It's Really Not Over Just Yet....

With the hard competition effort on Sunday, April 26th, I took this week to recover a bit. I also wanted to let my hip rest a bit to ensure that I have good control of any residual inflammation. I took Monday completely off and then did a 16.5 mile bike ride at a moderate to hard effort on Tuesday. Wednesday was a travel day for work so it made sense to take the day off as well. As Thursday rolled around I felt refreshed and ready to train hard the next several days. I completed a swim session of 1,000 yards and a 15 mile hard effort bike ride that day. Yesterday, I swam 1,200 yards and did a 4 mile tempo run at an 8:12 min/mile pace. Both Thursday and Friday training efforts felt very good.

I'm looking forward to a hard 20 mile bike ride today, a 3 mile easy run, and strength training. I'll take a day off from swim training. Sunday will be additional bike work...with a training session consisting of several hill repeats. I'll also do a swim workout that will focus mainly on drills. I've been working very hard on my swim technique the last few sessions...and have been focused on "the catch" phase of my freestyle stroke. I'm doing drills to work on developing a habit of keeping my elbows high during the catch and getting my forearm and hand vertical as quickly as possible. This will provide better mechanics for an efficient "catch." By the end of the day tomorrow, I will have completed 4 straight days of 2 or more workouts each day. I'm hopeful that my hip will tolerate the intensity and volume, and that I will wake up Monday morning feeling good!

I've been pausing a lot this past week...pausing to think about a few things....thinking about how lucky I am to have the opportunity and ability to train and compete. I'm fortunate....don't you think? Many people in our world can't do what I do. I'm blessed with this opportunity to enjoy something that is really important to me.

With my hip pain the past couple of weeks, I had thoughts several times about quitting. I began to think that I could never really overcome this....that I was creating a lot of pain needlessly with all of this training. I think I made it through a difficult time period...and I know there will be more to come. I have news for you....I'm not quitting. I won't quit. I have more to do and more to accomplish. I'm not quitting.

I'll decide when I'm done....not my hip. My mind is stronger than that hip anyway. The two of them battle it out all the time....and every time...I mean EVERY TIME...my mind eventually wins.

So...now you know why I title my blog...."It's not over until I say it's over." And I'm telling you today....it's not over just yet.

TJ