speed back, even though objectively speaking the sprinting was pretty bad today.

Today's Workout: AM CSP Practice
Summary:

• WU: 500 swim (should have been 600 but I got in a tad late)
• Main Set:
• 8 x 50 @ :50, odds break out, evens break in
• 8 x 25 @ :30, odds fly build, evens back fast turnover b/w flags
• 5 x 100 as 25 mod/50 FAST/25 mod @ 1:45 (I did the first two back)
• 100 free MAX
• 8 x 75 kick w/ fins @ 1:10, 25 fly underwater 2/3 of way FAST/50 choice kick
• 100 swim easy
• 10 x 75 free @ 1:30 in sets of 3
• 1 - ALL MAX
• 2 - 50 MAX/25 easy
• 3 - 25 MAX/25 easy
• 10 = easy
• 200 back easy
• 100 MAX (I swam back)
• WD: 200 easy
• Total Distance: 3650 SCY

Hit Rate: We're gonna put this on pause for a bit. I think what mattered to me was keeping track of this in the lead up to the racing, now that I'm in the midst of racing, it doesn't matter as much. I'll write a recap post about this at some point or I'll just include it in my race recap for Cyman once that happens.

Overall I had a great day, not necessarily because the swimming was great, but because I had an awesome time. It was just one of those days where I felt really blessed to get to do everything I love: learning to become a doctor, swimming/biking/running, generally having the freedom to steer my life in the direction I want it to go, it's all pretty fantastic. And the fact that Hap's practices are fun and he's a really motivating and focused coach helps a lot too. 

I also commuted out on my bike for the first time! It's about 30 minutes out and 30 minutes back, which isn't too bad. I figure this will force me to work on my biking, even though it is a very relaxed ride. And being out on the roads more definitely can't hurt my bike fitness! All in all, good way to start the day. Skipping classes this morning because I have an awkwardly timed physio appointment - gonna get that back checked out and hopefully get some advice about how to progress with strength training and rehab/prehab so this doesn't happen again ever. Three times is enough. Yay!

Much love,

Jess

Back injury update, start of taper!

So after my redemption brick, my back injury got way worse and I ended up spending a week doing very minimal training and just trying to rest it off. The only workout I got in that week was a short trainer ride that back pain cut short. I got back on the train the week after though, despite continuing back pain, because I figured if it wasn't getting better or getting worse, I had nothing to lose by just trying to tough it out until the races. I also saw a doctor during that time period, who put me on some NSAIDs and referred me to PT, although my appointment isn't until next week so that's not looking to be helpful for a while.

The combination of getting back in the pool and NSAIDs seems to have helped and the back pain seems to be easing up day by day. What's important is that I can swim and bike and run on it fairly unencumbered for now and that's all I need to be able to race this weekend and next. I would give you the full rundown of workouts from the last week, but my med school life is mildly insane and I don't really have the time for all the details, so the vague outline sketch will have to do.

8/31 Monday: AM CSP practice, distance free day, 3200 LCM, I fell off during the middle of the main set mostly because of back pain, but I did what I could. 51/55 (92.7%)

9/1 Tuesday: AM CSP practice, mid-distance free day, 3500 LCM, back starting to get slightly better (really sore when I wake up, eases up as the day goes on). 52/56 (92.8%)

9/1 Tuesday: PM short easy run, 4.28 mi, 39:24, 9:12 pace, way better than I thought it was gonna go. Could definitely feel the loose back, but I focused on form and it was never really pain so things were good. 53/57 (92.9%)

9/2 Wednesday: PM tri team swim practice, 3600 SCY, sort of a hot mess because it was fairly disorganized but I got what I needed to do done. I was also planning on taking a ride but decided against it because I needed to put time towards school work, which is the priority. I counted that as a missed session. 54/59 (91.5%)

9/3 Thursday: PM easy ride, 3 laps of Forest Park w/ friends, 2 easy, 1 fast, 18.99 mi, 1:22:36, 13.8 mph. 55/60 (91.6%)

