Inspiration from Harry S. Truman

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.

--Harry S. Truman

Another hump day, another struggle and another chance for success. I'm a bit tired, but also feeling pretty high in that I have just finished a whole week of training and didn't miss any workouts. I have this minor sinus thing going on that started yesterday afternoon, but it seems to be holding and not getting any worse so I am going to Press On!

It took me a while to come up with my new training schedule just because I was conflicted on whether I should use the spin bike at the gym or use my actual bike at home. I think using my actual bike prepares me better for an actual race where I will be using my bike, but it is difficult to come up with the time because of commuting issues. If I want to use my own bike I have to get up extra early. I am already getting up around five am, and would have to get up at least another extra half an hour earlier to fit in any decent time on my bike, and later in my training plan when I need more time on my bike I will need to probably get up at four in the morning. I don't really mind getting up that early. In fact I kind of like being up and about while everyone else is asleep. Everything is really calm and quiet and you get to see some beautiful sunrises.

But I am the type of person who really needs my sleep. I can survive on seven hours of sleep but I really need eight. During heavy weeks of training I could really use nine hours of sleep. When I don't get my sleep I am miserable the whole day and tend to come down with colds. The answer is to get to bed early, but of course, life being what it is, I can only go to bed so early. It is a struggle now to get to bed by nine and usually it is more like ten o'clock. But in the end I think I just plain enjoy being on my bike and am just going to have to suck it up, and just get used to being tired. I think this year it is all going to be about getting out side and try to avoid the gym with its treadmills, spin bikes and indoor pool as much as possible.

So here is the new schedule:
Monday: AM: Bike, PM: Swim
Tuesday: AM: Trail Run
Wednesday: AM: Long Swim
Thursday: AM: Bike, Transition Run
Friday: AM: Swim, PM: Run Track Work
Saturday: AM: Long Bike
Sunday: AM: Long Trail Run

I was happy with how everything is spread out during the week with recovery days between run and bike sessions, but you'll notice that I don't have a rest day. I think I'll try it out and see how it goes. I noticed that last year I would take a rest day and then one or two days later I would have to take a day off for one reason or another and then I really regretted taking the rest day. Rest days seem to happen magically one their own anyways regardless of our intentions. If I am actually able to complete a couple weeks of this schedule with no rest days then I'll allow myself to worry about it.