Rest: It's Part of the Program

I knew this past week was going to be busy but I figured I'd probably be able to get a swim and a weight workout in towards the end of the week.  What I didn't count on was getting hit with a cold.  Nothing like getting sick on day one of a 4 day location shoot.  Ugh.  Any plans I had for working out went out the window.  Which is probably just as well because I put quite a beatdown on my legs in last week's half marathon and honestly think my body needed the rest.  I made it through the week thanks to Benalyn Cold & Flu.  I was still blowing my nose and sneezing on the weekend but I felt much better energy wise.  Even so, I opted to take the full week off.  Yup, you read that right.  I did NOTHING.  Nada.  Despite the fabulous summer like weather.  I can honestly say I didn't even FEEL like doing anything.   I actually enjoyed lazing around.  I even went clothes shopping in a real store (not online!).  It was a lovely weekend and I didn't really miss the fact that I didn't do anything physical.   

Clearly I'm in need of a bit of a break. I think all this uncertainty with my knees has really done a number on my head and my mojo.  I've opted not to run for the next several weeks to just let my knees settle down.  I'm still going to swim and lift weights.  Cycling is a maybe, it will depend on my knees.  I'm also going to go to a few yoga classes and finally get some pilates in my life.  So it's not like I'm going to be doing nothing.  That would not be a good thing.  I need some form of movement in my life.

I will also have time to actually cook real food.  I need to undo the damage done from the last two weeks.  All of my days had a lot of this (not always a bad thing):

Some of this (unfortunately for my waistline)

And there was a little bit of this later on in the week.  Again, not really great for the waistline but whatevs.  Everything in moderation, right?

I made it back to the pool this morning and surprisingly, I didn't die.  I actually felt pretty good, maybe because we were using fins.  We'll see how I do on Wednesday!

How was your week of workouts?  
Do you take time off a certain sport in your off season?  
How much time do you take off?

The Forced Taper + Weekly Recap

I don't really have much to share with you because work kind of took over my life last week.  I managed two whole workouts.  And then I raced yesterday.  I guess you could call it a forced taper.  And this week will be the start of my recovery.  Although I'm not sure spending 4 days traipsing around the city, eating less than ideal food and spending a fair bit of time on my feet, could be considered recovery. Especially since I can't really walk right now.

But that's a story for a later date.  Let's look at my "forced taper" week.

Monday:  slept in, pool was closed
Tuesday:  70 minutes of strength and mobility work
Wednesday:  1550m swim
Thursday:  Worked early
Friday:  Worked early
Saturday:  got my hair done
Sunday:  Ran a half marathon

Swim:  1550m
Bike:  0
Run:  21.1km.  

Total Time:  3h 21 minutes.  I think this is the easiest week I've had this year, ha ha.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't awesome to have a lazy Saturday!  I stayed in my pjs until 9:00 am!  Absolute LUXURY!

This week is probably going to look much the same and that's ok.  My legs need to recover from yesterday's beat down and my brain needs to focus 100% on work this week.  So my Barrelman / Real Deal Showdown race report might have to wait until the weekend.  C'est la vie!

How was your week?  Did you race this weekend?

That's All She Wrote: Lakeside Sprint Tri Race Report

The last time I did this race was in 2008.  And back then it was a 750m swim, 30km bike and 7.5km run vs. the 20km bike and 5km run that it is now.  I had also registered for it in 2011 but bailed at the last minute due to the freezing cold temps and the fact that it was only really a "C" race for me.  I had my eyes on a bigger prize at that time.  Being that it's in September, you're pretty much taking a chance that it's going to be chilly.  At least in the morning.  Luckily MSC has caught on and has now pushed the start up to 10:00 am, which is great and usually makes a difference when it comes to temperatures.  Except for this year.

