What a Difference a Cold (and Two Weeks) Makes

When I last posted, I think I can honestly say I was feeling at the peak of early training performance. I had just knocked off consecutive back to back workout days, accomplishing full training bikes and swims, and I felt as if I was 18 years old.

This is not the case now. After a quick three-day trip to the UK, which gave me not only a sore ankle (I stepped off of a curb walking back to my hotel), but a head-cold, I have had a heck of a time getting back into the groove. The first week back, I did accomplish all of my midweek workouts, but right as I was to hit the weekend longer workouts my cold hit full stride. Having already experienced in preparation for previous races the negative effects of working out during a cold, and thanks to the kindness of the Lovely Wife, I spent longer than normal nights in bed nursing my symptoms. While I felt a bit better on Monday (yesterday), all that time on my back left me with a tweak that is more than just a bit of a nuisance. Not to mention that in both my first bike workout since and my first pool workout since (yesterday and today, respectively), I have had to avoid the high intensity workouts that were meant to being this week. Rather than push myself in the first week of what is the "build" phase of the training program, I simply endured through by slogging out the 1:30 on the bike and the 2000 yards on the swim. I shudder to think how slow I was, but it is what it is and I hope to live to see another day.

Isn't it amazing how cyclical you start to feel as you get older? For those of you who know me, you know that I am fanatical about the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Their 37 year old catcher, Mike Redmond, tweaked his groin in the team's opener yesterday and lamented the fact, admitting: 1) that he couldn't remember his last muscle pull, and 2) that, as of last night, he couldn't imagine this one healing very fast. I feel the same way about my back at the moment. While the chiropractor, who I am grateful to for seeing me yesterday, says there is nothing to be concerned about with my back soreness, it certainly doesn't help that every stroke, whether on the pedal or in the pool is accompanied by a persistent jabbing sensation just above my right buttocks. It can only serve to distract and, when the workouts are measured in hours, not minutes, it is a form of Chinese water torture.

But I'll make it. In fact, I confirmed another event on my schedule this weekend -- I am now signed up to do a half-ironman, run and all(!), on September 13 in my hometown of Stillwater, MN. I haven't done a tri in Minnesota in five years and, if it means I can see my parents (and wife and kids -- the Lovely Wife says she might do the mid-distance race the day before) when finishing, it will all be worth it.

So, I'll persist. I just have to get to the weekend where a 3000 yard swim and 3:30 bike ride await me - if I can finish those, and I'd damned well better, the struggles of the last ten days or so will be behind me and the weeks ahead will fall like dominoes. That's the difference a week can make.