Good news - my back pain is gone. The nutrition changes that I made last week seem to have helped a bit, but I’m still tired in the afternoons. My weight and BF% is holding steady which is a bit discouraging since I am doing way more cardio than ever before. I’m trying to be patient which is not one of my strong points. I’m probably eating too many calories, but I also need energy to keep my cardio efforts strong.

I haven’t missed a single workout yet and I certainly never miss a meal. I have no problem getting my heart rate up to 80% on the treadmill. My problem is keeping it under 80%. The first part of the run is no problem. Then, after about 30 minutes, my heart rate hits 80% and keeps on climbing gradually. I have to keep slowing down through out the rest of the run to keep my HR as close to 80% as possible.

I have the opposite problem on the bike. After a 5-10 minute warm-up, I have to really crank up the intensity to get my HR up to 80%. I can sort of balance my heart rate by slowing a little and then speeding back up a bit. It’s not like the run where I have to continue to slow down once I hit 80%. It seems like I really have to work a lot harder to get my HR up on the bike.

I’m not really sure what my heart is doing during the swim. After about 100 yards, I’m breathing pretty hard and I can feel my heart thumping. I guess I need to check from time to time just to make sure it’s where it needs to be.
Looking forward to the race, I’m probably the most anxious about the swim.

1. The water is probably going to be pretty cold.
2. I haven’t swam 400 yards at once yet.
3. I haven’t swam and then rode the bike yet.
4. How can 400 people swim together without serious carnage?

It’s probably time to call the coach for a few more lessons. It’s nice to have a coach tell you what’s out of whack. I think I’m improving with the drills, but I can’t tell so much on the laps. My guess is that I’m making slight improvements just by going through the drills and thinking about form. I seem to have a hard time finding a comfortable pace that I can do for longer durations. I can do about 200 yards at once, but then I need to rest for a couple of minutes.

All workouts last week were done indoors . We had a cold snap that pushed the temps below my comfort zone. The forecast for next week is looking better so hopefully I can get outside a bit more. The Race for the Cure is coming up this Saturday. I’m going to run it as hard as I can to test myself. I’m shooting for 24 minutes or less.