... Like an Old Tired Dog

Yep, talking about my ass because my ass is dragging like an old tired dog.  I think that quote was from Goose in Top Gun?

Speaking of Top Gun, what the hell happened to that cast?

- Tom Cruise became some crazy Scientologists.  I have trouble even watching any of his movies anymore because all I see is him jumping on Opera's couch and calling Matt Lauer "glib".

- Val Kilmer used to be awesome.  He went from the guy that made Jim Morrison cool by playing Jim Morrison to a straight to video phenomenon. He was the quintessential cool dude that has eaten himself to the quintessential fat guy.  Proof:

- Kelly McGillis completely disappeared for years. Then one Saturday morning last year I click on my favorite SyFy channel and see her as the lead role in a made-for-Sy-Fy movie called Supergator.  Now don't misunderstand what I am saying, Supergator was full of pure SyFy B-flick awesomeness - Kelly McGillis was not.  I was excited when her head was ripped off by a supergator.

- Goose went on to ER fame, Meg Ryan has had a great career (if you like crappy chick flicks), and Tim Robbins still throws like a girl - sorry, he ruined Bull Durham.

NOW the reason I even bring all this up is because this is the conversation I had with myself while suffering through 15 + miles running on Sunday morning.  I was so mentally exhausted that I was completely incapable of rational or coherent thought.  I was 5 minutes into the run and thought, "Dammit, my ass is dragging like and old tired dog." This triggered the who said that?  This triggered the answer of Goose? And then this little 1986 pop culture moment occupied my mind for the next 2 hours.  Seriously I was keeping a mental checklist of every movie that every actor in Top Gun made after Top Gun.  Does anyone else ever have benign exchanges with themselves while training or am I nuts?

Okay here the Week 17 numbers:

SWIM:  4 Trainings - 5h 55m - 12,100 Yds
BIKE:   4 Trainings -  9h 43m - 177.40 Mi
RUN:   4 Trainings -  5h 16m -  37.40 Mi
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Totals: 12 Trainings - 20h 54m 


Longest Ride - 88 Miles
Longest Run - 15.1 Miles

This was my biggest volume week YTD and I am feeling it right now.  I was feeling very strong going into the weekend with an 88 mile ride Saturday morning.  I came home and relaxed in the afternoon and then went out for the scheduled run which included lactate intervals of 6x3min with 3mins of active recovery.  The total run ended up being 7.41 miles with an average pace of 7:32/mi.  I actually felt great after the run but when I woke up Sunday morning I was beat - with a planned 2h 30m run still to be completed.

This run was probably one of the most difficult training runs I have ever done.  A groove was never found, not once.  About mile 12, both my right knee and my left ankle began to bark.  By mile 15 I decided to continue would be stupid because I was going to injure myself.  So I walked a dejected mile back to the car, but it was okay because I knew that the right decision was made. Total run was 15.1 miles in 2h 09m @ a 8:32/mi pace - fail.

After two days of compression, ice, and swimming the legs feel much better and the knee and ankle are back to normal.

So this week the volume comes down to a more reasonable 17 or so hours with a lot of high intensity workouts and another long weekend but the long run is on 1h 20m!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff