We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?

After Thursday's disappointment with my abbreviated workout and left quad injury, I was pleasantly surprised later that evening and Friday morning. Thursday evening was my 3rd swim lesson and 8th swim session overall. My coach was happy with my progess and we worked together for 800 yards. After his departure, I swam for another 700 yards, 500 of which was continuous! And, I felt like I could have done more but at 1500 yards total for the workout, I didn't want to overdo it. Still, I was very encouraged because the distance for my first triathlon (July 28th) is a half mile (880 yards).

Friday morning it was back to the treadmill. After Thursday's failure I mentally really needed a good workout. The goal was 120 to 150 minutes at 11% incline. My legs felt tremendously better than yesterday and I knew early in the workout it would be a success. But at around 90 minutes, I started to tire physically and especially mentally. Soooooo boring. As I'm plodding through the final hour I can't believe I have to do these treadmill workouts for another 9 weeks. The only thing that could make them worse is if instead of watching the news or espn on the Y's tvs I was forced to watch something horrible like cspan, or networks like Lifetime, Hallmark, Oxygen, or the WB. Bored out of my skull, I decide that I have to stop at 2 hours. The mental part is killing me and physically I'm probably pushing a little too hard if I want to recover in time for my 3+ hour trail run tomorrow. I depart satisfied with my workout and happy that my quad recovered, but discouraged about the mental challenge and how I began to tire. I definitely felt like blasting the treadmill.

Upon my arrival at home, I stepped on the scale and realized why my condition started to deteriorate. Even though I hydrated with 32 oz of Gatorade during the run (~2 pounds of weight), I lost nearly 9 pounds and was down to 153.7. While on the treadmill, I was sweating so much that it looked like I had just stepped out of a pool. I was sweating so much that the belt on the treadmill was so wet that I was losing my footing at times. Considering that 9 pounds is over 5% of my body weight and a loss of just 2% in hydration levels will effect athletic performance, it's no surprise that I started to struggle. Hopefully I recover in time for my 3+ hour run on Saturday. At least it won't be as boring as the treadmill.