Rain Rain GO AWAY!!!

All is well at the Butler house. Rene had her first open water swim today at the May Madness Sprint Triathlon in Effingham, IL. She did awesome and did it with her friend Tiffany (also first OWS) It rained the entire time making for a muddy, sloppy mess. The good news is the bike was basically an out and back so not a lot of turns so no crashes which is great for everyone. Tiffany and Rene both got third in their respective age groups. The water temp was 67 degrees and the air temp was less than that. NBB, KGB, and myself were there for support (and the pizza afterwards of course)

With Rene's out of town tri today I had to get my long ride in yesterday. If you live local you know yesterday morning was rainy and 60ish degrees early. I had a choice, ride 3.5 hours indoors on the trainer or go out in the rain and gut it out. I have been on the trainer so much this winter I took my chances outside. It was cold, it was miserable but it was great! I rode from Bethalto to the Edwardsville trails out past Granite City and back. The weather was so bad I literally saw 1 runner, 1 mountain biker, and one other cycleist. The ride took closer to 4:00 hours but it was good. Came home, showered and hit the road for Effingham.

We got home this afternoon from Rene's Tri and we were all up pretty early this morning. I had to get my 1.5 hour run in today and 30 minute swim. Basically hit the door, unloaded the car and hit the road before the rains came.

My coach has me tracking my acute training stress (basically how hard I am working today and very recently), Training balance, (how stressed I am due to the cumulative of stress due to the training) and lastly, my cumulative training (how fit I am) This number is the most important because I have to have a high level of reserve fitness for the IRONMAN and it takes a long time to build that fitness. The good news is that it is quickly approaching my fitness level that I was at for my 1/2 IM at the end of last year's training cycle. In addition, it is still very early in the season. The bad news is that I have to keep an eye out for burnout and if it grows too fast or if I push too hard it increases my change for injury and/or fatigue. The second leg of the bad news is that I HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO before I am ready for such a taxing event.

Day off from training tomorrow and I am looking forward to that. This week will be prepping for my first Tri of the season this next weekend.... Memphis in May. It is a 1500M Open Water Swim, 40K on the bike and 10K run. This will be my first real test this year, I am hoping for a good perfromance. I am traveling one day this week and my schedule is a little busy but should be ready. I am pretty spent and sore from this weekend. Sore is good, injured is bad. I am definatley just sore.

All for now....

Tracy