So much updating to get through so here it goes.....

We are now T-minus 4 months and counting to IMWI.  The excitement has finally started to build for me more now that the weather is getting nicer and I can move a few workouts outdoors.  The past few weeks have definitely been a struggle though.  For one, 3 weeks ago, I completely lost all motivation to work out at all.  I was cutting workouts short or skipping them outright or modifying them to ease up on them.  It was not a pretty sight and my attitude was definitely being affected.  In hindsight, it may have been that I was slowly starting to get sick and my illness didn't hit me hard until 2 weeks ago.  2 weeks ago I woke up Monday morning with an extremely terrible sore throat, felt groggy, sore, and my head felt like it was blowing up like a balloon.  I was miserable for about 3 days before things finally started to subside.  Things finally picked up the second half of the week but by then I was in full recovery mode.  So you can say that week was a total wash as well.

This all led to last week.  Last week I was able to finally get back into the swing of things but it was definitely a struggle.  I hadn't lost all my fitness but workouts I had been able to handle and go beyond were serious struggles for me.  By the end of last week I was too worn out to muster the energy to log my long ride and long run so I scratched those off the training plan.  Probably not something most triathletes would do but I was trying to be honest with myself and allowing my body to recover and get acclimated to heavy training loads that are coming.

So now this week so far has been outstanding with workouts.  My ankles are extremely sore from a pace variation work that I logged yesterday but I will say that my swim workout was better then I expected now that I am dedicated one of the swims to stroke work to mix it up.  My first bike of this week felt really good as well and am enjoying the greater structure of the rides more then just straight rides like some of them had been.  As for the rest of this week, my plan this afternoon is to do a full body TRX workout, coach, then head home and get about an hour bike ride in focusing on heavy hill work.  I figure 4 months out is about the right time to begin prepping specifically for the walls that IMWI course call hills.  So there you have it, time to get back to the grind.