"Hey, you skipped day 23..."
Disclaimer: These are the unfiltered ramblings of a man who is now a father and retracing the steps of his youth to conquer another Ironman triathlon a decade after his first.
To wrap up Week 4, you may have noticed there is quite a bit of ground to cover.
My first instinct when writing this is, "ouch." I hate to have to post the truth, but here it is so far. Monday was great, Tuesday fizzled out with the daylight savings change. Wednesday I started to come back, Thursday was going strong, but then I had some personal family matters to attend to, which I allowed to get me off track on Friday, but today I came back strong to make up for one of the days.
This probably looks to be the worst on paper of all 4 weeks thus far, but I have to keep in mind, the best consistent stretches I've had recently have only spanned between two-three weeks. I would oscillate 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, and had it in my head that I had to go all out or it wasn't worth it. Now I'm tempering that voice, and playing the long game again. It's more realistic as a father with commitments, and that is not an excuse. I am facing these goals with just as fierce of a commitment as I used to a decade ago.
These days I have to celebrate the fact that although my total duration hasn't been consistently meeting the planned ironman duration set around 6 hours a week, I have been consistently making valiant efforts towards the goal, and haven't been dropping off because I was too fatigued or burned out. The time change was something that I should have planned better for; setting my goal more realistically, and adjusting my schedule for a quick spin after putting my little one down to get the full hour workout in every day.
I also noticed a common theme through-out the month: weight lifting has consistently been dropping off as it got colder out with my rig in the garage. Now that I've moved my routine indoors, I think it's safe to adjust this strategy to focus on core work (abs) and chest (push ups). I'll commit to 5 minutes before I get on the bike.
This week I also got the news from the Norseman Extreme Triathlon that neither I nor my cousin got in through the lottery this year. We can get an extra chance next year when we try again, but that ship has now set sail. Ironman Wisconsin is still open at Tier 3 for $750... Lets give it another couple weeks to feel out how everything shapes up before we pull the trigger. I want to see some green weeks to feel good about my investment. Can you believe prices have gone up this much? Back in the good 'ol days an Ironman only cost around $500 to register! Back when ice-cream was still a nickel...