Week 1 and No NO

For any of those who read this blog and may have been misled, and/or confused as to my DNS at New Orleans 70.3 er.. 69.1 today, I apologize.

After a few weeks in Scottsdale seeing Nate Koch at Endurance Rehab nearly every day, it is true that I am back up and running. That "running" term however, is used loosely.  My achilies problem began shortly before I went to the A2 Wind Tunnel with Reynolds. I got in a few days of running thereafter, but essentially, until my second week seeing Nate, I hadn't run since roughly February 12th or so.  Roughly six weeks of no running has taken its toll.  While I felt I could go to NO and "race" it without complications, I knew I was in no way, shape or form, ready to really "race" the half marathon. It would be more survival.  To me, this was no mindset with which to head into a race.  In nearly every race I have ever done, and certainly every race last year, I went into it with the mindset that "today will be the day I run my best half ever."  Not having that element, left me without the fire that is usually there.  After talking it over with Paulo, we decided that spending a complete four weeks in Las Cruces, without any time out for taper, travel and recovery, was a better idea.  This way I can focus on simply getting my running legs back under me and moving forward.  After one week, I think it was the smart decision given the work we got in.  Add to it that the powers that be saw fit to cancel the swim at NO today, and it seems that much wiser.

Back to the work:
The first week of camp came and went in expedient fashion.  We are fortunate enough to have the outdoor pool here set up for long course meters so there is much less flip turning and gliding and more work.  We got in some solid swims with me chasing the girls to the best of my ability (read: not getting close!).

Given the various whereabouts of several of the Squad members right now, a fair bit of my riding has been done with the only company coming in the form of my buddy Garmin/Quarq.  All is well though as I tend not to mind this too much. Just put me head down and get the work done.  One highlight of riding in New Mexico, a stone's throw from the Southern US border, is that gas stations stock these beauties.

Mexican Coke. Made with REAL Sugar. Delish!!

 Out at TriFest a couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to meet and chat with my TriSports.com teammate Mike Montoya.  A seriously accomplished triathlete with a great deal of experience, and an all around great guy.  Mike lives here in Las Cruces and of course is good buds with another of Las Cruces' best, Dannois Montoya.  I had a longer ride on Thursday, and luckily, Mike could join and tow me around town.  It was no joke of a ride as Mike is in the final prep stages for the Tour of the Gila and we faced some serious wind.  Without his company and pushing of the pace, I am sure I would have been in a bad mood all day, but in the end we got in a good hard ride and I nearly wet myself laughing at Mike's fuel choice.

Snap Into a Slim Jim

Being back in the groove at camp has me feeling pretty darn good.  After essentially "missing" the Tucson camp due to my inability to run, coming back and completeing every workout Paulo puts out there has been invigorating. Tiring, but invigorating.  I will not go so far as to say it has been all smiles, skipping and sing-songing, but it is good to be back running. Everytime it gets tough on the run, I just remind myself how terrible it felt not to have the ability.  On that note, after this week I am pretty happy with my decision to pull out of NO 70.3. I got in a solid week of training, without any issues and no breakdowns. In fact I logged a relatively high mileage week and feel stronger for it.  Another great thing about being back running is the excitement of actually getting to USE some of the insane new kicks Zoot has out.

Top to bottom: Energy, Ovwa, TT 4.0

I even got to spend my final run of the week in these super stealth bad boys to be unvieled at a later date. 

Awesome!

Cheers and thanks for reading, 

Ian