Miles of trials

S - 18,000 yards
B - 247.3 miles
R - 44.2 miles

Time - 23.04 miles

Monday - PM Swim
Had mixed feelings about my swim this evening; was definitely still tired from the ridiculously hot ride that Scott and I did the day before.  I probably lost 3-4% of my body weight in sweat, which is awesome.  Not a very exciting workout today, we were really just doing it to do it...

Tuesday - AM Ride PM Run
I was scheduled for a good bit of VO2 intervals on the bike this morning but when I woke up and rolled out I could tell that my mind was not ready for these today.  In hindsight, I certainly should've given it a shot but I was feeling a little mentally weak this AM and so copped out of the workout.  That attitude is not going to get me a sub 4 hour 70.3 (just want to make sure everyone is paying attention, ha!).

The afternoon run actually felt quite good, but it was the last run with my beloved Garmin 310xt.  I'm not sure where or when, but the watch decided that it had finally had just about enough of me and left me for another wrist.  I've never been handed rejection quite so blatantly before and was hoping that the 18 months we shared together meant something but apparently, it did not.  The sting has not left.

Wednesday - AM Swim PM Run
I decided to switch up my normal Wednesday and do the run in the afternoon on the treadmill, so after laying down a rather impressive swim set (If I do say so myself... admittedly the first one in what feels like months) I headed in to work for the afternoon before going to the Y and hopping on the treadmill for what turned out to be a great "long" run with some 1000m intervals thrown in for good measure.  The last one was under 5 minute pace, which - for me - is much faster than I've done before.  Being in a 70 degree, breezy environment helps though!

Thursday - PM Run, PM Swim, PM Bike
I had a lazy morning today so had to fit in all three workouts in the afternoon.  Neither the run or bike were going to be hard though so I felt confident this plan would prove effective.  I had another great swim today; I definitely feel like the more attention I pay to the water, the more she loves me in return.  I feel like this might be analogous to other aspects of life...

Friday - AM Run, PM Bike
Another treadmill run "workout" today in the morning.  I only call it a "workout" because I ran fast for a little bit (all of 5 minutes!) in a little bit of fartlicking.  Wait, I spelled that wrong. Ha. Ha.  I'm running out of humor.  The bike ride was uneventful, except for it was another VO2 interval ride that I DID try and failed miserably to hit the prescribed power zones.  Oh well. Trying not to get too frustrated at this point...

Saturday - AM Bike, AM Swim, PM Run
I rolled out of the house at 6:15am this morning to get in my ride and swim before driving to Saluda, SC to hang out with the family for my grandmother's 80th birthday bash.  It was a mini-family reunion of sorts so it was worth it to get the ride and swim out of the way before heading to eat and sit most of the afternoon.  I was scheduled for a pretty intense and long swim set today but I had to break it into two shorter (and mostly useless) swims over the course of Sat/Sun so I lost that bit of super-sweet swimming.  Scott and I didn't run until 7:30pm but it was a nice recovery paced trot that was very needed after a long day for the both of us.

Sunday - AM Bike, PM Run, PM Swim
Today I finally managed to hit my intervals on the bike, albeit this time they were threshold intervals so not quite as "difficult."  The PM run and swim were slow and nothing special, but I was just happy to hit some solid bike intervals.

All in all, I definitely felt some cumulative fatigue this week but I'm in the middle of training more than I ever have before, both short-term and long-term.  I have good days and bad days; ups and downs and sometimes it can be tough to manage the valleys but it's important to remember that no one single day makes a huge difference.  It's stringing together day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year consistent training that makes champions.  I'm still only in the month after month part of that!  I'm getting pretty excited for AG Nats, which is less than 3 weeks away at this point, something I didn't expect.  It'll be a super fun awesome weekend.  I can't think of any more superlatives.