9/4 Friday: AM CSP practice, IM day, 3600 LCM, some back pain off during the short axis strokes but things were generally improving. 56/61 (91.8%)

9/4 Friday: PM base run, this was really bad and it turns out I had a bit of an illness that day (combination of dehydration, slight fever, heat, stomach pain). I ended up having to walk a significant portion of it and the pace was real slow. I did technically finish the intended distance, but I felt pretty low about it and it really knocked my confidence when it came to pushing through pain. 6.66 mi (on 7 mile route around Forest Park), 1:07:22/1:14:32, 10:07 pace. 57/62 (91.9%)

9/5 Saturday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 4.5 mile run, restored a little bit of my faith in myself after Friday's terrible run. 58/63 (92%)

9/6 Sunday: OFF - Had been a planned workout day, but I needed to focus on school so I opted out. Hilariously enough, Henry and I ended up doing that timed 100 push up challenge again (I did really poorly compared to last time, so we're not going to talk about it) and I did some core work afterwards (fueled by my discontent about the push ups). I'm not counting that as a real workout, although in hindsight, it was pretty real...58/64 (90.6%)

9/7 Monday: AM tempo ride brick, Midland-Ashby route and 6 mile run, taking advantage of Labor Day and making sure I can go the distance on the run. 59/65 (90.7%)

The next few days will be taper followed by a race this coming Saturday (Club Nationals - sprint distance), lots of recovery, and another race the next Sunday (Cyman Triathlon - Olympic distance). I'll try and be better about these updates, but honestly, med school is pretty real so we'll see. At the very least I'll do reflections on the race weekends. Forgive me! I'm doing my best. (:

Much love,

Jess

Sleepless nights, getting angry, conviction, redemption

I guess I left off on Wednesday, with a back injury and some amount of frustration. I ended up spending some amount of time just playing around on the trainer that evening once I had my new pedals on, just clipping in and clipping out. It was really hard at first because the springs were really tight but I started to get the hang of it.

The next day was flat out awful. I woke up around 1:30 in the morning and tossed and turned in bed for about an hour and a half before I decided it was futile to try to get back to sleep so I got up and dealt with some errands. I went to swim practice, which was my first sprint day practice with CSP, and on one hand really didn't work that hard and on the other hand really really enjoyed it. Sprinting is more my speed in the pool, and we also did a lot of kick work and work with fins, which I appreciated. It was a freezing cold day though, which was sort of rough in that every time my arms cleared the surface they froze and every time we stopped to get instructions my face froze. (It was like 55F...the pool was much warmer.) My lane also apparently had a hard time listening to instructions because we definitely messed some stuff up. But oh well, it was a solid swim anyways.

Thursday's AM Workout: CSP practice, sprint day
Summary:

• WU:
• 1000 SKIPS (IM drill)
• 2 x 50 free DPS @ :55 (was written as 4 x 50)
• Main Set:
• 2 x (6 x 50 free) @ :55
• 1: easy
• 2-3: build
• 4-6: hard
• It was supposed to just be 6, 1 easy, 2 build, 3 hard, repeat. But we misunderstood the directions.
• MAX kick w/ fins @ 1:00 base (we actually ended up doing a mix of :45-1:00 base intervals…)
• 150 @ 2:30
• 2 x 100 @ 1:45
• 3 x 50 @ 1:00
• 3 x 100 free pull FAST (no paddles) @ 1:50 (idk if we really made these), focus on fastest possible turnover (I went RB5 on these)
• 6 x 100 free swim w/ fins MAX @ 2:00 (these weren't really max, I had a hard time sprinting with fins on…it was weird)
• WD: 6 x 50 alt. back/free by 50 @ :55 (lol this was too aggressive, some were on 1:00)
• Total Distance: 3400 LCM

Hit rate: 47/50 (94%)

It was a rough day simply because it was sort of endless (and started obscenely early). I pretty much had no spare seconds in the day. Right after I got home from school, I hopped on the trainer and did a big gear strength ride. 

