SwimBikeRunDog: It's Always The Little Things That Get You In Trouble

...like not drinking enough water. Dehydration sucks, by the way.

So yeah, yesterday I had a 15 mile run. I felt fine for the first half, but once I hit the 7.5 mile mark and turned around, I started feeling really thirsty really quickly. I was going through my water bottles much faster than I had anticipated. (I have a FuelBelt that allows me to carry four small water bottles with me on long runs.) I quickly realized that I had to start rationing my water consumption because I could very easily have finished drinking everything I brought and left myself without fluids for the last five miles or more. So instead I played this fun game of "you can have another sip when you run another mile." "Run" at this point became a fairly generous term, as to cope with the dryness I slowed down significantly and did lots of walking. Then it hits me! I forgot to drink any water in the morning before going out for the run. I don't know how I did this, but I did. I had my usual glass of OJ upon waking, had my usual espresso with breakfast (two eggs scrambled plus a quarter of a honeydew melon), but didn't have any water. Usually after my OJ I fill up a water bottle and drink it over the course of the next hour or so, including with my breakfast, but for whatever reason I just left that step out of my morning yesterday. And I paid for it. What should have taken 2.5 hrs took me almost 3. It was a rough morning. Fortunately I had an extra water bottle in the car when I finished, and I jumped in the (COLD!) creek to cool down. In the end I was fine... the workout was just a little harder than it should have been. At least I'll remember not to make THAT mistake again!

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW:

When I posted last week that I was "paying the price" for the previous weekend, I had no idea how true that statement was. I was so dead that I took three straight days completely off from training - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I was getting a full night sleep, waking up at my usual 7am, eating breakfast, and falling back asleep from 9am until noon. I spent the afternoons in an exhausted haze, watched a few movies, took another nap, and then passed out again after dinner. Apparently I needed the time off! By Sunday I was feeling better, and even went on a short run. Total weekly hours was a paltry (but necessary) 4:17. The recovery week achieved its desired effect, and I have been able to resume my large training load this week. (Five and a half hours already in two days!)

As I write this, I am 25 days from race day - less than four weeks. Hard to believe I have already been out here for over a month! One of the benefits of taking time off last week is that it gave me the opportunity to fully plan out the rest of my training between now and race day. This week is a hard week, pushing my endurance distances in all sports. Saturday I have another race, this time an off-road triathlon (on my mountain bike) which should be lots of fun. Next week is even harder, and I will be going a little bit longer in my long workouts. Two weeks from the race will be a highly focused race-intensity week. My long workouts will be race distance (56 mile bike, 13 mile run) and I will be trying to do them at or above the speed I hope to race with. Finally, the week of the race will be tapering and recovering from the previous three weeks, including driving to Seattle and doing a few short workouts on the race course before the big day. And then, just like that, it's time to race!

On another note, I've finally gotten around to taking some pictures of the house/my room. Enjoy!

This is the view from our front porch. The picture doesn't quite do the sunset justice. It was magnificent!

Yesterday morning. Dixie, still asleep. Too cute to pass up.

Nollie, my roommate's dog, and Dixie have become fast friends.

The view from our back yard. Specifically, the view from my hammock. I love to sit out there in the evenings and watch the waning sunlight on the hillside.

Aforementioned hammock, along with the hot tub and my wetsuit.

My room, with the (absurdly loud) plaid bedspread. Motivational posters on the wall are Muhammad Ali ("Champions are made from something deep inside them, a desire, a dream a vision..."), Steve Prefontaine ("To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift") and Lance Armstrong ("People want to know what I'm on. I'm on my bike six hours a day. What are you on?").