Bizarro Weak.

Thank GOD its monday. I guess Monday is officially the start of a new week. Time to go shopping, set out the schedule and renew weekly goals and motivation. I got back from PHX yesterday spending the weekend with Jess' family. They are truly Mexican-American, meaning they have been here before the border moved. It's refreshing and exhausting spending time with them. It's all about family(refreshing) and food(exhausting) when we go out there. Enough beans and tortillas to levitate an airship. It's interesting to recognize how marginalized this lifestyle has become. One that revolves so tightly around staying healthy. Quality nutrition appears to be an eccentric quirk. 10-15 hours of training per week is enough for a month. For an instant it's embarrassing like exposing a repressed fetish. But alas validation is often times achieved through understanding and communication. Alot are both intrigued and confused by those who don't drink, consume something that is not "tasty", go for a workout when tired, not to mention monitoring heart rate. To most...beating good, not beating bad. I am happy to be a missionary of lifestyle without a stump. It is truly a noble endeavor. Having said that I must admit I have been really tired. Sleep has been at ration proportion all week and I'm feeling it. Ever since last Satuday I've been getting between 4 and 7 hours at questionable fault of my own. Its mostly the X factor of having a toddler in the house. She sleeps, we sleep, if not, nobody sleeps. It's a trip how sleep or lack of affects my mind. I may have brief episodes, encountering cryptic revelations and perceptions, coincided with memory loss, clumsiness and absent congeniality.

I had high expections for the week and was probably a little naive at how much Saturday's race had taken out of me. (For the record I finished 25th of 50 starters and 47 finishers. MOP for sure but I was both conservative and new. With BT numbers, I'm satisfied with the results.) The ensuing training week was tainted by fatigue/ lack of sleep and some confusing and frustrating training sessions.

Monday.

Five hours interrupted sleep. Beat, but dragged myself to the gym for some strength training with lots of rest interval. "Dready" for 30 min. immediately following trying to ride any leftover adrenaline.

Tuesday.

normal sleep 8.5 hrs.

3100m in the pool including 1600 at Tpace+5s(8x200) MS. Big swim for me so far. But I continue to swim well following strength sessions, strange but true. One wierd thing happened. I got really disoriented after pushing off the wall on last 50 of last 3 200's. I think a combination of being fatigued and CO2 accumulation, nonetheless swam well. I wanted to run right after to stay motivated but I was tired and used some drivetime to recover a little.

I had a choice to run 40 mins mellow but couldn't fight off leaning into a mostly Z3 run at Fiesta Island.

Wednesday. (this is where it gets weird)

Long ride. with 2 hours steady at 146-150 bpm(tempo). 3 hours total.

I warmed up for a good 30-40 mins. It normally takes longer for me to warm up but HR was extremely sluggish. I was pushing Z5a wattage with Z2 HR. I finally started my test when HR hit 145 but still had to keep it above 290 watts or HR would drop! As a point of reference my best 20k TT is 29:54 at 265 watts. I rode for 60 minutes like this and averaged 287 watts.

WoW.

My legs were tired but not an all out effort at all. Just didn't know if I could ride 120 minutes at that PE. I was really confused and didn't want to trash my legs on bogus numbers so I stopped to Zero torque. I must of pushed the wrong buttons and ended up resetting my display to only HR and wattage stopped recording. At this point I was ready to throw my bike. No power, no test. Not to waste my time, I was sick of clicking laps at the island and finished off 3 hrs on the road. I was shocked to review the data. It was like the bermuda triangle of training. Super adaptation or technical glitch. Time will tell when we try to repeat the effort again this week.

Thursday.

Swim. 2700m. tired again. This time I had to really push through 1800m @ Tpace (4x300/4x150).

I had another episode of strange feeling on the last 50s and took a little extra on the RI on the last 300 to be safe. Not that anaerobic sensation, just dizzy. I was torched after this swim and rested over the gutter for a good 10 mins before leaving the water. I took maximum recovery and strolled through a strength session that night at home focusing on legs core and a lot of stretching and T-balling.

Friday.

Up early (5am) after packing for our weekend to get 60 min's on the trainer. That S.O.B. is incredibly uncomfortable at that hour. Still my "hill" efforts were focused and strong making the previous CP60 a little more credulous.

Cranky traveler man hit the tarmac running upon arriving in PHX for a 30 min session of strides. I was tired, in need of an attitude adjustment, still cranky. The topper was sleeping in a postage stamp bed with Jess and eventually my baby (2am) who insisted on not sleeping until 5am. With a full house I searched in vain for a couch, opted for the floor, the bed, the floor.....hilarious in hindsight.

Saturday.

Morning couldn't come soon enough to try to shake off the night with caffeine. I had an exciting day planned. I headed up to Saguaro Lake,

can't wait to race here!

to run the course for AZ extreme. A thirty minute drive seemed worth it to get out of the house for a long run in the beautiful weather and desert hills. I was greeted by this sign.

I guess you gotta know before you go. Not even a drop box. Weak!

So close to getting down.

At it's best.

In a true test of patience I was so close to my "querencia", yet unwilling to pay a $50 dollar ticket and returned to base in a flurry of mixed emotions. I didn't say a word and hit the "canal"

Beautiful but polluted, smelled like laundry soap.

to get in 70 of 80 minutes of a seemingly punishing run. It was easy, hard, then got harder. HR rose and pace slowed, legs heavy and heart heavier. Shook it off with a PowerBar and a Burrito.

(I swear the only thing in the house).

Sunday.

Rest day. This is the first day off in at least 4 weeks. I got good sleep but was willing to pay my mortgage to be able to "hyperspace" back home. My bed felt like a field covered in velvet and clouds. My daughter slept through the night despite coming down with a cold, (thank you) and I'm relatively recharged and thankful to be able to share my experience. I know I'm not the only one who can hang on to a lifestyle that provides so much satisfaction on a shoestring percentage.

So much hard work to approach the intangible. But when disappointment is relative, Life is good. Praises.