No more excuses...get faster!

The first week of classes was rough. I couldn't wake up at 4:40am for my 5:30am swim and I was too tired in the afternoon to train after a day of studying and 1-2 classes. After 2 weeks of getting myself on a schedule I'm finally getting into a routine which involves training, studying, class, writing, eating, sleeping and relaxing (in no particular order). I've learned that waking up and thinking if I should or shouldn't train is a sign of being tired..AKA I don't WANT to train. Now I am waking up, jumping right out of bed and looking forward to training. It is much harder to make excuses and wonder when or even if you will work out during the day. I just get it over and if I feel like training in the afternoon, I already have one solid workout knocked out from the am. Also, I find that I am just misserable if I don't do something in the morning. Even if it is just a walk, I just don't like going all day without a good sweat in the morning. If I need a day off to prevent overtraining or burnout I absolutely know when that is needed and I don't think twice about staying in bed or lounging around. But not working out because I made a silly excuse is just a lousy reason to miss a workout. I woke up this morning excited to swim. Of course at 4:40am my excitement is shown by bumping into doors, spilling a little coffee and stumbling as I am putting on my swim suit. Luckily, most days I have Karel to greet me in the morning and it is nice to have both of us up so early in the morning. As for this morning, he has an off day (two days in a row due to his big race weekend coming up!!!). So when I saw karel as I was pouring my coffee, I told him "you don't have to get up this early!" He gave me a kiss on the cheek good-bye and told me "I know, I'm going back to bed!" Oh, so lucky! Swim was good this morning. Lots of people in the pool with barely enough light from the sky to allow us to see the walls. Most of the workout was drills, which are almost as tiring as main sets. I have a feeling thurs will be a little more intense. Like two weeks ago when i had to do 8 x 125 pull on 2 min. Ouch, sore shoulder. During the 2400 swim workout i was thinking about this summer and racing. Now that I am back into a routine of feeling good, I am ready to get faster. I think I lost my fastest for good reason (injury) so I am willing to work hard again and regain some speed. The endurance is coming along nicely but if I want to compete again at Ironman Florida 70.3 (Disney) I will need to keep working at (and above) my lactate threshold. I wasn't really looking forward to a run after the swim since I am usually doing plyo's and lifting with karel on tues. Well, I was solo this morning so I thought about getting faster and i knew the only way that would happen would be to get on the treadmill and run. After 15 min of running I was bumping up the speed for a little interval set. I did 5 x 2 min at 8 mph and I felt pretty solid for those. With 1 min rest at 7.2 mph in between, I finished the run with 6 miles. I jumped off the treadmill and felt fine. I think i will bump up the number of intervals to 6 or 8 next week but not much faster. Once I feel comfortable with the speed and number of intervals, then I will get back to my old running pace of 8.5-9mph. It might take a while to get there but that is the way to do it. Overtime you get faster, it doesn't happen overnight. That is what I love about training...if you don't make excuses you get faster!