We haven't really had much of a summer here in Ontario and it seems to have made a very hasty departure.  I figured we'd have a few more warm lazy days but no, Mother Nature has other plans.  At least she did this past weekend.  The first half of last week was lovely.  Perfect summer weather, albeit a bit humid.  Then it rained and with that rain came cooler temps, which wasn't too bad.  Until those cooler temps became even cooler.  I checked the forecast for the weekend and Saturday looked pretty dismal:  a high of 14 and rain.  It had the potential to be like IM Switzerland all over again.  At least I only had to ride 20km vs 180.   I made sure I packed a jacket, gloves and arm warmers and resigned myself to the fact that my T1 time was going to be atrocious.

It was the last race of the season, everyone's last kick at the can for some more series points.  I was leading the points standings by 70 points.  If I didn't race this and the girl in second place did and got 4th place or higher, I'd be booted off the top step.  So, I bit the bullet and signed up.  Luckily all my tri gang pals were planning on racing so I knew it would be fun from that stand point at least.

G and I hit the road at 7:00 am under cloudy skies.  We figured there wouldn't be much traffic on the roads at 7:00 am on Sunday.  And there wasn't.  Until all of a sudden there was.  We got on to the 401 and almost immediately hit a traffic jam.  There was construction in the westbound lanes by the 403 and they only had ONE lane open.  The back up was huge.  Thankfully we were in the passing lane and we happened to notice people somehow getting through into the express lanes.  We figured there had to be an opening up a head.  Sure enough a few minutes later we see it.  Along with about 8 other people that all rushed it.  You had to drive over a little curb, into a small ditch and over another little curb.   Done.  See ya later suckers! 

Shortly after that the rain started.  Lightly at first and then it just got downright awful.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it was warm out but the temperature was reading 8 degrees.  Ugh.  Once we got off the highway the rain didn't seem so bad but it had done it's damage.  The road we run on was a mess as was the parking lot (a.k.a someone's back yard).

Stupidly I wore flip flops as I didn't want to bring an extra pair of running shoes.  Dumb dumb dumb.  My feet were gross and cold.  And the bottom of my warm up pants were soaking wet and covered in mud.  This was starting off to be a great day.  To add to my stress, it took us a while to get our race packet etc so by the time I got into transition, I didn't have a whole lot of time to get myself sorted out.  Before I knew it they were telling everyone to get out of transition. Ahhhhhh!

I grabbed my stuff and made my way through the muck towards the water.  I got my wetsuit on and had G zip it up.  He went off to do a warm up and I put the rest of my stuff on.  I found Irina coming out of the water and she said the temperature was perfect.  Nice!  I waded in, let the water seep into my suit and dove in.  I had forgotten how shallow this lake was.  And how mucky the bottom was.  Irina also mentioned there were some weeds.  Ugh.  I hate weeds.  I swam out a ways, through the weeds, stretching out my arms.  My shoulders were really tight.  Nothing I could really do about it at this point.  I saw the boats jockeying for position so I figured that the first wave was going to be heading off soon so I made my way back to shore.  I had to find G for my good luck kiss too.

I wandered around the shore and eventually found him.  I got my smooch and it was time for him to head out.  Irina found me again and we hung out in the water, totally goofing off.  We did some jumping jacks and busted out a few dance moves to keep warm.  Our wave started moving forward and I took my usual position off to the side and back.  I figured we'd have a lot of room to move once things got going.  The gun went off and I waded into the water until it was just past my waist.  Then I started swimming and I almost immediately got caught up in a huge crowd of people.  I tried to swim away from them but I couldn't seem to shake anyone.  I started to feel panicky so I stopped and breast stroked for a while.  I finally put my head back in and started to swim.  I got around the first buoy without incident and figured things should finally spread out.  Nope.  I kept finding bunches of people.   I just wanted clear water.  So around them I went.  There seemed to be a bit more chop going this way and I lost my rhythm again so I stopped to catch my breath and calm down.  I put my face back in and started breathing every other stroke until I got to the second buoy.  I made my way around that buoy and resumed my normal stroke.  I was shocked to find that I was STILL in a crowd of people.  I kept swimming and then noticed that the crowd disappeared.  That usually means I need to sight because there's a good chance I've swam off course.  Which was exactly the case.  I righted myself and continued on.  I could see the shore so I started to push the pace.  I swam until my hand scraped the ground then I got up and ran, pulling my wetsuit off as I went.

