I’m actually already in Racine but finally had time to finish my post!

This was a busy week, by Sunday night I was exhausted!  I was happy to know that the next week would be a recovery/taper week.

Monday- Rest Day.

Tuesday-45 min run, and I was supposed to swim in the evening but I got my hair cut after work (finally!) and then had to go pick up Lola from the bike shop (she got a tune up), so by the time I was done it was 7p and I was huuuungry.

Wednesday-  Woke up early and made up my missed swim, 2600y.  After work I rode 1:20 on the trainer followed by a 2 mile run.  The trainer workout was once again tough and I was drenched after, which worked out well because it was raining outside, one less excuse to skip my run.

Thursday- 1 hr run in hilllls.  So, basically running around my neighborhood. 🙂

Friday- 2950y swim, longest swim so far this year!  I am so proud of getting in both swims again this week!  Last year I might have bragged a little after IMLOU that I mostly only swam 1x a week and still swam a decent swim, but with IMWI not having a current, well, I really need the pool time if I want to even come close to my swim time last year.  Also knowing I’m working on having good-looking arms motivates me as well. 🙂

Saturday- The plan for the day was for me to start riding at 6a to get in 30 miles, and then my friend Bob was meeting me at 8:15a to ride a 53 mile loop with me (he had zero interest in riding 5 hours, I do not blame him).  Well….. I fell asleep and forgot to set my alarm, and when I woke up, it was 6a.  After debating if I should just get up and try to get in at least an hour before we met up or sleep in, I decided to just sleep in.  We were also both running late, so we didn’t meet up until 8:30 and didn’t even get started until 8:45, which was a very late start time, especially with the hot temps we were supposed to have that day!!

Within 30 minutes sweat was dripping from my helmet, the heat was bearable but the humidity was awful.  After riding an hour we stopped at a gas station to refill water.  I was already feeling crappy…four more hours sounded awful.  Even though I’m pretty strict with my bike nutrition, I knew my current plan wasn’t going to cut it to get through this ride.  So…when in doubt, drink coke!  After drinking several gulps I was already feeling a little better, I might just have to drink coke at every stop on this ride!

An hour later we stopped in a little town to get water from a coffee shop, sadly they didn’t have coke 😦 Off we went and made it 100 yards, when Bob pulled over at a little tent that was set up on the side of the road.  Several local fire-stations were selling bratwursts and drinks to raise money for the a local charity. They were selling pepsi, so Bob decided to stop, hooray for sugar and donating to a good cause.

Off we went, 26 more miles until I dropped Bob off at his car, we really lucked out as there wasn’t any headwind but instead, tailwind!  The miles flew by pretty quickly, but the heat was really getting to us both.  Water, I wanted all of the water!  When we were back at the parking lot, I refilled my water and also mixed my 2hrs of Infinit and I was headed back out for two hours.

The headwind going back out was no fun at all.  Especially because I was pretty wiped from the heat and I was trying to add a little more speed during the last 2 hours to bring up my average speed to around 16mph.  Push, push, push and I was finally ready to turn around.  Bring on the tailwind!  I was flying during most of the last hour and when I pulled into the parking lot I saw on my watch I finished 82 miles in just a little more than 5 hrs.  My coach had me doing a 4 mile run after the ride…but considering it was 2:45p and the temp was 93 degrees and felt like 98, that sounded awful.  I tried to rally, and changed into my running shoes and hat and off I went.  It. Was. So. Hot.  After .5 miles I started to feel dizzy, and decided I would just get in one mile and call it a day.

When I got back from my short mile run, my iphone was so hot even it needed to cool down before it could function!

Just so you know I wasn’t making up the ‘feels like’ temp 🙂

I got home around 3:30, showered, washed my bottles, put Lola back in the basement and I was retired to the couch.  JMR and I did manage to go out to grab dinner around 6p, but when we got home, I watched a movie and ended up heading to go to bed around 9:30p.

Sunday- I was up earrrrlly, no oversleeping today!  However, this time it wasn’t for a workout, instead I was volunteering at a local triathlon.  I got there around 7, grabbed a small bagel and headed to the swim start to find my friends that were racing.  After chatting with them for a while, another club member and I watched the faster people head out for the bike, and then headed to our volunteer spots on the run course.

Once again, just like the day before, it was getting HOT out! By the time the race was over and I headed back home, around noon, it was already 95 degrees out. The thought of doing my planned 15 mile run made me sad. After rallying once I got home I decided to just start at one and deal with the heat. Waiting until the evening would definitely be a bit cooler but I’d also have the run hanging over my head all day.

Oh boy. It was hot. I made it 2.5 miles and had to duck into a restroom along the route because my stomach wasn’t thrilled to be doing this run either. At mile 7.5 my friend Ricky, who offered to run 6 miles with me, appeared and we headed out. This time slower than my earlier miles, and honestly I didn’t care. So hot. We even took walking breaks! Finally we were back at the Forest Park visitors center after 13ish miles and I threw in the towel and decided I was done. Technically I ran the length of time my coach had on my schedule, however at a much slower pace than planned. Although 1.7 miles missed didn’t make me feel too bad though, especially with the heat. Once again I was greeted with this iPhone message when I got back to my car:

Even hotter than the day before. Miserable.

When I got home I showered, ate and pretty much spent the rest of the day, well evening since I got home around 4, on the couch in my compression tights.

It’s a little scary to think this still isn’t the volume of my peak weeks, how did I survive last year?!? I must have blocked those memories out and replaced them with the ones of crossing the IMLOU finish line :).

Total training hours: 12:51