Running and Cookies!

Got up at 6 and HAD to eat. My stomach was grumbling and in pain. So I got up, had some tea and steel cut oats with some honey and a banana. Then it was back to bed for another 30 minutes of precious sleep.
When I checked my email this morning I had 2 great messages. The first was my Daily Motivational Email from my wife. She wrote that recovery is just as important as the training, so I need to make sure I am doing everything I can to recover day to day. What a great message, and very true. I find the biggest mistake most athletes make is that they don't do the little things to recover well, so they can't put in the consistent hard days.
The second email was from Patrice, who is the head of North American distribution for Kuota bikes. My bike is shipping tomorrow! I am really excited to be with Kuota this year. It's pretty obvious that they make some awesome bikes and I hope to do the bike justice.
With those 2 messages I was motivated for my first run of the day. I drove the 5 miles to Catalina State Park to start. The terrain was very hilly, with the first section as steep as anything we have in Colorado. After bombing back down my quads were not too happy. Well, Ironman racing is all about going hard when you are tired. I once read where a former pro had said "Ironman is about how fast can you go when you are exhausted?" I think that's pretty much true. So, as I wrote yesterday, I figured here was my opportunity to push hard and gain fitness. I did a total of 5x15 minutes at a hard pace. With the terrain I couldn't go by pace or HR, so I just used perceived exertion. My recoveries were 15 minutes each. All in all it was a solid 95 minute run. It certainly wasn't fast, but it was one of those strength building runs that are great for this time of year.
At home it was a cup of coffe, some fruit, a small bowl of cereal and 1 piece of toast with an egg. All good stuff. I checked out some emails, took care of some work and headed off to the pool for an easy 3k. I warmed up with 750 then did 2 rounds of 500 pull, 5x100 and cooled down with 250. My pace was slow and I was tired, but I really focused on form and made sure that every stroke was done correctly. Too often athletes will just space out and just get through a workout to say they did the alloted time or distance. I have found that when I get really tired the key is to keep focused mentally. When I can do that, even if my pace is off I know that I am accomplishing something more than just banging out the time.
I came back from the pool, had a salad, some cereal and made some phone calls that I had neglected to make. Then it was out the door for my final workout, another 1 hour run. The first 10 minutes were tough. But I worked on keeping my form tight and finding a rhythm. Sure enough, at 25 minutes in I started to feel much better. I threw in a 10 and 15 minute interval to get the legs really moving and the heart rate up. As I cruised up the drive way I felt a great sense of accomplishment. Not only had a done all the training I wanted, but it was focused and productive.
Dinner was fun. Scott and Kelly ordered a pizza. Kelly had the cheese and Scott had onion and sausage. Man did that look GOOD! Steve (who eats a gluten-free diet) had some potatos which he claimed were sent from heaven and pork. I had some wheat pasta with chicken basil sausage and veggies sauteed in garlic and olive oil. Everyone was happy with their choice. For dessert Scott and Kelly made some chocolate chip cookies! The first batch came out a bit burnt as our oven seems to cook a little on the hot side. No worries, the second batch turned out great.
It's off to bed now for some well earned sleep. Tomorrow is another big day and I am looking forward to coming back to the house really tired and really happy.
Thanks for reading,

AJ