Swim:  14:07

I knew T1 was going to be a gong show as I was going to putting on socks and a jacket due to the cold.  I was totally discombobulated and almost missed my spot when I ran in.  I took the time to dry my feet before I yanked my socks on.  Getting my jacket on was also a bit of a joke.  But I got it done.

T1:  2:09 - not too bad!

I had brought gloves but really didn't want to fuss with putting them on so I left them in transition.  5 minutes into the bike I realized that wasn't the best idea.  My hands were cold.  My arms and chest were fine.  My legs, on the other hand, were not.  They were completely frozen and they never seemed to warm up.  I tried to push the pace and I just couldn't.  I wanted to hammer the flats and downhills but my legs wouldn't let me.  The Lakeside course is fairly hilly and you are heading downhill on the way OUT so you know you need to save something for the way back, so I guess it's just as well I didn't have it it me to hammer.  As I was heading into the first downhill, I saw Axel from Iron Rogue and I said Hello!  He said hello back and I think he wished me well, I couldn't hear anything due to the water in my ears and the fact that my aero helmet covers my ears.

I finally got into my aerobars on that downhill and stayed in them until we hit a turn.  For once I didn't get caught behind people who were blocking or drafting.  Everyone seemed to be playing nicely.  There were a few folks that I really had to holler On Your Left to when I passed because they were bobbing and weaving everywhere.  I never really got stuck behind anyone until the last climb about 5km from the finish.  There were a couple of dudes who insisted on riding in the middle of the road.  I had to yell on your left twice to one of them.  I passed both of them and pulled over to the right, figuring they'd catch me on the flats.   I made the last turn and tucked into my aerobars again.  One of the guys I passed earlier, passed me on my RIGHT.  I wasn't THAT far out in the middle of the road so I'm not quite sure why he did that.  He's lucky there wasn't an OAT official there.   I rolled up to the dismount line and jumped off my bike.

Bike:  38:07

I figured T2 would also be a bit slower than normal due to my frozen hands and the fact that I had to remove a jacket. But.....

T2:  1:02 - not as bad as I thought!

As soon as I started running, I realized that I couldn't feel my feet.  They had gotten a bit wet on the bike.  I could feel the cold on my feet towards the end of the bike but didn't think they were that bad.  Apparently I was wrong.  They felt like bricks for about the first two km.  To top it off, the surface we were running on was hard packed gravel that had potholes everywhere and these potholes were filled with water.  I was soaked within the first km.  Not only that but I was covered in mud. My legs were also not happy.  They were still cold and it took a while for me to get into a good stride.  The Lakeside run course is a bit hilly, not like Bala but there are some small climbs that kind of suck.  Especially since it's a gravel surface.  I got into a good groove by the 2km mark, trying to spot any one in my AG, which was pretty much impossible given the fact that everyone's calves were covered with mud.  So, I just ran hard. I saw G coming back in and he looked strong.  Shortly after G, I saw my friend David.  He yelled Go PK as I ran by him.  As I got close to the turn around, I spotted a woman up ahead.  She became my target.  I ran up the hill to the turnaround, thanked the volunteers that were there and flew down the hill, keeping my bunny in my sight.  She had turned the corner and was making her way up another hill.  I busted out the shovel and started digging.  I had to find another gear.  My legs and lungs were screaming at me but I was gaining on her.  Half way up the hill I caught her.  Her leg was covered so I didn't know her AG.

