The Kissing Hand

Last night was "Back to School Night" for my 2nd grade daughter.  My wife and I went and listened to her very pregnant teacher tell us about how the classroom is run and what we should expect from our respective children.  At the end of the session she read us all a story that she had read to the students earlier that day, "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn.  After reading the story she had us look into our child's desk and there we found a cut out paper hand that each child had made for their parents.  We were then asked to do that same for them as a surprise for when they got to class today. 

Why this long winded explanation about my daughters Back to School Night that apparently has nothing to do with triathlon and training?  This may take a few sentences to explain so just hold on.  The book is about the fears that most children have before beginning school.  As a way to alleviate some of those fears, the mother raccoon kisses the little raccoon's hand as a way of giving the little guys a sense of security when she isn't around.  Then by putting the hand that his mother had kissed up to his cheek, he will know that she is there with him and he need not be scared (at least that is how I remember it).  Here is where I draw the connection.....so keep reading.

While training for Ironman Arizona I have pretty much spent every training session alone, whether it be in a pool at 5:15AM, on the road biking for 4 hours or running solo for 1.5 hours.  There have been many times that I have thought to myself, "Why am I doing this?  I should have never signed up to this race."  I fear the race, I fear not finishing, I fear failure.  I always manage to talk myself down from the ledge and keep my arms and legs moving.  I guess where I am going with this is that maybe I need to be able to put a hand to my face that has been kissed by my wife and daughters to remind me that they are always with me and supporting me.  Whether it is out training or racing, we all need a little help, emotional assistance to get us through the tough times where our minds tell us it is easier to just quit.  I just hope my girls don't think it is gross that I am going to ask them to kiss my hand tonight, better make sure I wash it, eh?

Now for my training....

Thursday
I was up at 4:25AM, ugh I am starting to hate that time of the morning, and in the water swimming at 5:20AM.  Would have been in sooner had my body wash bottle not opened up and saturated my swim suit and goggles with soap.  After that minor inconvenience I started my swim, a straight 3,000yd, no rest, not sets, just keep moving until I was done.  The first couple 200s were slow, but then I refocused, concentrated on my body position and stoke and was able to pick up the pace a bit.  All in all it took me 57:15 (1:54/100yd), not as fast as I would have liked but it will do.  I would say that the last 1,000yd was fastest part of my swim, averaging around 1:45/100yd.

I wasn't able to fit in my bike ride at lunch so I just worked, worked, worked though it.  After work I wasn't able to ride right away either because of Back to School Night.  Oh, I did get to talk to one of my daughters friends father, he did IM Florida back in 2006 (10:33:00).  I could have hung out with him for hours talking about triathlon stuff.  He is a sick triathlete, any advice I can get from him is much needed.

Finally at 8:40PM, and after half a meatball parm sandwich, I was able to get on my bike and get my 75 minute ride in on the trainer.  I watched the IM St. George race, wow that is a tough and lonely course, beautiful but it looked very desolate.  Depending on how IMAZ goes, that might be one that I would like to do in 2012.  I finished up the night watching the new episode of "Jersey Shore" with my wife, yes, I know it is sad, but I do love the show.

Today
I slept in until 5:20AM, yes, that is now sleeping in for me.  Since we have an early dismissal from work, I wasn't going to get into the office at 7:00AM like I normally do.  It was my last swim in my gyms outdoor salt water pool.  I am going to miss swimming out there, it is such a nice change from the stuffy, warm pool that I normally swim in.

3,000yd - 500yd wu, 4 x 100 drills, 4 x 200 @:20sec, 6 x 100 @:15sec, 4 x 50 drills, 300cd

It was a good swim and I managed to do negative splits for all of the 200 and 100 sets.

Instead of my planned 75 minute run this afternoon, I ended up doing a 58 minute run with my buddy Chris, which turned out to be quite the workout.  I felt awesome for the first mile, then everything kind of went downhill, which I suspect was the result of the following:

• Nutrition - I rode my bike last night late and only ate a meatball parm sandwich for dinner.  Following my swim this morning, breakfast was only a bagle and a drink.  In hindsight, I should have had a lot more at dinner and a much heartier breakfast along with a lot more water to drink.  A pre-run snack would have been ideal as well.
• Rest - I finished my 75 minute ride at 9:45last night, didn't get to sleep until after 11:00PM, woke at 5:20AM, did 3,000yd in the pool starting at 6:00AM and did my run at 12:30PM.  Needed more than the ~6 hours of sleep that I got.

The run was much more bearable then my runs earlier in the week now that the achy remnants of last Sunday's triathlon have left my body.  However, I should have felt a lot better than I did and I obviously screwed up on my nutrition and rest.  Tonight I am going to have to eat a lot for dinner and get a solid 7 - 8 hours of sleep since I have a four hour bike ride scheduled for tomorrow.  I am going to be riding from my house in PA down to my 'rents house in Lavallette.

Peace out!