Sometimes when I think how good my book can be, I can hardly breathe.
–Truman Capote
The good news is . . . my IT Band pain seems to be gone. The bad news is . . . I absolutely sucked on my swim tonight.
I realize bad nights are imminent, but this was just an awful performance. I could barely breathe, and swimming three measly laps in a row was kicking my ass. After some serious staring at the ceiling, I have concluded it must be one or a combination of these three things:
1. Horrible eating
2. Too much beer
3. Watching an Ultra Marathon
Now, I’m pretty sure it’s not the last one–although I did spend about four hours on a bike. The bad diet and party train, however, are likely suspects.
I’m not gonna sit here and labor over my transgressions, but I need to realize training is fragile. I put serious effort into strengthening and working through my IT band when I could barely walk, and tonight’s swim is a hard slap in the nuts to keep my diet in check.
An Ironman is no joke and on nights like this, I realize that, not only would I not have finished, I would have likely drowned before the first buoy. And while I am a little pissed about the performance, I’m glad it happened.
Learning and forgiveness are the core of my training. I won’t learn everything overnight and I have to forgive myself when I don’t.
My memory is short and I tend to cheat the present by not being the best I can in that moment. But the goal is to learn a little more every day and the accumulation of those lessons will be the payoff in training, health, and life.