Daily Log 10 June 2011 - Chunk it down then piece it together

DAILY LOG 10 JUNE 2011 MUSINGS AND THOUGHTS In yesterdays dailies, I wrote about the concept of chunking large things into smaller things so that it becomes easier to handle. Well that's also the strategy I'm adopting for my triathlon training. Triathlons are a multi discipline sport which consists of the swim, cycling and running. Each of the three disciplines presents its own challenges to me as all three of them has it's own technique to master (even running). I've written about my struggle with the swim on a number of occasions in the last 2 weeks. It's still a struggle for me and it seems like the more time I spend in the pool, the worse I get. Though it's hard to believe, the ups and downs of mastering a particular skill is something to be expected. The challenge is to keep at it and to never quit. Slowly but surely the mind and body will adapt to the proper technique provided of course that you get proper instructions. I know sometimes I get anxious about my swimming which is something I can't help. There's a part of me that's disappointed with how slow my swimming progress is and when that happens i always find something or someone to blame. The truth of the matter is that i just have to have faith and surrender to the training process. One thing for certain, I must look for something to change in order to achieve a change in the results. What that is, I'm not so sure at the moment but something must change. Back to chunking things down. This afternoon I went for a swim followed by a bike workout followed by a run. Once things are chunked down (like the three disciplines of the triathlon) we must at some point piece it all back together so that everything works as one. In triathlons, workouts containing 2 or 3 of the disciplines are call 'brick workouts'. I do quite a few of brick bike/run workouts but not many swim/bike workouts.

Not for lack of trying though. It's just a pain to find a pool where I can conveniently park my bicycle. So today I did a brick swim/bike/run workout (well there was a 20 minute gap between the swim and the bike as that's how long it takes for me to drive back home from the swimming pool).I haven't been pushing myself for the last 10 days due to my flu and cough so today I wanted to shake things up a little bit. And Yes. I did get shaken up.

BRICK SWIM/BIKE/RUN SWIM The swim portion was painful for me as I have discovered a lingering pain on my left shoulder. It's my rotating cuffs again and I suspect it didn't truly heal when I started to intensify my swimming workout. I did some drills and made sure I did at least 20 laps. I was optimistic that today my swimming technique would suddenly come together and I'll be swimming perfectly. Well, all the optimism in the world can't escape the fact that my swimming is still in a sorry state.

BIKE I cycled for 20km today and it felt like an eternity. I think my recent illness has really taken it's toll on me as I felt *and still feel) very sluggish and so not energetic. It took me an hour to get through 20km. Mind you, as I was cycling around my park at home, I didn't get a chance to really the pace because as soon as I reach some respectable speed, it's time to slow down to take a corner. Tomorrow I'm going to go hit the highway to see what kind of time I'll achieved with some straight roads.

RUN The run did not very well and I found myself unable to achieve the kind of pace I enjoyed before I got ill. I just ran for 3km before calling it a day. I think it was a good thing to do the workout this afternoon. I knew my performance would suffer after the flu and cough (I'm still coughing and have not fully recovered). It's time to rebuild things and maybe, just maybe, I can come back stronger.

NUTRITION One thing I do know I have to look at is my diet and nutrition. I've changed my diet this week and have started to have a different breakfast than what I'm used to. I usually eat 2 plates of nasi lemak (coconut rice) for breakfast. Very high in carbohydrates. I wanted to have a healthier breakfast so I started to have weetabix cereal and cheerios instead. More fibre, less carbohydrates. I have to rethink this now as I'm finding that I don't have the energy to have a strong workout and feel very sluggish instead. I feel like I have literally run out of fuel. So back to the drawing board on that one.