Starting over again

After sitting around for a few days, okay over a week, I think it may be time to get going again.  Actually, I hadn't planned to take too much time off, but I haven't been feeling particularly motivated to start training.  I think it's the "Post A-race letdown."  No, there isn't really anything named that, but I think it's a real phenomenon (that doesn't look right somehow).  In truth, it probably exists for any big thing in which you have planned/trained/studied for a long time, and then... it's over.  The first thing that I think is:  "Now what?"  Well, with the triathlon season looming, I THOUGHT it would be easy to get back in the water and on my bike.  But sitting around, hanging out with my family, watching TV, and eating chips has been a great way to decompress.  I did ride last weekend, and strained my right quad climbing up one of the hills in downtown Tacoma.  DOH!  I think it's because my legs were still damaged from the marathon.  I've also been very good about using my foam roller.  It's almost like getting a massage every day... a very DEEP massage... a dig-your-fingernails-into-something-preferably-not-your leg-because-it-hurts-so-good massage.  You get the picture.

I swam for a short time before my massage on Monday.  After warming up with a 400, I had to share a lane with a few other people.  One of them asked if I wanted to swim a short set with him.  He suggested 200's; after wondering whether I could swim a continuous 200 at all, I suggested 100's instead.  The interval?  He suggested a 1:30 sendoff (SCM).  I tried not to snort too much water up my nose at this.  Besides the fact that I haven't really been in the water since December, I've never been able to swim 100's on 1:30 SCM.  We ended up doing them on 2:00, which seemed fairly easy, except that was about as fast as I could go.  Yikes, I've got a lot of work to do. 

Today, I visited the gym for the first time since... I'm not sure.  I decided I needed to regain some strength, so I tossed some weights around without hurting myself.  I figured it would be a gentle way to start over.

You may have noticed that I changed the color of the font.  It was brought to my attention by Bruce (one of probably two people that have been reading this) that white on black can be quite blinding.  So, I've changed it to a subtle shade of blue.  The calming color along with a nice cup of chamomile tea, and my musings (or is it ramblings?) will undoubtedly cure most cases of insomnia.