Gearing Up for Saturday

I am trying to get in the right mindset for Saturday’s workout.

It’s not the hour and a half bike that concerns me.

It’s the darn timed mile, then four half mile repeats, at the crack of dawn, in the freezing cold, before getting on the bike.

OK, I won’t be hearing any roosters crowing at 7:00 am – but waking up at 6:15 on a Saturday morning, to arrive on time for what promises to be a torturous workout, seems pretty early and unnecessarily evil to this sleep loving TRIgirl.

And maybe it won’t be quite as cold as the past Tuesday and Thursday when I ran with temperatures in the teens, but I have a feeling it will not be the most pleasant running conditions.

Then there is the “go as fast as you can” factor. I have done enough timed miles and repeats to know, all too well, the burning lung, lactic acid and thigh exploding feelings integral to these workouts.

Plus, it is just plain hard for me. To go fast. As fast as I can. Which really isn’t very fast at all.

So far this year, the "running fast" drills have probably been my least favorite part of this Ironman training experience. Up until now, I’ve only done two half mile repeats in a row. Not sure if I mentioned – this week - we are slated to do four repeats – after the 1 mile timed run. I’d rather do the 1 hour bike, 8 mile easy run, workout planned for a few weeks from now. I'd possibly rather do an hour of sculling.

Rant aside; I’m going to spend the next 32 hours trying to:

• Enjoy the day off from workouts.
• Focus on the good training week I’ve had so far. Two PRs – for a six mile run last Saturday that even started off at my easy pace (60:26) - and a 300 meter swim even after six 50 meter sprint drills on Tuesday (6:03).
• Visualize feeling strong and capable, running effortlessly for the timed mile and 4 repeats. (I have a feeling this will be a slightly amusing and unrealistic vision – but if I can daydream about winning the lottery…)
• Remind myself that what seems hard now, will seem easier in a few weeks. If I completely screw up this Saturday – hopefully – I will have nowhere to go but up the next time this workout is scheduled.
• Appreciate that so much of the progress I have seen is due to pushing myself during the drills I dread the most.

With any luck, maybe the worst part about this coming Saturday will be dragging my sorry body out of bed when the alarm clock sounds.