I can’t believe the summer is almost halfway finished. I am sitting in Bend, OR. Today before my double race weekend (Half Ironman Saturday, Olympic Sunday). After these races which were meant to be more fun then competitive, I have Racine then…Kona. Wow.

This year I think I have already learned more then I have in the past couple seasons. I had mediocre races at best in California as well as Kansas. Memphis went all to hell mainly due to the heat, but also fatigue I think. For the first time since I can remember we really decided to rest aggressively mid season. I took a week where I basically took completely off. It was a leap of faith, but something drastic was in order. My workouts had been flat, I was dreading them and my numbers were dropping off significantly.

I think in retrospect it was the absolute right thing to do though. I usually fear this amount of rest for the same reasons any athlete does; will I get out of shape, will I gain a lot of weight, the usual. Well I decided to get really aggressive with my diet as well and for the first time in a long time I have been eating with a purpose in mind. During my rest week I lost almost 4 pounds. At first the energy was gone from the body, but it was Ok as I wasn’t really working out that much. Last week we did mainly aerobic work but made sure to have a couple light days interjected as well still. I really think I am back on the upswing now.

Besides rest and diet, I decided to get my structure figured out too. I spent some cash and invested in going to a rolfer. I was a bit nervous as deep tissue massage is not an experience I enjoy and I have always heard this is worse. When I went to the guy, I explained this to him and he assured me we would work within my tolerance. It was the first time that I went right out of an appointment feeling much different in a better way. I have become a total believer. If you have a chance to try this out, I would highly recommend it. Like anything however, make sure your practitioner is a good one so do some research.

Good luck to Russell who will be racing CDA. Russell, you have worked really hard and deserve a great result.

Power Bar SCORE!

Deb Hodgett is doing a good job getting me to try some of the new power bar stuff. I have to say, they are pretty tasty! Thank you Debbie.