Yep… wow.  This week marks 20 weeks until IMAZ!!

Training really is starting, as I’m no longer just building a base.  Although my ‘base’ over the month of June was pretty non-existent.  Coming off of Triple-T I was pretty tired and somewhat burnt out (more emotionally than physically, the thought of just finishing that race sounded so daunting), and on top of that, several other things that happened in June (broken AC being one of them), caused my training to lose its priority and take a back seat.

Well, something about July 1st (and it was a Monday too!) seemed so official.  And the number 20.  A nice even number.  When you think about it, 5 months really isn’t that far away….and I have A LOT of work to do.  My biking needs some serious work, apparently tri bikes suck at climbing hills compared to road bikes, so I need to get much stronger (no real hills in Arizona, but there are where I live, so training will be miserable if I don’t get stronger), my swimming volume is laughable (ahem. 5x in the month of June)… I wasn’t lying about training sitting in the back seat…heck, it was in the trunk.  And I need to get a solid running base now that my hips seem to be under control (knock on wood).  So…..not only is training getting serious, but I am a bit behind from where I wanted to be at this point.  However, I’m ready to put in the work, so bring it on July 1st!!

Monday I did my planned 40 minute run followed by an upper body workout my friend PT put together.  Which kicked my butt.  A lot.  It involves a deck of cards, each suit is a different exercise (pull ups, abs, dips and push ups) and the number is how many reps you do (Aces are 14. Ouch).  So by the end, you will have done 105 reps of EACH.  I was sore until today.  Let’s just leave it at that.

Tuesday was a rest day, but I felt good (and full of energy to get back to training), so I took a spin class to get a little more biking in for the week (I only had two rides on my schedule), which also kicked my butt.  I forgot how tough those classes can be (plus I was still super sore from Monday…it hurt to move my arms!).

Wednesday was a forced rest day due to a shady tuna sandwich I had at lunch that my stomach didn’t agree with.

Thursday a group of us from the tri club met up late in the morning for a 25 mile ride, followed by a 2 mile run as a fun way to spend the holiday (and day off).  The ride was tough because apparently I am unable to ride hills at all on my tri-bike, but afterwards we got lunch at the Boathouse restaurant nearby which made me forget about the awful parts of the ride 🙂

I matched my bike!!

After lunch I headed home to do a costume change, aka, shower, put on my suit, lather up the sunscreen and head to swim with T and R at a nearby 50 meter outdoor pool.  I wasn’t sure how my arms would do since my swimming hasn’t been happening and I was STILL sore from Monday, but between the live band playing, the beautiful 50 meter pool (man, now I’m really going to hate swimming after work today in the little 25 meter pool at the Y), and it just being so nice out, I managed to swim 2600 meters, the longest I’ve swam so far this year!  Hooray!

After the swim, I headed home to take my second shower of the day and then went over to R’s to hang out with his wife, family and T and her husband for a BBQ.  By 8p, I was tiiiired, skipped out of watching fireworks, went home and watched fireworks on tv (ha) and was in bed by 9:30p!

Today I have a half day at work, then heading home to run and swim and then off for a girl’s weekend!!! (spoiler: it involves biking and running…) 🙂