sick, tired, and ready to race!

Rach was still feeling poorly yesterday, so our swim session was scrubbed. Instead she ran a little during the day, and I did 2 miles when I got home from work. During the run, I was fairly sore throughout my left foot and leg, and my hip hurt this morning. I didn't do anything too hard, and I only averaged 14 minute miles. It's just getting the body used to those movements again. I did 5/2 intervals yesterday, because I knew I wasnt ready to just try and blast through a couple miles.

Rach sees the doctor today, and we're planning on a bike and swim depending on the outcome of the doctor visit. I'm getting on the bike regardless. I'm looking to do a fairly easy 12 miles, just to get used to turning the cranks and maybe a couple of uphill efforts just to gauge my strength. The swimming I'm not all that worried about. Sure it'd be good to get in an open water go before hand, but if need be I can head to the pool for an hour if Rach needs to rest.

It isn't getting back to a regular exercise schedule that's going to give me problems; it's getting my eating back on track that will be the issue. My body still has me on Paris time. I wake up super early, and am hungrier than normal. My will power against food is almost non-existant. If I hadn't already had a big breakfast, I can't imagine how poorly I'd do facing the Morning of Temptation today. 

The good news is that I'm not upset with myself. This has to be a pretty typical response to being back from travel like what experienced, and how the body responds until it fully adjusts. It doesn't help that I've got to bed very early each of the past few nights, which doesn't really push my body much to make the adjustment. I've been really tired, and not feeling 100%. Plus I want to be there for Rach, who is having a much worse time of it than I am.

With the race this weekend, and the additional training we'll be doing over the next few weeks in the lead up to Timberman, I'm sure I'll be able to get it under control. I just don't want to rely on exercise alone to bring my weight under control. Because when we back off training a little in the fall, I don't want to see my weight start to climb again especially after all the work I've done this year. 

Even though we havent been training, I'm going to set some goals for this weekends race. I want to push myself to come out of this race with respectable times. I have a couple days of rest planned following the race before I go hardcore into 3 weeks of heavy training leading into our pre-Timberman taper period. I think I can go hard on Sunday without too much risk of significant injury. 

For the swim, I'm looking for a sub 1 hour time. It's a .8 mile swim, so I'm thinking a 50 minute target for the swim is a good one. For the bike, I still have high expectations. This time absolutely can't be over 1:30. With only one real hill, even if repeated twice, I should be able to average 15 MPH, and push through a couple flats to get under 1:30. The run is of course the tough part. my best ever officiallly timed 10k is around 1:30, so I'm going to shoot for that and be hopeful of a good outcome. 

Notes:

- I haven't been commenting much on le Tour the past couple days because until yesterdays finish, it's been pretty boring. Flat stages with not much going on lead to a fairly uninteresting race. that changed at yesterdays finish when during the bunch sprint at the end of the stage the best lead out guy in the game decided to headbutt a competitor multiple times for what he felt was being too close. That leadout man was ejected from the tour following the stage. A severe punishment to be sure, but he basically cheated his sprinter to a win. They didn't punish his sprinter Mark Cavendish, because technically he did nothing wrong. It all leads into todays ride with 5 climbs, and hopefully a ton more action.

- I just ate a bagel. Really, I've got to get this food thing back under control pretty soon.

- We're staying at a Super 8 hotel this weekend. From a 4 star European hotel to a Super 8 inside a week. No one can say I don't know how to show my lady a good time.