The difference three weeks makes...

Today marks the beginning of four weeks of dieting and training on this journey to Ironman Florida 70.3 in December. Since the beginning, it would take me a month to get into some sort of shape. 

I'm committed mentally to not running until my calf heals. I injured it prior to starting this journey, and it's been sore for over four weeks. Since then, I've tried to run through it, and although I've been able to run, it's not quality training by any means. 

In the meantime, I will increase my swimming, biking, and weight training to compensate for this. I'm hoping that if I rest for 2 to 4 weeks, it will heal and still give me enough time to train enough to build a running base to complete the race. 

Tonight, I had an hour-long swim session on my schedule. I'm not a big fan of swimming; it's the training session I like least. But knowing I'm not going to have running sessions until I'm healed enough to run, I have no choice but to swim more. 

A big and surprising positive was that I had the best swim I've had since starting, and I think it was only my fifth swim. 

The noticeable improvement was my breathing. For the first time, I'm now comfortably exhaling when my head is underwater, my stroke is improving, and I'm catching water. I'm still very slow and have always been a slow swimmer. I think it's more that I don't like going into the hurt locker when I swim, and it's reflected in my low heart rate. For me, going over 120 bpm when I swim is rare.

My pace right now is approximately 2 minutes per 100 yards. I remember my best used to be 1 minute and 25 seconds for 100 meters, and compared to most, that is respectable but still slower than most. 

They say the key to being fast at swimming is technique. I've tried everything, and it still seems I'm slow. I'm pretty sure it's because I never go hard in the pool. I'll try going hard in the pool during these upcoming months and getting into the hurt locker. 

I have noticed in the mirror that my gut is getting smaller. I haven't weighed myself, so I don't know how much weight I've lost yet. For the first time, I plan to only weigh myself once a month. I don't want to weigh myself daily. I didn't weigh myself often when my weight was going up, and for the first time, I wanted to follow the same approach and not weigh myself when I was losing weight. 

My primary focus is not to lose weight or look better this time around. I am solely focused on training to get in shape to finish the Ironman Florida 70.3. With diet and training, my weight will go down, and my fitness will go up naturally. 

Swim - 1:02:27 - 2194 meters - 2:50/100-meter pace (includes rests in between sets. 


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