Journey to Kona Day 205: The Morning After, Again

I woke up this morning trying to immediately decide whether to put in a full day of rest, or whether I had enough energy to get in some time in the pool.  Swimming can be therapeutic if I don't push too hard.  My immediate thought was to rest, but I had already started to do an accounting of how I felt, and I knew that I had already improved with a good night's sleep. I had a phone conference to prepare for and a the conference itself this morning.  That was one of the things that I had been stressing over yesterday, though I was already feeling much less stressed.

I definitely know that I've been straddling a bit of a fine line with my training, and I certainly learned a valuable lesson yesterday.  When you start feeling a little tired, don't throw in a hard 42 minute bike effort, pushing your heart rate up to lactic threshold levels!  Not too smart, though it was fun.  I can hear my coach whispering in my ear.  If I survive this, it was ok.  If I don't, it wasn't.  And, just two days after telling him that my goal was not to do anything stupid with my training in the coming few weeks!  I can only laugh at myself.

I always say that this ironman "thing" is about the journey.  It's a metaphor for life.  My favorite race advice that my coach gives me is that it should feel easy until it starts feeling hard.  If you're effectively pacing yourself, that's about how it goes.  Life is like that too.  Especially for me.  That's how I've always been at work, or with most things I do for that matter.  Though, I have to admit that starting "easy" has never been easy for me.  I remember the first 5K that I did, at the age of 32.  Of course, I went out too fast and felt the bottom drop out half way through the race.  Unfortunately, one doesn't know what their limits are unless you test them.  And, I'm constantly testing, even at the age of sixty.

I guess I understand my grandson even more right now.  He is constantly testing.  He pushes us, he pushes himself. He wants to see what he can get away with.  He wants to see what he can do.  A chip off the old block, I'd have to say!  I've never trained for Kona before, it's my life's dream.  I'm giving it everything that I have.  I'm testing my limits.  As low as I felt yesterday, I'm already feeling better this morning.  A swim feels about right today.  I have a meeting and some driving to do tomorrow, so tomorrow becomes another easy day.  That should set me up for another long bike ride on Saturday, before my wife and I enter a five day stretch of babysitting!  But, I've figure out how to squeeze my long run in during that time.  I guess the morning after is going to be ok.