Trying to Find It

Swim Day
1 x 150- warm-up
3 x 400- 6:00
1 x 500- 7:30
1 x 50- easy
5 x 200- 3:00
1 x 500- 7:30
1 x 100- cool down
total- 3400yds

Ride Day
distance- 30mi
time- 1:28

It was a brutal week last week for training. And by brutal I mean I never really got it going in any way that makes me feel satisfied or strong. I had some two swims, one good ride and one decent run. Then there was weather, illness, and laziness. Weather and lack of motivation have no excuse. I can ride in the rain. I can get my ass off the couch and run. But last week I didn't. I didn't feel well, it was drizzling, I'm a big ole wuss, whatever. It's hard to look back at my mileage for last week and see anything positive. Aside from my two swims, both of which went very well. Except there should have been three but I skipped out on Tuesday's am session.
This is not motivational for me or anyone else. The above is whining. Complaining is not moving forward. So now we put the past behind me. We take that sub-par week of training, use what was valuable, discard everything else, and move on. I need to discard last week like Michael Bay discards plot or character development.
This Sunday is my big swim race. A week out means that we have entered the Doubt Zone. This is the place where thoughts creep in to my head while I'm staring at that black line on the pool bottom at 5am. Thoughts like, "You're averaging a 1:25-ish pace per 100 in practice, but that's with rest between sets. How will that translate to a straight 1.6? Can we (I sometimes [often] refer to myself in the third person, because it's my brain talking to my body, get it?*) hold that kind of intensity for that long? Will the stroke fall apart?" And I push all that aside. They are good concerns, real concerns. But if I hit the water Sunday with any of that in my head then I will fall apart, and much quicker than I should. Instead I need to have a plan, stick to it, and have faith in my body to get me through. If there is one even in triathlon where I have the utmost faith in my body, its the swim. I trust my stroke. I trust it to not fail even when I'm blown out and exhausted. I trust it to get me out and back to shore efficiently, smoothly, and quickly. That mindset is what I'm building.
Today was the last heavy heavy day of swimming before Sunday. Tuesday morning will be long but not as, with more stroke work, and Friday will be a short preparation swim with lots of stroke work. Technique is the key.
As a side note, there was a younger guy in the pool today too, saw if last week, who is super fast. Looks like a high school swimmer, maybe early college. He did some butterfly today that I just had to sit and watch. I'm, at heart, a swim nerd and I was totally a little homosexual for his butterfly. Such a pretty stroke when done well.
Today's ride was the now normal Monday ride from Wahiawa down into Honolulu. I really enjoy this ride because it makes me feel fast and because there are some good hill climbs to pain my way up. They are just long enough that I fail before I hit the top, but not so long that I'm too intimidated to try and hammer the whole climb. Good stuff. There are also a few nice flats where I can really get low on the aerobars, get my chin tucked, and try to get some wattage going.
So I'm feeling positive now after last week's not so much-ness.

*There should be an entire post concerning this mind/body connection/conversation. Someone remind me if I forget. It ties in nicely with the running book I'm reading right now.