When to say "when"

Aghhh!  Sorry, its been a few days!  But I promise-I’ve been busy!

Saturday I swam 4,000 yards in the afternoon which followed a three hour walk with Dixie while we waited for the shop to fix my car.

Sunday I was slated to get in a 12,000 yard swim, but I woke up so exhausted with achy shoulders and I decided a day off from swimming was required.  I’ve been pushing a little too hard I think and my body is telling me that.  The key to avoiding injury when you are training this much is all about knowing when to say "when."  I was kind of in a “funk” emotionally over the weekend and my experience is that points to imbalance in training or too much training. I decided that although I really want to be the kind of athlete that can handle a 3 weeks hard 1 week recovery schedule, I have come to the realization that much like last year, my body doesn’t do as well on that schedule.  So I will now resort back to a 2 week hard one week recovery schedule for the rest of my training.  I am now on a recovery week (without my 12,000 yard on Sunday, last week’s total was only 24,000 yards).

This morning I did get up and get in a 6,000 yard practice, but it was an easy 6,000.  I took today off of work which gave me an opportunity to check about a million things off of my to-do list.  I got the benefit account set up so I can start collecting donations (tomorrow’s post will have the details on that), I got my PO box for those who want to mail donations, I got my Lake Chelan maps laminated (and one hung on my wall!), I met with a nutritionist and I took Dixie-doodle to the vet for her check up.

My nutrition appointment was great.  I had been documenting my food intake for the past week so that Ashley could tell me how my caloric intake was and things I needed to improve on.  What I learned is that I am slightly under eating for the amount of activity I am trying to get out of my body.  My normal workout day (with only an am swim of 2 hours) should be at about 3300 calories.  I’m about 500 less than that at this point on average.  Ashley gave me a few things to add/change about what I am eating and when as well as some new high protein foods that I hadn’t even heard of which I am excited about trying.  I’m going to work on the things she suggested over the next month and meet with her again at the beginning of August to re-asses and also to formulate a plan as for nutrition during my swim.

So tomorrow its back to work.  I’ve got a light workout schedule for the rest of this week. My sister and my niece and nephew are going to be in town this weekend and then my niece will be staying with me here for 2 weeks!  She is a little fishy, so I am thinking she will make a great training buddy for that time period!

Okay, well I will have more details on how to donate to my fundraising efforts in tomorrow’s post!

Good night!

~Emily