Hyper-compensating

My weight was up a little bit on Monday morning after the long ride on Sunday. I think I put on water weight because I deplete my glycogen stores and then with post recovery my muscles hyper-compensate (like they should). I am sure that my weight will drop again by mid-week.

I am trying to load the front part of this week with my cycling and running because I have a near Olympic race this weekend (Olympic except the swim is ½ mile) and I want my legs to be fresh. The Heat Wave is up in Ridgeland (near Jackson). The bike is on the Natchez Trace – super smooth and the run is a tough 10k. I was looking at my results from last year and I hope to improve upon them (2:14 – swim 1:39 / 100 – I think the swim was a little short – bike 20.85 MPH – run 7:39 min/mile ).

The training plan called for even more cycling. Two hours of biking were in store for the day. During the week it is really hard for me to get a 2 hour block in – I have no problems getting in several 1 hour blocks but more than that and it gets hard. So I decided to split the workout – I usually would not do this believing that a solid 1 workout (if the workout is for endurance purposes) is better than 2 shorter workouts. I headed out on the trace at 6AM and did my 20 mile out and back to Sumrall. No watch, no heart rate monitor, no GPS - just a nice early morning ride. My legs were tired but the ride was good.

I got a good swim in at lunch – I am still working on my bilateral breathing. This is something that I do not think I will be able to utilize in a race but the breath control and stroke refinement should prove helpful. 3000 yards total.

I was proud of myself for finishing up the additional hour on the bike. I got home and really did not want to mount up but gathered my resolve and did it. It was a nice afternoon – it did not feel hot like it should have. Once again, no watch or heart rate monitor but this time I was pushing it pretty hard. On the return trip I started to feel drips of water in the air. It was not raining - blue skies and dry air. This is an out and back and I never got rained on but on the return I crossed a stretch of the trace that had evidently been poured on while I was out. For about 3 miles the trace was soaked. There were pools of water all on the road. The spray got me wet but I was now refreshing. There was no sign of rain back at the house.

I came home to a delicious and health dinner. This is getting easy!