So after a rather disappointing day yesterday, when my body decided to veto any more working out, I was hoping for a better day today. I went to bed early and got a solid night of sleep. The first order of business was a long set in the pool, 40 x 100 SCY swim on 1:25. Last week, I did this set, and it wasn’t so great. I averaged like 1:17-1:18, which is not great. Today, I committed to setting a strong pace early, and then holding it.
I’d written to Simon and Jazz for some inspiration after yesterday’s bad day, and they each gave me some typical advice. Simon told me to get “back into the fiery water” (a la Dane Cook). Jasper wrote a long, thoughtful email about choosing to do well and was really very supportive. But both of their emails were right on, just different. So I got back into the “fiery water” (per Simon’s advice) and decided to choose to hammer (per Jasper’s advice). My body’s forced rest day (of sorts) yesterday was clearly a good decision by my body. I started out with a 1:14, and basically held that pace for all 40 of my 100’s, varying from 1:12-1:15, but most of them were about 1:13 – 1:14, so much better than last week.
Then I went home and ate a lot in preparation for a big day on the hog. It was a four hour ride with a main set of 30 x 2′ @ Z4 / 1′ @ Z1. So that was hard. I did it last week, and it was pretty miserable. But I paced myself a little better early on, and it was a pretty good set.
And then I had to a do a 45′ run, supposed to be about 10K, off the bike. Last week, it was basically a survival run, and I didn’t feel so good. Today, I felt much better from the start, and I ripped off a really strong run.
So thanks to Simon and Jazz for their words of wisdom. And thanks to my body for shutting down yesterday and for performing so well today…
Jordan Rapp 