IMLP Check In #2 - Not Good But Better

As the title says - things are improving. Marginally.

And I probably should have waited to even talk about stuff until next week when I do my February recap, but meh.

I am starting to get a bit of consistency in - particularly with riding and swimming - but the unfortunate thing is, as those things got ramped up over the past week, week and a half, everything else went by the wayside. Running I wasn't too concerned about (as last week I got a 10 and an 8 in) since I'm pseudo-tapering for Sunday's half-marathon anyway, but I'm not happy lifting has fallen off a bit.

And I really need to not skip the yoga I hope to do. I stretch when I steam shower, but that is not enough, dangit.

All this to just basically say I'm starting to feel marginally better about training. Gotta get the mind straight and the body will follow, right? Let's hope ...

Race #1 of the Season: Run For My Neighbors: 5K for Fire Relief

Oooops, I forgot to blog about this. Probably because I went to Tucson right after and didn't write it down in my planner. I swear, as I get older, if I don't write things down it gets disastrous.

As you may have known, right after the new year, some terrible fires raged through Superior and Louisville. Lots of homes were lost (thankfully I don't think any (human) lives), businesses ... it was rough. I had driven past the area literally a few hours before it all started. All those Skirt Sports 5Ks? Yeah, the mesa those are run on got torched.

In any case, 3W Races quickly threw together a 5K in which all proceeds went to fire relief. I had been hoarding some money from a contest I won in order to donate it and hadn't yet decided on *where*, and thought the fires were a great idea. I tried through the actual site, but it didn't allow me to do so (Visa gift cards - my honest thought is that the donation site had a hold and a gift card doesn't allow a hold obviously), but the race did. So, donation done, and oh, great, now I have to race a 5K.

This would be my first race since October ... and also the first race since I got the 'rona (a week or so after that October race) ... and also the first time attempting to run hard since the 'rona.

I got to the race site way too early, as I do, and spent a lot of time in the car beforehand. The course was the same as the Leap Day 5K B and I did before the world fell apart back in 2020, so that was fun.

Alas, this race didn't go nearly as well.

Starting off. 

There's a better view of me.

I somehow managed a good first mile - 9:13 - as well as a decent second mile - 9:26 - but then the wheels fell off and fell off hard. Sub-:30 wasn't going to happen. Mile three? a 10:12.

This just looks painful. AND IT WAS.

Final Stats:
Time: 30:21.9
30/100 AG (F30-39)
89/382 gender
189/644 overall

It hurt to push, it really did. And I was coughing pretty much the rest of the day, which was fantastic (colder weather doesn't help my already crappy lungs). But hey, a lot of the random dudes in the Thornton Home Depot (where I stopped to get more packing boxes) loved the CO socks.

January Round Up

If you talk to my boss, January/the winter is actually a terrible time to do resolutions or start something. If you go by the lunar/astrological calendar, we're in a time of winding down. It's winter - we literally want to hibernate and hide under blankets.

We like to get going in the spring and fall - which makes sense.

Or maybe I'm just using all of this as justification for the crappiest January of an IM cycle (... or of a general year) in a very, very long while.

Swimming: 3600m (2.2 mi)
Cycling: 37.35 mi
Running: 31.41 mi
Lifting: seven sessions (2:47)
Other: three days skiing (7:55), two sessions yoga (:30)

Maybe all the extra life stress these days is affecting me more than I thought it would. Stupid moving. I mean, I've had starts where everything went well, and then some weird stress curveball comes out of nowhere and noooope; stopped again.

I've been slowly working my way up to higher swim distances (not that it seems like it here with the three swims I did) and as long as I don't go to the pool with the weird nausea stress headache, I'm not dealing with the swim nausea anymore - my equilibrium has resettled for swimming. So that's a plus.

I did get a mini bike fit (bike re-fit?) that will hopefully help with sitting up more, given that I'm in theory going to be doing all the climbing with IMLP on the docket. I brought it down to Tucson to test it out on an actual hill not covered in snow, but that didn't work (stress levels said no as did the crazy winds).

Running is ... halfway decent. Half training has been a bit of a struggle, but I'm still trying my best. Neither of us are hoping for much in Vegas - 2:30 if we can at this point - but getting through it is the goal.

I'm a bit behind on averaging at bare minimum two strength sessions per week (and I'd ideally like three), but it's close. And getting out and going skiing has been nice, even if we need to do that a touch more, too.

We're done with Colorado at the end of March. We'll be moving in the spring and hopefully at the time when motivation cranks up ... in time to give me about three and a half solid months of work. Let's manifest a good two months (or, at the very least, a BETTER two months) going into that.