Need To Push

    I am beginning to feel as if I am not pushing myself hard enough, especially in the pool. Oh sure, I can go and pump out 50 laps, which is a decent distance. But it doesn't fatigue me. I need to be swimming hard enough that I crawl out of the pool quivering with exhaustion, and wanting to throw up. I am adding some different drills to try and push myself harder, including individual medley sets (breast stroke, back stroke, and crawl), and sprints. It does not seem like enough, but I will keep pushing. I have bumped up the cycling, adding power bursts, sprints, and tabata sets, as well as morning workouts 4 days a week in addition to my standard evening workouts. I have started up running again. I admit, I hadn't run since my 70.3, but now an running on the dreadmill 4 times a week, slowly adding distance. The key here is that I am at the point that in order to improve I need to either add more time, or more intensity. Honestly, I don't want to devote more time to training than I already am. I have better things to do with my time than always be sweating out a workout.
    I am pretty sure these statements are being met with eye rolls from most people. "Sheesh, not pushing yourself? Seriously?" Yeah, it probably does sound a bit, dare I say, egotistical, to a lot of people, but I am serious. Two months ago I did a half-Ironman, 70.3 miles under my own power, and didn't suck at it. But, I did have brutal leg cramps for 9 miles of the run, largely in part to lack of running foundation. Now, I am looking at wanting to double that distance? That is fucking insane. There, I said it. I am crazy. I may be crazy, but I am not stupid, I need to be able to effortlessly swim about 2.5 miles, and easily cycle 100+ miles so that I can have energy left to run a marathon. Hell, right now I wouldn't have the energy to run the marathon, much less do it after having already spent 8 hours or so swimming and biking. So yeah, I need to push myself a bit.
    There is also that small matter that I do not want "Off-season weight gain." I know I am obsessing, but I worked damned hard to get where I am and I don't want to blow it now. It is much harder to try and rebuild fitness, than it is to maintain it.
    Now to that end, to push myself, I need to get to bed so I can be up at insane-thirty, aka 5:15 am, to put in my morning 70 minutes of cycling and running before I trundle myself off to work. Tomorrow, thursday, is a swim day as well, so I need to be thinking of what I will do once I slip into the water. It never ends. And I'm glad it doesn't. I love that I can push myself as much as I do, now I just need to take it to the next level.