I crested the hill and eased up a bit to catch my breath.  It was a nice long gradual downhill to the finish so I let momentum carry me.  On my way back, I saw Lionel Sanders out on the run course doing his cool down.  I caught up to him and ran beside him for a minute.  As I ran up to him I said, OMG, I'm running with Lionel Sanders!  He started laughing and said Good Work.  I then pulled away from him and said OMG I'm leaving Lionel Sanders in my dust!  He laughed out loud again and said Go Get 'Em!

I came barreling along towards the finish and I saw G, David, Jordan & Zindine all cheering, I said oh heyyy it's all my favourite people..!  They all stuck their hands out for high fives as I ran by.   I turned the corner to head down the finishing chute and I heard someone say Go Phaedra!  I caught up to a really tall guy as I came down the chute and I think we crossed the finish line together.

I crossed the finish line and went to find the crew.  I ran into my sister in law and nephew on the way out - she was the person I heard yelling Go Phaedra.  I had also seen them while I was on the bike course which was a nice surprise.  We met up with the crew and then went back to transition to see about getting some warm clothes on.  I was FREEZING.  I toweled off the mud on my legs, put on 3 tops layers and then wandered over to the awards area.  I checked my results and found out that I had won my AG.  SWEET.  Talk about ending my season on a high note!  That finish should have secured my top spot in the overall points series.

Despite the crappy conditions, it was still a pretty fun day, made so by the fact that all my pals were there.  It was fitting to share the last race of the season with these guys as they were all so much a part of my racing year.  Triathlete friends are the best!

Can you tell we're all freezing?

The last kick at the can for me this year is the Real Deal Showdown at Barrelman and I'd be lying if I said I felt 100% prepared to do this.  I don't.  My training has sucked over the last 3 weeks and this past week has been brutal in terms of my work / life balance (all work, no life).  On the plus side, my knees don't hurt but I'm sure they will after Sunday.  But at least after Sunday, I know they're going to get a well deserved rest. 

That's a Wrap + A Weekly Re-cap

Well, this week didn't really pan out the way I had hoped due to my cranky knees but I still managed to get *some* good work in.  I suspect this week will be much of the same leading up to my last race of the season on Sunday.  I'm mentally preparing myself for all the down time I'm going to have after Barrelman.  This weekend also marked my last tri of the season....in 10 degree weather and rain...but there will be a full recap of that later on this week.   It wasn't my best race of the season but it was enough to secure my top spot in the overall AG standings for the Multisport Canada race series.  YES!

My week rolled out like this:

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  70 minutes strength & mobility work + a 12km ride into work.

Wednesday:  2250m swim

Thursday:  60 minutes strength & mobility work + 7km interval run in p.m.

Friday:  1750m swim, mostly pull & paddles, which totally killed me.

Saturday:  RACE:  750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run

Sunday: 1600m swim

Totals:

Swim:  6350m
Bike:  32.80km
Run:  12.11km

Total time:  6h 47 minutes.

I suspect that my weekly recaps are going to start looking a lot more like this.  Minus the running.  And maybe even minus the cycling depending on how my knees feel.  Cue sad face.  Although there will definitely be some yoga and pilates in there.  Gotta work on recruiting those glutes!  On the plus side, if I'm not working out so much, I'll have time to catch up on my reading list and do all those little things I've been meaning to do around the house.

Riight.

How was your week of training? 

Free Falling

This Saturday marks my last triathlon of the season.  I'm not counting the Real Deal Showdown at Barrelman because all I'm doing is running, even though it's "technically" a triathlon.   After Barrelman I think my season my very well be over.  Mentally I could easily keep going but I think I'm going to have to let my body decide what it wants to do and I'm going to have to make sure I listen to it.  I had hoped to be able to do the Niagara Falls Half with my run club but the jury is still out on that because my knees are still causing me problems.  Not as bad as earlier in the season but they are definitely still an issue.  I have some weeks where I'm totally fine and then I go and either push it a little too much on a run or at the gym and then they hurt again.  Can you say overuse?