Thursday's PM Workout: Trainer ride, strength work (big gears)

Summary: 

• WU: 8 mins easy, 2 mins @ base of a hill
• Main Set: 
• 5 x 8 mins threshold effort 60 rpm big gear, 2 mins easy spinning recovery
• 5 x 40 secs MAX/20 secs easy, big gear sprint pick ups (stay at threshold gear or drop by 1)
• WD: 5 mins base of a hill, 5 mins easy
• Total Time: 75 mins
• Note: Was originally written as 8 x MAX/easy efforts but I was dying and also running low on time (busiest day ever!) The threshold efforts were actually really hard, just hurt the whole way, so I'm really amazed that I made them all at the specified intensity. Just gotta believe.
• Summary: 18.43 mi, 1:15:37, 14.6 mph.
• Splits: 14.1, 15.3, 15.2, 13.7

Hit rate: 48/51 (94.1%)

The entire set hurt but I got through it and was really proud of the effort. I pretty much immediately showered and went to an evening info session and training session for some stuff at school, so the busy day continued. I actually spent the entire day from lunch onwards just being angry. I got angry at the littlest things but I almost encouraged myself to be angry because the anger kept me awake and focused and hungry to tear shit up and get shit done. So despite the exhaustion and how hectic the day was, I managed to do everything I had to do. It was really emotionally and physically wearing, but it got done. I'm not sure this is how I want all of my days go (because this is probably not a healthy way to tackle life), but if I have to get through one of these days every once in a while in order to stay on track, I will take it. 

The next morning was real rough. I went to bed feeling real rough and woke up exhausted and unmotivated and pretty physically wrecked. I was going to do an interval workout for running but decided to just take a base run instead. It was funny because I kept planning on going easy but at the beginning and at the end there were other women in my vicinity and I always wanted to get in front of them and drop them so there were some pushes during the run. I guess you can't curb the competitiveness even when you're cranky and exhausted.

Friday's Workout: AM base run

Summary: 7.05 mi, 1:05:32, 9:18 pace.

Pace splits by mile: 9:38, 9:03, 9:07, 9:31, 9:11, 9:35, 9:04, 7:43.

Hit rate: 49/52 (94.2%)

The weather was nice and cool and it was overcast which made for a great day. I would have really loved to take better advantage of that kind of weather and actually cranked out some speed or something, but I'll take just getting through what I had to do.

Friday afternoon through Saturday evening were all spent at the Diversity Retreat. Not too much happened by way of things that could count as actually physical or active, but it also wasn't an inactive day, so I was satisfied with that much. My back was giving me a lot of trouble on Saturday though because of all the standing, which was pretty rough. I was planning on taking a short ride with some friends on Saturday night, just to practice clipping in and out and what not, but the rain spoiled our plans. I was sort of upset about taking an unplanned day off and really upset about being busy and having no time to do the things I wanted to do and that really threw me off. There was a bit of an emotional evening, a lot of being angry and frustrated and sad. But bad days are a part of everything right? Just gotta push through.

Saturday: Day off, missed a planned ride.

Hit rate: 49/53 (92.4%)

Despite how rough things have been recently though, I feel like I've found a whole new sense of conviction for what I'm doing. Not just in terms of training, but also in terms of school and life in general. I want to take good care of myself, I believe that's important, I really value that, so I want to put effort into things like planning and keeping my home clean and making sure I'm eating well. I am so invested in what I'm learning in school, in the future I'm working towards, and I don't need it to be easier, I'm willing to fight through this and be the best that I can be. The same goes for the training. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and everyone would be successful. For the first time in a long time I feel like I really understand why I'm here and I'm really honestly in love with everything I'm doing and I'm willing to throw myself whole-heartedly into these things even if they lead to difficult days that leave me tired and cranky. I have an honest belief that what I'm pushing through is valuable. It's nice to feel fulfilled by all of this work finally, instead of feeling like I had my hands tied all the time and just had to do things because I was expected to do things. 

