There never seems to be enough sleep

I'm sure it could be worse so I'll try not to complain too much, but man, what I wouldn't do for about 3 days with no work, no training, no upcoming plans to worry about... just 3 days of nothing but R&R. Maybe some swing time in the hammock, a little bit of laying out by the pool (with sunscreen, of course), some reading time... le sigh. For now, however, I shall continue to suffer. There is too much to do and too little time to do it. I'm pretty good about squeezing a nap in here and there, but after nights like last night (when the dog wakes you at 3AM b/c he miscalculated his H2O intake and needs to go out PRONTO) it seems like I can never catch up.

The idea of completing a 7 mile LSR plus a BodyPump class plus work seems like too much to tackle today. Honestly, I'd rather not do any of it. Obviously work has to be done, but I'm not sure what to do about the training. Maybe it will make me feel better, but what if it doesn't and I have those 'guilty' feelings about skipping an important run? I already took Tuesday off due the storm, so to take another day off so soon would not be a good idea. Then again, Tuesday wasn't really an 'off' day. Worrying about hurricanes and tropical storms is quite stressful on the body and mind.

Ack... enough! Talking about sleep is making me feel more tired.

So it's been one week since the order for the Cervelo P2C was placed. I suppose I'll hear something next week. I'm thinking about purchasing some new cycling shoes before my fitting... tri specific. Right now I'm wearing a pair of very hot and clunky Pearl Izumi Vagabonds. They were a good entry level road shoe when I only wanted to spend a few dollars, but the three straps takes a bit more time to deal with during transitions, the tongue always gets in the way, and they are HOT! The LBS where I purchased my bike sells the new Specialized BG TriVent Tri Shoe pictured below:

The store didn't have the women's version in stock, but I got a good look at the men's. Very light, very airy, no tongue. I was a bit worried about the straps b/c I noticed that they open towards the chain set; however, Specialized made it so that they have a stopping point (which you can see clearly on the top strap), so there really is no way for it to get caught. Overall, I liked what I saw in the men's model and price point is excellent at $165. One of the tri mags that I get said that these shoes are VERY breezy! Too breezy in colder climates. That sounds like a very FL specific shoe to me. :o) I think it's a pretty sweet looking shoe to boot! I love all of that silver! Watch out Tin Man!

A tri vet and trainer at my gym loaned me her Total Immersion book a few days ago. I gobbled down the entire thing already. I really wanted to take the class in September up at the National Training Center, but it looks like it's not meant to be this time around. It's definitely something that I want to do in the future, though. Anyway, I practiced some of the TI skills in the pool yesterday. Some of them are a bit elementary to me b/c I have swimming experience, but ALL of them served to reinforce some basic principles that every swimmer should drill on throughout their entire career in the water-- specifically body roll and balance. Swimming long and really extending during my reach is something that I've been working on for a while now (saw an article in one of the tri mags about it back in May/June), but I still tend to fall back into short strokes if I don't keep mentally focused on staying looooong. The book reminded me of this and thanks to it, my swim yesterday was absolutely glorious! I felt like I could go on forever!

There are a few drill sets in the TI book that I don't quite understand how to do appropriately and I think that's where the clinic will come in hand once I'm able to attend one. For now, it's all about the basics for me and just making that swim enjoyable. The swim in the Orlando Women's Sprint Tri is 820yd (750m), so that's twice the distance of the swim legs in my last two tris. The swim at the MiamiMan International is 1056yd (965m), so just a bit longer and actually on the shortish side for an International distance. I already know that I can tackle those two distances, but I need to do it at a slightly more comfy race pace than the one that I held in my previous two tris. The pace also needs to not be as slow as when I completed my 1.6 mile open water swim. So, it's going to be about finding that perfect balance of speed AND endurance. I think the TI swim concepts will really help me out with this if I can maintain TI form during the swim and not get overly excited!

Moving on to running... FIRST training is still going well (as long as I can bring myself to do my LSR today). However, speaking of the MiamiMan with it's shortish swim for an Oly distance; this same race also has longer than a 10K run. It's actually 6.6 miles! Honestly, I would have preferred a longer swim, shorter run... but oh well. Does the extra .4 mile make me nervous? You bet! Why? Because I'm such a slow runner in comparison to my swimming and biking abilities. Argh! Almost makes me wish that I would have save my first Oly distance for St. Anthony's next year when I have more running under my belt. I will admit that I have thought about the possibility of transferring my MiamiMan entry fee to the 2009 rac for this reason. I am a chicken!