I went in to see Peter yesterday for some A.R.T.  I've been working on addressing some issues in my left leg (it doesn't fully extend it's so tight) with stretching and foam rolling and it's gotten somewhat better but I needed a little extra help.  Peter asked me if I had any crazy adventures planned for next year and was genuinely surprised when I said "No".   He asked me how I felt about that and I answered "Weird".  His response was "Just go with it".   He's right, but I'm struggling.  I find having a concrete goal keeps me motivated and focused over the winter.  That's one of the reasons training for Boston was so great.  I'd come off my season, rest for a couple of weeks, do some easy running or whatever I felt like, then roll into Boston training the last week of December.  Not this year.  I'm watching all the Boston 2015 talk on social media and feeling a wee bit sad.  I re-qualified but I've decided not to go back.  I can't put my body through another winter of marathon training.   It needs to rest.  It needs less running mileage.  I never thought I'd say that but after all the aches and pains I've had this year, I have to listen to my body if I want running to be a part of my life for the long term.

I normally love this time of year.  Fall is my absolute favourite season to run in.  Nothing beats heading out on a cool, crisp fall morning with the leaves changing colour and the sun shining.   But this year I will probably spend those days either in the pool or foam rolling in my living room.   Hopefully there will be some time in the saddle as well but we'll see.  Knees are an integral part of cycling too and if I'm going to take time off, it may have to be across both sports.   Cue the tears.  I am going to be a miserable cow.  I apologize to everyone I know in advance for any crankiness that may happen as a result of this self imposed exile from sports.

Needless to say I feel like I'm free falling a bit and I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I always have some kind of a goal.  But, I feel like right now is not the time to be setting goals that I may not be able to meet.  I've pushed this body a lot over the last 3 years and I think I need to slow the eff down.  Despite what my brain thinks, this body is NOT 22 any more.   It's time I start to adjust my expectations a little and learn to be ok with more rest and recovery and maybe, just maybe, slowing down a bit. 

Hmmm.....Perhaps that will be my 2015 goal?

Weekly Re-cap and a Spectating Spectacular!

Happy Monday folks! When you wake up to this view on a Monday, it's never going to be a bad day.

We spent the weekend at my friend Kiki's cottage as G was racing Muskoka 70.3. There were actually a whole bunch of people I knew that were racing. 18 to be exact. I can't remember ever knowing that many people that were racing the same event. It definitely made for some fun spectating. I almost lost my voice by the end of the day, haha. Thank goodness for cowbells! Kiki and I really go into the spirit and made some "motivational" signs.

The bottom sign got a lot of laughs. Along with our dance moves and cheers of "You. Are. Amazing!"

Everyone was quite happy with their respective races. We even had a few WTP folks either place or win their age groups!! G had a good day until about 13km into the run when he totally caved. It got really hot and I don't think he hydrated enough to keep up with how much he was sweating. He was totally out of it when I saw him running into the finishing chute. He actually lost his balance and stumbled like he was drunk. I found him lying on the grass by the misting tent after he crossed the finish line. He was covered in salt. I got him more water but they didn't have any sort of electrolyte drink at the finish line. They did have alcohol free beer so I got him a glass of that. He drank a bit and eventually got up and then we went to get him some food. He dumped two whole packets of salt on everything. After he got some food and sodium into his belly, his face started to regain some colour and he started to seem more like himself. When I found him he was pasty and his lips were a bit blue. Looking back we probably should have taken him to the medical tent.
A bunch of us got together at my friend David's parents place in Huntsville for a post race BBQ which was lovely. Heather brought a bottle of champagne and we toasted everyone's accomplishments. It was a great way to close out the day. And of course there were pictures....

Happy Finishers!

