Checking In/How does this all work again?

Training is happening.  2x strength and conditioning sessions every week, 7am Tuesday and 7am Friday mornings.  Like clockwork.

Running is happening for most sessions - though there was a week where things didn't line up so well for it.  I did, however, manage the scary session that was hanging over me since I saw it in the plan a while back...  Yasso 800s, the speed session of dooooom!

Green graph is pace, the thick squareish route is god knows how many laps of the rec.

The lack of racing going on is making me feel a bit weird, but life just seems too busy to manage even the day-to-day stuff without worrying about race logistics too.  I have no idea how I managed to train for 70.3 Zell Am See and do things like washing, cooking, occasionally going out, seeing Mr TOTKat for more than 5 mins a day whilst awake; but I had a different job then, and so did Mr TOTKat.  My current job is quite relaxed about hours, but there's no gym close by so swim/turbo isn't possible at lunch time; still I manage to have no time in the evening when I get home around 19:30 or later.  When I want to be getting up at 05:45 every day, to make the 2 days I have to do it for S&C much more routine, I need to be in bed by 21:00.  This is *hard* to schedule and make work and not end up resenting one thing or another.

I wanted to cycle commute at least a little bit, but it's not in my training plan and I'm prioritising sleep a lot of mornings too.  So, I'm also a bit sad that I'm not doing any cycling at the moment.  This tiredness thing is quite demoralising having been feeling great this time last year with 6am starts every weekday and quite a bit of training load in the week.

I'm going for a bit of a check up to see whether the reason I'm tired a lot is simply lack of sleep or something else related to needing to supplement vitamins given the amount of exercise I'm getting.  My gut feel is that it's just sleep as I'm actually not doing a lot of exercise in the grand scheme of things - averaging 6 hours a week including 2x 50mins S&C.  But we'll see what comes out of the blood work, I'd love it if it was something as simple to fix as needing more vitamin D or B12 or something!

Rotterdam Marathon - this feels odd

This really does feel odd.  I'm running a marathon on Sunday; my first marathon.  Despite the fact I've run the distance 6 times already; 1x Ironman & 5x Ultra Marathons.

I'm told this isn't unusual for people who have done Ironman triathlons, not to have run a standalone marathon, nor ever to run one.  But it's probably not all that normal for people who have run an Ultra marathon.

26 miles is a weird distance, to me.  Too short to be a nice run.  Too short to be something I can run easy.  Too short to use my usual method of pacing and dealing with the moods and thoughts that I experience when running.  I'll have to run it hard and that's a long time to run hard for.

Let's see what happens.

I don't know why

I went a bit silly at work on Friday.  I'd had a good week in general, lots of gym and cycling and good food in appropriate quantities.  Then there was a pretty major milestone achieved and my boss got cake in.  I have -no- idea what happened.  I have -never- been one to go nuts with sweet things, not in my life.  So, when I ended up having 3x Gu Millionaires Flapjacks, 5x M&S raspberry yoghurt bites and a raspberry cup cake...  What. The.  Hell?  Had I stopped before the cupcake that would have just been a bit piggy, but I'm actually lost for words with that haul.  Especially given that I knew we were having pizza for dinner and a couple of beers.  Just... I... I plain have no idea what happened there.  I don't feel guilty, or horrible, or scared I'll put on 10 pounds.  I'm just confused.

Any of you guys done something totally mad and random relating to eating like that?

Anyhoo.

Today's gym was pretty good.  I managed to increase the weights on the overhead raise with squat and the lunges with overhead swing with the ViPR from 16kg to 20kg as well as getting more reps in on the squat with clean and press with the 30kg barbell, and I had a go on the leg press and lat pulldown machines to see how heavy I can manage these days.  55kg on the lat pulldown, without cheating and using my bodyweight to pull it down.  And 110kg on the leg press.