Monday, December 31, 2007

A New Beginning

It's New Year's Eve; this is always a time of reflection for me. This year has been a whirlwind to say the least. I've traveled a bit with work; seen places I'd never see (Clayoquat Wilderness Reserve), stayed at places I'd never stay at (The Saint Sulpice in Montreal) and experienced things I wouldn't normally get to experience (flying on a float plane). In that regard, it's been a very interesting year.
Physically & mentally, I took most of the year off. I did one race at the end of the year. I'm glad I took the break as I don't think I would have even contemplated another Ironman if I raced most of the summer. I started off in a good head space when I started my training. I've now hit a speed bump so to speak. Especially with my swimming. I have had very little motivation as of late--mainly over the holidays. All I've wanted to do is sit on the couch and read or play scrabble. I was starting to feel a little burnt out. The last 2 weeks have been really hard in terms of workouts; especially in the pool. I don't think I've ever done this much speed work in the pool. I don't like it. I don't like pushing myself in the pool. This is odd for me. Normally I am pretty hard headed when it comes to my workouts. I will push myself just to get the "I can't do it" out of my head. For some reason, I just don't do it now. I am not feeling motivated. I knew this was going to happen at some point, I just didn't figure it was going to happen so soon and I don't have a plan B. I guess the best course of action for me right now is to put my head down and just do the work, knowing (or at least hoping) that all the hard work will pay off. I know if I want to swim faster I have to work harder in the pool. I just don't like the discomfort of swimming hard. Probably because I am not in my element. Pushing myself when I'm running is easier. It still hurts but I'm more inclined to do the work. Hmmmm.....
Goal for next year: Stop whining and just do it. ha ha ha. Probably not going to happen. But I will make a concerted effort to get in the right head space to do the work.
Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

The Week From Hell

I really shouldn't be surprised at the mayhem that always ensues at work around this time of year. Really. It always seems to catch me off guard. One minute I'm sipping a latte, leisurely working on a quote, the next thing you know I'm working 12 hour days and going a mile a minute. That's what happened this past week. 5 shoots in 4 days. Talk about losing my mind. I had a feeling this week was going to be bad when it started off with my clock being incorrectly set. I woke up 45 minutes later than I wanted to on Monday so I wasn't able to get to the gym. So I ran instead. Wednesday I had to swim at the Olympium. What a nightmare. Wednesday afternoon, my stomach was feeling funny. Wednesday night I was feeling pretty ill. I didn't eat dinner and went to bed early. I hardly slept. Thursday was difficult. It was also another 12 hour day. I missed a workout on Wednesday night, missed both workouts on Thursday and was still feeling crappy on Friday so I didn't do anything then either. I FINALLY started to feel better yesterday afternoon. Gary thinks I had mild food poisoning. I had sushi at lunch on Wednesday and he seems to think that was the culprit. No one else got sick though so I'm not sure. All I can say is THANK GOD I only have 4 days of work left.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Stop the Insanity

I have been a whirlwind of activity this past couple of weeks. Work has gone from zero to HOLY CRAP in a matter of days. I had an easy week this week which made the insanity a little easier to deal with. I only managed to miss one workout and that was the only swim I was supposed to do this week. Oh well. This week doesn't look much better in terms of work. I have 5 shoots happening this week; 2 on Monday, one on Tuesday, one of Wednesday and one on Thursday. AHH!! Thank GOD, the Christmas holidays are coming. We're closed for almost 10 days. I can't wait. I'm counting the days till I can sleep in.