Oh boy, I am really getting into the thick of training now.  It seems like the volume has slowly been building up, but now it’s here.  My coach has posted my workouts for the next few weeks, and we chatted about longer weekend training plans July-Sept on Monday, and sh*t is getting real!  But one day at a time, I won’t get ahead of myself, so let’s stick with weekly training recaps instead 🙂

Week 22 5/28 – 6/3

Monday – 3925y swim in the am, followed by yoga at lunch

Tuesday – Speedwork after work – 1 mi warmup, 4×800, 1 mi cooldown

Wednesday – 2100y swim, followed by 1 hour easy on the trainer at lunch

Thursday – Tempo run (this run is my nemesis…I cannot for the life of me hit these darn numbers!) 1 mi warmup, 3×1 mi @7:30 w/ 2 min RI, 2 mi @ 8:15-20 and then 1 mi cooldown.  I got it done, but didn’t hit all of the numbers

Friday – 1 hour of yoga….followed by a trip to Normal, IL for a sprint tri race Saturday morning!  I was on the fence about doing this race, since it’s a 3 hour drive and the race would only take an hour.  However, my coach and his wife were having a team BBQ after the race, so it would be fun to hang out and meet some other ECo teammates I haven’t met yet.  So, at 8p at night I headed to Normal (yep, very much a last minute decision!).  I arrived around 11p and was TIRED.  Of course I had lucked out and gotten an end room which was HUGE.  Too bad I was only going to spend 6 hours in it.

Saturday – I was up around 5a, headed to the race site around 5:50a and arrived around 6:20.  I picked up my packet, set up transition and then hung out at the club tent until my wave went off at 8:15a.  The race was short and sweet, 600y swim, 13 mi bike and 5k run.  The swim was uneventful, I swam well but not speedy, ended up swimming about the same pace as the St. George swim…so I need to learn to put a little more speed into shorter swims!  The bike….well, I had watch issues the whole bike which made for a very much ‘race by feel’ effort.  On longer races I usually lock my home screen so that I don’t accidentally hit a button while in aero, however I thought for this short of a race it wasn’t necessary.  I was wrong, I hit it at least four times.  Oh well.  Once off the bike I hussled through transition and was on the run feeling pretty darn good.  I hit the first mile around 7:30, felt even stronger on the second with a 7:17 spit and the last mile was a 7:15.  I was hoping to have run in the lower 7’s but I definitely wasn’t disappointed.  My time was good enough for 1st in my age group (hooray) so I was pretty darn happy about that too.

Final kick to the finish line. 

Race bling!  

After the race I headed back to the hotel to shower and change and then headed to the BBQ for a few hours and then headed back to Saint Louis around 6p.  When I got home I was wiped, but glad that I went!

Sunday – Back to the grind, 3 hour ride followed by a 20 minute run.  This ride kicked my butt because of the headwind on the second half.  At some points it was laughable at how much effort I was putting in and how slow I was still going.  🙂  Got it done though!

Total Training Hours: 11:24

The next few weeks are BIG weeks….like 4-5 hour rides, 12-16 mile runs…eek!  Like I said earlier, one day at a time… otherwise I get ahead of myself and start to stress!

Ok, that’s it for now, Happy Friday! 🙂