This morning, I woke up and took the longest brick I've ever taken in my life. It actually felt much better than I was expecting it to. I think a key contributor to that was the fact that I took two Shot Bloks beforehand, had Gatorade Endurance in one of my water bottles, and took a Clif Shot about 1:15 into the ride. I've never taken a gel mid-workout before, but I swear this one saved me. I'm probably going to need to buy more fuel to use on these longer rides/runs. 

Today's Workout: Long ride brick

Summary:

• Bike summary: 29.43 mi, 1:50:17, 16.0 mph.
• Bike splits: 15.1, 16.2, 16.5, 15.8, 16.3, 16.2
• Transition: 2:24.3
• Run summary: 5.14 mi, 47:58, 9:20 pace.
• Run splits: 9:01, 9:40, 9:39, 9:16, 9:09, 8:46

Hit rate: 50/54 (92.5%)

I went the Clayton-N Geyer-W Adams-N Ballas route today, which was longer and had more elevation gain overall than the Midland-Ashby route. I also ran a little further than I usually do and I took my out and back on the slightly hillier side of the park to try and get my legs acclimated to hill work post-ride. All in all my body took it way better than I thought I would. The bike started off feeling pretty rough but I held on surprisingly well. I think the bike shoes definitely do help, especially on the climbs (which I am still steadily improving at!). I'm still worried about the big climbs during Club Nationals but I figure I can drop down into my smaller front ring and just grind slowly slowly if I have to. 

For next week's big Sunday brick, I'm either going to take a 24-mile or 30-mile ride and try to follow it up with a full lap of Forest Park. I don't care so much about time or speed, I just want to know I can get that full run in coming off the bike. One big long confidence booster before I have to pull things back and get ready to race. Gotta do the rest of my crazy life now, will hopefully be back with better frequency in this upcoming week than I've managed to do this past week.

Much love,

Jess

Dropped off the radar

I evidently dropped off the radar for a bit there...It was a mix of things. I'm a little squeamish about blogging when Henry's around because I don't really want to show him how neurotic I am (even though he totally already knows) and then we started our first week of classes and life got sort of busy so I just let myself go. I'm supposed to be on a trainer ride or a long run right now but instead I'm sitting here writing this because I hurt my back again at the gym this morning. It was just one bad set of front squats (set 4) and bam. And the worst part is, I only did about half the workout because I didn't want to aggravate my back any more and yet it's been really hurting all day. It hurts when I stand, it hurts when I walk, it hurts when I sit, I pretty much can't do anything. It doesn't hurt so badly that I feel like I couldn't get through a run if I tried, but I'm worried about making it worse so I'm taking it easy. Let me do all the updates on the missed workouts (mostly without context because I've forgotten the majority of the context by now) and then I can do the update on where I'm at right now.

Thursday: Day off

Friday's Workout: Base run
Summary: 7.00 mi, 1:04:04, 9:09 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:43, 9:20, 9:11, 9:02, 8:55, 9:00, 8:53.
Hit rate: 40/43 (93.0%)

This run was solid. I had been having a shit morning (had a shit night prior to it) and I felt awful and discouraged and yet the run was pretty good so I finished feeling somewhat better about everything. The cool weather and overcast skies helped.

Saturday's Workout: Trainer brick
Summary:

• Bike set: 
  • WU: 8 mins easy, 2 mins base of a hill
  • Pick ups: 
  • 8 x 40 on/20 off, base/base/1/1/2/2/1/1 
  • 2 mins easy recovery
  • Main set:
  • 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1 (+2 90-100 rpm/easy; I actually split the 4 min interval at half +2, half +1)
  • Climbs (16): 2 x 
  • 1 seated, 1 seated + 10 rpm, 1 seated, 1 easy
  • 1 seated, 1 standing, 1 seated, 1 easy
  • I may have screwed up the gears on this and done the first one a gear too low.
  • WD: 12 mins transition spin
• Bike summary: 18.82 mi, 1:20:06, 14.1 mph.
• Bike splits: 13.8, 14.6, 14.5, 13.4
• Transition: 0:58.5
• Run summary: 4.05 mi, 37:02, 9:09 pace. (Henry ran with me!)
• Run splits: 9:23, 9:26, 9:04, 8:46, 7:58