Other than than G's scary finish, it was a fun day. I ran into Irina and her friend (Tammy?) who was working the finishing line. When I heard that, it almost made me wish I was racing. Being greeted by Irina's big smile and genuine enthusiasm would be the best thing at the end of a day like that!! I also ran into Dana, whom I met at Bala. She was grinning from ear to ear. It was her first half Ironman and she had a great day. So many happy finishers!
Since G was tapering, I didn't really do much this past week. Call it support,haha.  In all seriousness, my knees have started to bother me again so I took Tuesday off running. They seemed to be better but then I over did it at the gym on Thursday and really messed them up. Normally I would have brought my bike up to the cottage but I opted not to so I could so give my knees a break. I did do a run on Sunday but it was much shorter than I planned on. I'm going to get my butt into Pivot to see Peter and maybe I'll try to get a massage at some point this week. I'm doing Lakeside this weekend and it's the last race in the MSC series so that will be it for my triathlon season, other than Barrelman but I'm not really counting that since I'm not doing the entire thing. I think after Barrelman that will have to be it for me. Anyway, this is how my week broke down...

Monday: 48km bike ride
Tuesday: 90 minutes strength & mobility
Wednesday: 1500m swim (had to get to work)
Thursday: 90 minutes strength & mobility in a.m 7.5km run in p.m
Friday: off
Saturday: off
Sunday: 13.1km in between cheerleading duties!
Total time: 7h 14 minutes
I suspect this week is going to be a whole lot easier since I'll probably not run or ride much. Call it a forced taper. That's what I'm going to do.

How was your week of workouts? 

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Real Deal Showdown

For the last week or so I've hinted at something that I *might* be participating in.  Well it's official, I received my registration confirmation yesterday.

I'm going to be racing in the inaugural Barrleman Half Ironman on September 21st...BUT...I'm not doing it alone.  I'm doing it as part of a relay team.  Real Deal has entered two relay teams and to make things fun, there is a "losing team buys dinner" wager.  The teams break down like this:

Team One:  Colin Campbell (swim), Larbi Benhabib (bike) & little old me (run)

Team Two:  Leanna Lee (swim), Mike Mandel (bike) & Coach Ming (run)

Ming actually emailed me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I'd be interested and I jumped at the chance.  I wasn't planning on running a half marathon so soon but I figured what the heck, I might as well, it will probably be a lot of fun.  And I couldn't resist the chance to go one on one with Ming.  He's a strong runner and will be coming off the 70.3 World Championships so he should be in good form.  I'm crossing my fingers he won't be fully recovered because I think that's really the only way I stand a chance at beating him.  It's definitely going to be a very close race.  To top it all off, I'm racing my last triathlon of the season the weekend before.  Yup, nothing like cramming in a little last minute speed work, ha ha.  

Here's hoping my knees hold up over the next few weeks.  I was hoping to be able to add some track work in but I don't think that's going to happen without my knees getting really angry.  So, I'm just going to have to wing it and hope my legs are ready to go fast on September 21st!

Recruit the Glutes, Part Two

So 6 weeks ago, I dragged my sorry butt to Pivot Sports Medicine to see the Gait Man, Babs Aiyede for a gait analysis.  You can read all about that here.  You can also see just how horribly I ran.  Babs gave me a lot of information that day but I chose to focus on two main things.  1) What I was doing with my arms and 2) what was happening with my pelvis.   Those were simple enough things to pay attention to while I was running because I understood what I was doing wrong and knew how to correct it.  I also continued with my strengthening routine that Peter had given me and added one more exercise to it.  It was one of the exercises I did when I had my first ever running injury, ironically enough also related to my glutes.  I've been doing these exercises diligently twice, sometimes three times a week.  I also had my massage therapist dig out the knots in my glutes and upper quads.  I stretched after every workout and even on days that I didn't work out.  I foam rolled before and after my weight workouts.  This has all become routine for me now and will continue to be.   You could say I've been working really hard at fixing things.

Amazingly my knee pain is starting to subside as well, despite maintaining a decent level of activity.  I still have some days where I over do it and they get sore but those days are few and far between and when they do happen, I back off and break out the ice.  I've also gone back to the gym and I feel like that is helping.  But let's get down to the nitty gritty.  What's my form like now after 5 weeks of of work?

