Happy Saratoga

I'm happy to report that I placed second in my age group this past weekend in the Saratoga Lions Duathlon. Boy, is it good to race on the East Coast! :-)

Results:
5k Run 24:56, avg HR 173, pace 8:02 min mile
T1 1:10
20 mi Bike 1:15:06, avg HR 156
T2 1:24
5k Run 25:32, avg HR 173, pace: 8:13 min mile

I participated in this race just for fun. The transition area is around the corner from our house in Saratoga. It was fun to be able to sign up for the race last minute and be in good enough shape to compete and place in it. I've never really placed for races before this year and I owe a lot of that to racing on the East Coast versus in Boulder where most of the people in my age group are borderline pro athletes.

Overall, I'm pumped that my run pace was an 8 min mile. That is about a minute better per mile than my race pace last year at the Bolder Boulder. And, I'm glad that my second 5k pace was very close to the first.

Things have been great lately. Training has felt so good, my fitness is improving, and I'm happy.

A few weeks ago I found myself in an interesting spot. I had about a month and a half or so of hard training under my belt. The problem was, I was exhausted. It was a Monday and I found myself falling asleep on the train on the way into work. My head bobbed with exhaustion and my appetite was insatiable. I was nearly crying on the way home because I was so tired and hungry. I was feeling guilty for eating so much when my office mate had probably a quarter of what I had all day long. After placing a phone call to a friend, I was re-assured that I didn't have to feel guilty about eating so much. With that, I went home and ate a real meal and was in bed by 8. The next day, I took the day off and went to bed again at 8. It was so early that it was still light out when I went to bed! Two days later, I arose from the dead as stiff as a board. I was so sluggish but I forced myself to go for a run with Zion. The run was absolutely pathetic. Zion was looking back at me like - when are you gonna start to run? Another day passed, and I felt a little more normal, and by the third day I had some energy back.

The next week I met with my Ironman mentor and I shared with him how I was feeling - tired, hungry, afraid to take a day off. He assured me that I needed to take it easy. His advice was - take a week off and if you're feeling like you're hungry all the time, then eat more protein and fat. That week and the following week I took it much easier on the workouts. I was doing one a days rather than two and three workouts. Now, about three weeks later, I feel amazing.

I don't feel like I can report any consistent volumes since I'm not following my set workout plan yet. But, I am consistently swimming twice a week for 50 min to an hour; I've been running a lot lately because I had to travel with work and it was about all I could do, and I've been biking probably two or three times a week for about 30-50 miles. I also do two core strength workouts in the gym per week.

Amazingly, I'm only a month away from starting my build training. The sound of that is super scary. It means a lot more discipline and a ticking clock until the race. I am however feeling on track for the program. I'm wondering if I should try to squeeze in a 70.3 before the race - mostly because I have so much energy to burn that it might be fun and a good way to test my race day nutrition.

Otherwise, I'm feeling amazing. I can see muscles in my body, my fat percentage is definitely less, and my disposition equals happy. I can't even begin to contemplate the difference in how I feel now versus how I felt 6 months ago. Working out consistently, a healthy diet, and a healed heart....that's where I'm at and I couldn't be happier.