Hit rate: 41/44 (93.1%)

This workout was unbelievably on point. The bike set was rough but the run felt so solid. Part of it was having Henry next to me but part of it was just going for it and not worrying about a possible crash. I felt strong so I attacked the run and it worked so great for me. If I can start off my 10k run in the race like this I will be so satisfied.

Sunday's Workout: Base run

Summary: 7.01 mi, 1:07:36, 9:38 pace.

Pace splits by mile: 9:49, 9:50, 9:36, 9:46, 9:17, 9:33, 9:32, 10:08

Hit rate: 42/45 (93.3%)

I want it to be noted that it was a 90 degree day and it was sunny. There was a time not so long ago when this exact same run in the same weather took me 5 minutes longer to do. There were a combination of things at play, not the least of which I imagine is just less fatigue because I had been working out less intensely that prior week, but I'm definitely acclimating to the heat and that's progress I will take. Also honestly the run started off feeling real poor, it took my limbs a while to get the hang of things but once they were going they were solid so I was really happy with the pick up as time went on in the run.

Monday's AM Workout: CSP Practice, distance free day

Summary:

• WU: 500 swim
• Pre-set:
• 200-150-100-50 kick w/ fins @ 1:55 base
• 10 x 50, 1-4 @ :55, 5-7 @ :50, 8-9 @ :45, 10 FAST (made the first 7…)
• Main set: As per usual I'm not really sure what the pace time situation was because my lane was slower…
• 400 fr @ 6:45
• 2 x 150 @ 2:20
• 400 free @ 6:30 (??)
• 3 x 100 free @ 1:35 (??)
• 400 free @ ??
• 6 x 50 free @ :50
• WD: 2 x
• {100 choice
• 2 x 50 choice}
• I did a mix of pull w/ paddles (free) and swim (free and back)
• Total Distance: 4000 LCM

Hit rate: 43/46 (93.4%)

This swim was brutal. I think I had gone to bed a little hungry so I woke up epically underfueled and the set was long and faster than I could do and it was really all I had just to finish out every set and not skip any lengths. I did it though so I'm really proud. The only upshot was that I met a cool girl who seemed about my age who is faster than me and led my lane. We were also the only two in our lane so it was nice and spacious. And she was gracious enough to wait for me when I wasn't making pace times which was unnecessary but really sweet of her. I appreciated it. I was proud to have just finished that day to be honest. 

The plan had been to take a trainer ride in the afternoon, but Hoang invited me on an evening group ride with him so I did that instead. Maya also came along and she was on a hybrid and new to group rides so we ended up cutting the ride short because she was struggling towards the end. It was a lot of fun though and I had a great time and I'm really glad I chose to do that instead of my serious workout. Sometimes it's nice just to go out and do something and enjoy yourself and not worry too much about achievement/goals/whatever. I mean don't get me wrong, I love being an achievement/goals oriented person and I do think I'm really different from some of my friends in that I really love the pain of a good hard workout and I really chase after that day to day, but I think it's good to throw some chill balance of just hang out and have fun in there too. It helps curve the neuroticism slightly, which is probably good for me. 

Monday's PM Workout: Group ride with South Side Cyclery (we went through downtown and it was sooooooo beautiful and so nice!)

Summary: 20.21, 1:34:56, 12.8  mph.

