I'll ditto the drop the long run. I'd say drop it down to the 2.5 or even less at this point. You're spending ALL your time recovering from your long runs and leaving scant little for biking. The 3:50 standalone mary VS 5+ IM would indicate a problem with bike fitness not with running fitness. If you can't get off the bike fairly fresh no matter how running fit you are you're not going to have a good run.

A friend of mine also mentioned alternating long bike and long run weeks and not doing them in the same week. Too much in a week will run you down and burn you out.

Find a couple hard local long, 100+ mi, group bike ride to do in the next 3-4 weeks and go do them. Organized rides are a bit more social and being on a course with 100-1000 people is way more fun than doing 6+ hours by yourself.

Like you said you're not looking to win so at this point it's about saddle time not about concentrated training effort.

~Matt

Thank you.

mm

thanks!
had a great workout this morning for a change, maybe I'll be able to turn things around..
(Guess I was setting myself up with posting my hours, ridiculously low for ST standards, I know. Not what I needed to hear, that I need to add some more weeks of confidence building wourkouts, well, my bad for posting I guess.
We'll see how it goes. Still got a couple of weeks.)

Yes, the heat and humidity are brutal, thought I'd drop on my long run last Saturday..well, I kind of did ;)
How are things in Austin?

Hang tough! I am also enduring the many months of florida summer while preparing for IM WI. It does feel like my motivation is tough to maintain but only a few more hard weeks and it will be ez til raceday. I am positive that by the time you get to madison the atmosphere of the event and college town will have you ready to go. Hopefully it will be cool for this years race, but if it isnt you will have a big advantage after training in this heat. Stay strong and see you there.

Cheers,

Jim



There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

I saw on my TiVo guide that they are replaying Kona from last year, this weekend. That always gets me in the mood to train even if I am in a slump (which I am right there with you right now, I think it feels like Sept. 10 will never get here).

---

Mike

This has worked for me in the past:

1. First, find one brand new running route and one brand new bike route. Find roads you've never been on before - ever. Do a couple of training runs/rides in those locations instead of your usual. If you live on the north side of town, go to the south. Even if you have to stay close to home, take that turn you've ridden past a hundred times and see where the road goes. Whatever. Do something different than your usual routes - anything.

2. Leave your watch, HR monitor, and cycle computer at home.

Collectively, the two things above will set you up for a situation where you have no idea how long you've been out, how far you've gone, or how fast you're going. There's a really good chance you'll find yourself having fun again.

It's worked for me.