Well.  Let's start at the top.  Once again, am looking down at the ground.  Not surprising as that's what I do on a treadmill.  My shoulders are still slightly rolled but not as bad as before.  My arms are where the change has started.  They are lower and the angle is more in line with where it should be.  This is a change that I have to actually think about every time I run.  It is getting better though, I find that more often than not, this is just where my arms go when I start running.  It's once I start to get tired that they drift back to their old ways.   I've gotten a lot better at correcting that when it happens instead of letting the bad form take over.  You'll also note that my back isn't as arched as it was the first time around. 

Look at that!  An 18 degree improvement!  Woohoo!

Let's move to the area that all of these problems stem from shall we?  I still have a bit of the Trendelenberg gait happening but there has been some improvement.  I think that is going to take a long time to correct and I'm not sure I'll get rid of it 100%.

The big surprise was when we looked at my leg extension.  Yes, I'm still heel striking and probably always will BUT...I've managed to start to reign in my over striding!

A three degree improvement!  It's not much but I'll take it!

I still have a fair bit of work to do but Babs said that this was solid improvement for 5 weeks of work.  What I have discovered over the last several weeks is that my right glute really seems to be the issue.  It takes a whole lot more work to get it to fire and when it does, it does so sporadically.  My left one doesn't seem to have that problem.   As a result, when I'm working on my right side I have to be very cognizant of what's happening (or not happening).  Sometimes it means I'm working on that side a bit longer. 

Gone are the days of me zipping into the gym for a quick weight workout.  If I want to continue to race at my current level, I need to invest the time in making sure that things are working the way they're supposed to and that means paying attention to running form in addition to strength and mobility.  Which means I'm spending longer in the gym.  I also think that I'm definitely going to have to give my body a good solid rest at the end of the season and that will mean no running for a little while.  If it means that I can come back to running 100% pain free then I'll do it.
 

Hello September!

Well that was fast.  It seemed like only yesterday when we were off to Europe at the beginning of the summer.  That trip seems like a lifetime ago now!  It's amazing how a couple of months can seem like a lifetime.  I'm hoping that summer weather stretches long into September because I'm not done with the outdoor fun just yet!

This was the last weekend of official training for G before Muskoka 70.3 next weekend.  It was dialed back a fair bit but we were still up at stupid o'clock on Saturday for a swim and a ride.   This week was another solid week of workouts that included 3 runs!  My knees are now complaining about it so that probably won't be repeated this week.  This is how my week unfolded.

Monday:  1650m - the pool was 90 degrees so I'm amazed I lasted this long.

Tuesday:  90 minutes strength & mobility in a.m.  8km super sweaty tempo run in p.m.

Wednesday:  Slept in because apparently the pool was still hot.  20km ride in p.m.

Thursday:  90 minutes strength & mobility in a.m.   8km Ladder workout with WTP in p.m.
Friday:  OFF

Saturday:  1375m swim followed by a 63km ride.  Our ride was like a Cervelo parade.  I hung with the boys for most of the ride and my legs paid for that for sure. 

Sunday:  19km hot as hades run, followed by an ice bath.  Gotta get the mileage back up for an upcoming challenge.  More on that another day. 

Cappuccino:  the key to surviving an ice bath

Totals:

Swim: 3025
Bike:  84.28km
Run:  27.50km

Total time:  9:07.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend.  I have so many friends that are racing.  I'm going to need to bring throat lozenges because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have any voice left by the time the afternoon rolls around.   I'm also super excited for G.  I think he's going to have a great race.  He's been feeling amazing and he's riding really well.  Sure it's not the race he originally set out to do but at least he's getting to do a 70.3 this year and I will be there with my cowbell and some "motivational" signs to cheer him on.   Speaking of which, I'm looking for some funny ones.  What have been some of the funnier ones you've seen?