Am I doing enough?

I mentioned to a my friend Mary a few days ago that even as much as I am working out right now, I just don't feel like I am doing enough. I don't know if that is a good way to think or not. I am following my program almost to the letter so I know I am working out enough but I just feel like I could do more. She gave me some good advice saying that I have to remember that I am training for a sprint and not a full Ironman. She is completely right. I have to remember that this is a process. That being said, I definitely feel like I did plenty this weekend.

Friday was a swim day. Not much new to report here. I am holding true to my plan. Last week was a four consecutive lap week. I swam 16 laps (800 yards) with 4 of those being consecutive. Next week I will kick that up to five consecutive laps and so on.

Saturday is when it got a little interesting. My plan was to go for a long bike ride Saturday. I wanted to get at least two plus hours in. This should give me about 30 miles. However, you know what they say about best laid plans and all. I was planning to ride Saturday afternoon after it warmed up quite a bit. As I was just laying around being lazy that morning, Mary calls and asks if I wanted to run with her. I figured I could just switch my ride til Sunday and run Saturday so I told her sure. Now, there are few things you should know: 1) she's a lot faster than me and 2) I haven't ran more than 4 miles since the half marathon on Jan 8. My plan hasn't called for it (this is part of why I had been feeling like I wasn't doing enough). We were planning to run 5 or 6 miles which I knew meant 7 or 8. I knew that I had the big ride the next day so I told myself that I was only going to run the first six then take it easy on whatever was left. I actually learned a little about myself. Since I wasn't planning to run 6-8 miles that day, I had not prepared myself mentally for it. I did not realize how important that was to me. After about 5 miles I was ready to shut it down. It just wasn't there for me. I also remembered later that I had not eaten much the night before or for breakfast and I really feel that hurt me too. Or maybe I'm just making excuses and it was just a bad day. I wasn't very pleased with my pace for the 6 miles. I ran it at a 9 min 19 sec pace. WAY SLOWER than what I'm capable of. After that it was basically a run walk cool down. I was pretty frustrated with myself but at least I got a solid 55 min workout in. 

Sunday's ride was much better. I got plenty to eat after church so I had no excuses. My plan was the same as before. Thirty miles which should take about two hours or so. I say "so" because I just wasted to get the miles in. I wasn't riding for speed. This was to be my longest ride to date and I just wanted to concentrate on the distance. Going out was good although I may have ridden it a little faster than I should have. I'm still learning what's fast and what's slow for me on the bike. My average pace was 14.5 mph when I made the turn around and although I was planning to not pay attention to my speed, I made it my objective to get my average speed up to 15 mph before I finished the 30 miles. I just can't help myself. If I'm not competing with someone it's like I have to make something up. Maybe it's a sickness. I finished with 32 miles at 15 mph with a 3 mile cool down. I was beat but it felt great all at the same time.