Pace splits by mile: 12.2, 13.9, 17.4, 10.6, 10.0

Hit rate: 44/47 (93.6)

Tuesday's Workout: Rec swim (w/ Victoria)

Summary:

• WU: 200 free, 200 kick, 200 IM 
• Prep set: 
• 3 x 75 descend @ 1:10
• 3 x 50 descend @ :50
• 3 x 25 descend @ :30
• 50 kick no board easy
• Main Set:
• 6 x (75 FAST @ 1:00, 25 easy @ :30) best average
• 100 easy alt. kick/swim by 25
• 6 x (50 FAST @ :40, 25 easy @ :30) best average
• 100 easy alt. kick/swim by 25
• 6 x (25 FAST @ :20, 25 easy @ :30) best average
• 100 easy alt. kick/swim by 25
• IM Set:
• 3 x 200 IM @ 3:15 
• 6 x 75 stroke/free/stroke by 25 rotate strokes IMO @ 1:20 (probs should've tried to go for 1:15...)
• WD: 200 choice easy
• Total: 4000 SCY, ~1:15

Hit rate: 45/48 (93.7%)

Because of the late night on Monday (I got home late and then I stayed up late just sort of having an honest heart to heart with Henry about fun and achievement and whatnot), I decided not to go to CSP practice in the morning and slept in. Instead I hit up the Wash U pool for the first time with Victoria in tow. She's a great swimmer, would kick my butt if she were in shape but as it stands is a little slower than I am right now. I would have totally dropped the IM set if she weren't there to say that we should keep going, so I'm glad I had her to push me to finish it out. It was nice to be back in short course (although going back to CSP now is probably going to feel newly brutal again) and although I'm a tad slower than I'd like to be, I also realize that I haven't been swimming enough to be able to reasonably expect to be faster. I'll keep working at it. Also, Victoria has these beautiful turns/underwaters that really forced me to at least try to kick underwater off my walls. Positive peer pressure, it's good stuff.

Today's Workout: AM Lift

Summary: 

• Front squats: WU 10 @ 45, 10 @ 65, 2 x 8/7 @ 85. Then I tweaked my back and decided not to keep going.
• DB flat bench: WU 12 @ 25/side, 2 x 6-8 @ 30/side, 1 x 8 @ 25/side (honestly I did sort of quit on the last set and I really shouldn't have...)
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 (sets 2-4 splits 8-4) @ 6. 
• Walking lunges: 1 set of 12/side @ sb+20 before I couldn't even get the bar off the ground because of back pain...

Hit rate: 46/49 (93.8%)

Honestly I was not happy with this morning's lift at all. Part of it was that I aggravated my back, but worse than that was that my head really wasn't in the game and I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be and it just wasn't fun or enjoyable to be there. And now my back hurts again and I don't know how the rest of my workouts this week are going to go or if they're even going to happen. This afternoon's workout is definitely already something I'm going to have to pass on. We'll try again with CSP practice tomorrow I guess. Since the changes to my schedule are now in consideration of an injury, I'm not going to count any "missed" workouts against my hit rate because the best thing I can do for myself right now is to rest and recovery properly.

As for where I'm at right now, I think I'm going to forego taking an entire day off this week, unless it is Saturday because Saturday is a busy day (coming back from the retreat late, might not have time to get a real workout in and I don't want that to add extra unnecessary stress to my life). At the very least I'll try to swim tomorrow and Friday. If I can, I will try to take a long run tomorrow afternoon as well, but we'll see what the status of my back is. If it still hurts when I walk, putting 10+ miles on it will probably be a bad idea...In the meantime I think I do have to make an effort to stretch and do mobility/core work because my back will never fully heal without it. I also think I should stay out of the gym until after all my races (triathlons in September through to half marathons in October/November) and just focus on letting my back heal completely before I try to get back into strength work. No sense in just repeating this cycle over and over again, I'm only asking for trouble this way. Maybe I'll do strength work mainly with bodyweight or something. In any case, I'll reassess in the winter and decide where to go from there with this whole back issue. 

I did end up going out and buying real cycling shoes today though after I was encouraged by many people to do so. I'm going to head over to Hoang's and have him put my pedals in right now. Hopefully I'll be able to make it back home okay with the new pedals...I'm really scared about not having adequate clip-in/clip-out experience. Wish me luck!

Much love,

Jess