Fuzzbusted: Part I of II

To all my loyal following I do apologize for the huge gap between this and my last post! My ‘populous’ is waiting as Michelle says. Anyway, in all seriousness, it’s been a tiring two weeks on and the 2-3 hours a day that I had to myself these past weeks before I found myself drooling on the couch half-asleep at 9PM, despite the best intentions, left the blog gathering dust. I can however say there is a lot to update on, primarily being my first two long days totaling out at nearly 8 hours, and one killer ride in a state that grows hills. Let’s get to it.

These two weeks on started somewhat frustratingly (to put it nicely) back on the 6th with a way overly crowed morning swim. I guess you can’t not expect this every once and a while living in NYC, but it does make workouts a near impossibility, as you have to default to lap swimming, and on this particular morning with 4 other individuals. Truthfully, it was the first really nice day of Spring, abnormally nice if I remember correctly topping out at 80+, which brought people out of the woodwork to go for a swim. Cest la vie. I liken it to the start of the year in gyms across the country, i.e., crazy town. With time, it returns to normal. I have confidence the same will happen with the pool.

Besides that, weekday training was spot-on, with everything really clicking into place. Generally I feel great albeit pretty wiped come end of day, but I guess that’s to be expected. The interesting thing I’ve started to notice is how much volume I’m able to do now, and still feel fresh the next day. I was trying to narrow it down after a few surprising examples I’ll get to, but I truly believe its just my base fitness/adaptation continuing to increase. I’ve never done over 4 months of base, so it feels pretty amazing to have a really tough day, completely recover, and do it again the next. Of course it’s not that easy, and nutrition and rest factor into this 10-fold, however it certainly has gotten easier these days.

As an aside to that, I can say without the slightest hesitation that I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life. The best. Stronger, healthier, leaner and happier (can’t attribute it all to being a triathlete of course). It never crossed my mind that I would ever tip the scales at a lean 163, a morning resting heart rate in the upper 30’s, healthy strong lungs with not a hint of asthma, etc., etc. If you know me, you know I’m only saying this out of excitement, excitement that all this is just a result of doing something I’ve found and truly am more passionate about than anything I have ever been before. Even in what I thought to be my previous healthiest points in 15 years of cycling, I came nowhere near as close to where I am now (and I have still so far to go!). I love the diversity the 3 sports, being an endurance athlete, and the physical and mental limits it can push you to. It’s addictive, and more satisfying than any high, natural or unnatural, I’ve ever had. That, and I wish I found this sooner, but to be cliché, better late than never.

And who would of thought, in addition, swimming would be something I’d actually look forward to? Yeah, really, I’m nearly there. Really enjoying it that is. Swimming continues to improve for me, with noticeable improvements in stroke and breathing efficiency. My swim totals were approximately 9500-1000 each week, and continue to consist of two targeted 3500-4000 strength/endurance, with a new weekend addition of 2000 as part of my first bricks (more to come on that). My 2000 aerobic (not killing myself) time is just a little over 30 minutes now. Few things to round out here over the upcoming weeks, mainly pertaining to some open water practice in my wetsuit, but I’ll get there. Both are on schedule for the upcoming months in the lakes of Connecticut.

Running. Man I still love it. Who would’ve thought? Anyway, my two 20 milers on these past Wednesdays went status quo, with comfortable long pace times at 7:30-7:45/mile. Shorter Friday runs the same, but with the shorter hour on, pretty much are base/recovery runs. Changed it up a little on this past Wednesday with a new route up to Chelsea and back. Good for a change of pace and next week I’m looking into just running to work. I wish I could report more here, but things continue to improve, with the satisfaction of a good run never waning…

So what does the title of this post refer to? I think I’m far enough behind to break this update into two parts. I’ll get to that and the weekend details come tomorrow. Way past my bedtime, but then again, it is a recovery week…