A big mistake and some suffering

Ok first, I got something you gotta read. My bud Sparfy just did Ironman Canada, the same race where Team Tyler kicked some major butt. His story of suffering and enjoyment of said suffering is what I hope you guys get out of my race reports. I love how he re-works swear words so they can stay in the story without actually being swear words. Anyways, here's the link to his race report. It's long, so don't forget to come back!

So I made a big mistake at Timberman. Well technically, immediately following Timberman. I should have taken a more active approach to recovery instead of sitting on my duff. While I definitely needed time to recover, I should have started taking short rides and swims sooner. I was concerned because I've read about several large triathletes who didnt take enough time off after a big race and wound up with chronic fatigue. The gal who wrote the book Slow Fat Triathlete even experienced this, and frankly it scared me (I do tend to be a bit of a worrier). It's nothing I won't be able to overcome but every effort right now feels like a big effort. 

For example, Last night was running night. It was the last day of week 3 of my couch to 5k, and I am trying to run as opposed to the light jog/shuffle I've been doing for so long whenever I work on running. So I ran through all of the running sections last night. By the end of each of 4 sections of running, I was right up against the red line, breathing hard, and tired. The last 3 minute segment i didn't think I was going to make it through. I managed to finish but Im sure I slowed down at the end. 3 minutes of running shouldn't really put me on tilt. It's from the inactivity of the past couple weeks.

Then this morning was my first non-commuting ride on the road bike since the race. I didn't feel very comfortable, and I'm guessing the bike is in need of adjustments, but most of it was me. I only rode about 5 miles, and I can tell it's going to take a few rides just to get the kinks out before I can really get working on my speed. I topped out in the big ring today at 17 MPH, and I couldn't really sustain it very long. Hopefully it comes back quick, because I'm counting on a big ride at Club Nationals.

Notes:

- I've got a post coming up talking about sponsorship, as well as some gear reviews on the horizon. One thing I learned today is that H2OAudio is now doing a referral program with some discounts, so I'm going to post the link to it here, and later on the sponsorship page.

- Some friends from Wheelworks have alerted me to the fact that there are some Mountain Bike trails significantly closer to my house than Wompatuck that I'll be able to make use of for riding after the race.

- Lastly, has anyone out there ever shipped a bike to a destination triathlon? I could use some advice. I want the bike to be safe, but I always want the shipping to be as inexpensive as possible.