two words for ya...BREAK.DOWN.!

Tuesday - I finished out my birthday with not JUST a bday swim of 2 laps of fly, but a 200 fly racing some of the senior kids! Head Coach, Alex, did his birthday swim in March and raced one of the seniors in the 50 free as a bet (for something). So, I assumed I could do the same thing...and figured I'd race Natalie (a h.s. junior) in the 50 fly (it'd be a close race). Well, I come into practice and Alex says, "You're going to race Nathan, Hayley, Katie, and Morgan in the 200 Fly. If they beat you, they get to play polo at the end of practice. We'll give you 5 minutes to warm up." HA! HA! I'm always up for the challenge, and knew racing the 200 fly with 5 mins warmup after running track in the morning would be...amusing. Well, sorry kiddos - NO POLO FOR YOU! ;) I beat them all. Then I did my 2 laps of fly, getting splashed in my face. I had 2 kids bake my favorite cookies (snickerdoodles, and cute they remembered) and we had cake. It was a fun day with the athletes. And I'm counting that 200 fly as my IM swim training for the day. ;)

Wednesday - This weekend was going to be a busy weekend with a wedding Saturday and coaching all day Sunday. So, I had planned to get in another big brick mid week. I was going to go solo at 6am and ...just do it. I headed out on the loop we did a couple of weekends ago, until I realize, "Oh no..these 'country roads' were empty on a Saturday morning at 6-7am, but on a Wednesday morning these are the crazy peoples short cut, commuter roads." The route I was going to take would not be the safest road at this time of day. So, I'm upset, and debating on what to do. I like to tell my husband I'm a safe as possible cyclist; though really, if I would've done this route today that comment would've been a lie. DAMNIT! Ok, so I'll be flexible, change the route - ride this way, ride that way.... In the WIND! OMG wind in my face every direction. Why is the wind already like 10+mph this early in the morning?! Grumble grumble. And besides the wind being annoying I have another confession... admitting it in blogland is the first step out of denial..... my knee hurt. Hurt pretty bad. Enough where I would vocalize pain (easier when you're alone with wind screaming in your ear), and was forced to spin. It feels like its some tweak knee to hip. I'm wondering if its from walking/running differently from a hurt plantar fascia. SHIT, ON MY LAST BIG RIDE!? I'm frustrated and upset. NERVOUS about this happening 2.5weeks out from what has pretty much been injury free IM training. I'm debating in my head what to do. I had left my house at 6am, we had plumbers coming at 8am that Nathan was going to stay there until 1pm (when I said I'd be done with my monster brick). I turned around, tucked my tail between my legs, and headed home. Better to not ride and remain injury free than to get in those extra 50miles and really hurt myself. Stupid rational decision making. I get home (hours early) and Nathan (surprised to see me) and the plumbers are there. Nice to meet you plumbers, I'm about to keep it REAL and have a breakdown and cry in the family room. After the breakdown, Nathan headed to work so he didn't have to take a day off and sat at home with the plumbers. I sat at home frustrated about my knee, my ride, the fact I couldn't go swim b/c stupid plumbers were here, and - anything else that pissed me off. I don't know if my amgio plumbers have ever seen a trigger point foam roller, but thats pretty much what I did all afternoon until coaching.

Thursday - The plumbers were supposed to come one more day. I had another breakdown... "If I have to stay one more day, locked up and not training...I'm going to die." Also, it was Izzie's only day off this week before heading down to San Diego to watch her oldest son graduate from UCSD. It was also the day Karin and Doug (super stars) said they'd go over secret IM tips before they left Friday to go to Hawaii and elope/get married!! Also, I had not SWUM (except that 200 fly) since the Open Waters on SUNDAY... and I would die if my skin did not get chlorine too! AND ITS MY FRIGGIN BDAY WEEK...aren't you supposed to get what you want!? BREAKDOWN!! (I'm also on my period, so I'm sure that makes me emotional too) Nathan called and rescheduled the plumbers to come on Saturday morning, when he would be here. YAY! I had a free training day. Until I got a text from Mary (TVM coach) asking if I could sub Thursday afternoon TVM masters coaching. HA - of course, it'd be the first time I was planning on swimming. I said yes, and woke my ass up at 4:45am to swim at 5am....LONG COURSE. Someone give me a gold star (or come to my pity party, b/c that is what this blog post is) for not only making it to a morning practice, but surviving a long course practice. I met Izzie at 8am to ride. We realized it might be our last IM "training" ride together, as she is headed to SD, then is working, and has the whole week before IM CDA but I will have a different schedule b/c of summer league swim team coaching. So we had a fun ride. I had to spin the whole time to avoid knee pain...stupid pain. We saw the biggest bull frog ever, dead on the road....so we got off our bikes, laid on the ground, and give our frog prince a pretend kiss.

Friday - Today was the first day of morning swim practices for the summer league team I coach. This starts the mark of my LONG days of summer. Summer league practice from 7:30am - 12:30pm and then my USA LAC kids from 3:30-6:30pm. So, needless to say..good timing for taper. Now, I haven't ran since Tuesday. I've gotten in 1 swim, and 3 rides so far. I wanted to run, but I'm very nervous about my knee/hip. I skip a run. I do get in a swim with 4x500's. And I'm WIPED from the long day in the sun...with a million children.

Saturday - We have a wedding at 1pm today. Some IM CDA'rs Alexia and Ernest are running today, riding tomorrow. I debated on whether to ride/spin today on my own...maybe try a brick...or give one more day off rest, stretch, and ice and try something around coaching tomorrow. I'm also trying to get in for a deep tissue today, and figured that might be a good "training" option for the morning. Until then, I'm stretching, reading, hanging out with the hubby/Tank/and plumbers.

Overall, with some breakdowns and workouts I'm remaining as positive as possible. I'm ok with basically my stupid knee/hip starting my taper earlier than expected... b/c I feel like the things I would've got in this week would've of course helped me (confidence and mentally), but b/c I missed some I don't think it will jeopardize my current fitness and race execution...though I may have now lost my Kona slot, that I was oh so close of getting. ;)

And, we'll finish on the positive with one of my quotes-of-the-day used with my athletes (this week they were all John Woodens)

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
John Wooden