BARK BARK BARK!

     Wednesday, I went straight to Elmwood to swim after work. Something about the swim being the first sport in a triathlon really wakes you up. It may be that every time I jump into water its cold water. That is of course unless I am at Heritage...in that case the pool is so hot that you sweat in the water and continue to sweat when you get out the water. Although I feel like my swimming continues to grow stronger I still continue to be conscious of my technique. I am continuously practicing to make my freestyle better and better. Thursday, I did some running. I warmed up a little by doing a mile and a half with Natalie. She is really becoming quite the  runner.  She had a hard time running outside yesterday because of the dry air with her asthma. I have to give it  to her...... she is pretty tough! It is not easy to stick to a consistent regiment of running five days a week. Especially when you have never run more than a mile in your life. I had a really hard time when I began running. My breathing was really poor, I was really fat, and I used more tiger balm than an old man! Being big was really hard on my lower body. Running is not easy for ANYONE! It is really hard on the human body.  You will never be in GREAT shape until you begin to run. My warm up was followed by a 4 mile run and a variety of sprints. (4sprints @200 meters ) This was my first introduction to speed work in training for the Half Iron Man. Yesterday's workout was really hard. I woke up this morning feeling pretty stiff. I need to stretch as soon as I get done writing this blog. I can imagine that my boss thinks I am pretty strange when he has caught me doing yoga and stretching multiple times in my office.
      Today, I have core strength training and a small 30 to 50 min cardio workout. Saturday is a Swim/ Bike day. Sunday is an 8 mile run. I look forward to this weekends workouts. My training buddy will be in Dallas so it looks like I am riding solo this weekend. Unless someone wants to swim 2000 yards and bike 25 miles with me on Saturday. Any takers?
       Lastly, I often still ask myself why I feel the need to kick my own ass so much. I read a good article in Triathlon life that this dude Matlow wrote. The article is titled "Tiredathlon". He writes about how demanding this sport is on your life, your mind, and your body. Then goes on to describe some psychological reasons why we do it. Stating " Maybe some of us feel that stretching out limits is where true growth happens" and concludes by writing " Maybe being tired is not the result of the sport, but the actual purpose of it" He explains that only when we are totally exhausted we feel as we have accomplished so much. Just something to think about.