THE WHEELS ON THE BIKE GO 'ROUND AND 'ROUND

Time to catch up a little on this poor neglected blog, if anyone is left to read it!

As I said in my last post, it will be a totally crazy month because of work and now the increased training volume. And I'm not even looking at any family obligations that might come up or ones I can't avoid.

Despite working overtime every day last week and again yesterday, I still got in all my workouts last week and so far this week. I guess that's saying something.

So here's the wrap up for the last 8 days:

Sun., August 2: Rode 64 miles. It wasn't that bad. It was cold enough that morning to wear arm warmers, and I never took them off, even after more than 4 hours of riding. I rode with a guy from work, and we never stopped except at 50 miles, and then only because HE needed to stop. I then had to attend a work function at a ball game that included a little beer drinking. Maybe that's why I recovered so well??

Mon., August 3: Easy day, 1 mile swim in the a.m. Didn't feel that tired from the day before either. Weights in the p.m.

Tues., August 4: Second week of hill workout in the a.m. Warm up for 20 minutes real easy and then 5 repeats on a 4% grade of a hill: 1 min. 30 seconds up; 30 seconds walk; jog easy down x 5; then cool down to car. Total of 4 miles. Bike 15 miles in the p.m., charging up the hills by standing. I couldn't believe how good I felt!

Wed., August 5: My son's 26th b'day so a party that night. A.M. swim, going for my longest swim ever: 3100 yards, 1 hour 17 min. I had estimated 1:20 so was pleased it went faster. I am assuming that with a wetsuit and no turns I could probably take 5 more minutes off from this distance.

Thurs., August 6: Hilly 3.25 mile run. Today, I felt the fatigue in my legs, but still was able to push through the longest hills with just a few seconds of a break. The longest hill is 1/4 mile long, so its a long haul to the top. The next longest hill is about 200 yards but really steep. Wouldn't have had to stop if a bus hadn't come. Biked after work again, doing the same 15 mile loop, only it took 1 min. less than Tuesday. And I talked almost the entire time. Where did that come from?

Fri., August 7: Easy day again, 1 mile swim, 2 minutes faster than Monday. And I did not want to even do it that day! Again, where did that come from?

Sat., August 8: Scheduled was 13 miles running on a hilly course. Reality was that weather was so bad a local tri was cancelled, only the 2nd time this happened in 10 years. Needless to say, the morning was going by quickly with no prospect of getting out to run (because of heavy rain and lightning) until Jan called, telling me about the cancelled tri. She was going to go to the gym and do an indoor tri. Hey, that's a great idea. I'll join you. So we ended up doing a 30 min. swim (1200 meters for me); 1 hour 15 min. spin DVD; 45 min. run (4 miles for me), for a total of 2 hours 30 minutes, pretty close to what I would have done doing 13 miles anyway so a good tradeoff.

Sun., August 9: Longest ride ever: 74.6 miles. Scheduled was 75, but I can pretty much figure out that last 4/10 of a mile. I have to admit, I struggled through this. I'm sure it was the distance, but the added factors that day were high winds and high heat and humidity (we actually had storms later in the day and overnight that caused a lot of damage around the area I was riding in). I rode the first 50 by myself too, and then Don came out and pulled me through the next 25. While my legs mostly felt okay, I really struggled with the pace at times, and mentally by the last mile I just wanted someone to come and get me! I didn't feel that tired, but was definitely glad to be done, and of course this gets me thinking of strategy for upcoming rides. This is a dilemma for me: do I continue to build miles, even though struggling, or take a couple of weeks at the 75 distance and work through that first? I guess I will defer to more experienced riders on this. I definitely felt like I did earlier this year, struggling first to get to the 50 mile distance and then working like crazy after to get to a decent speed.

After the bike ride, Don and I went to one of the Lake Michigan beaches. I wanted to get in the water in the worst way I was so sweaty and grimey feeling. The bike path had been wet with puddles everywhere when I started out early in the morning, so got a lot of spray and splash all over me, on top of the sweat, so I couldn't wait to rinse off.

Once we finally got to the beach, another problem arose. I had forgotten to bring the bottoms to my two piece swim suit and so had put on my gym lap swimming suit, which was getting to the point of nearly see through. But I didn't really feel I had a choice. But, when I went to pull up the suit in the back, guess what? It ripped, showing a lot more skin than would be legal, so then was forced to put back on the sweaty bike shorts! They were so gross and wet from sweat, it was disgusting. So then it really became important to get in the water. No fashion statement was going to be made that day!

The water was glorious: one of those rare (like maybe 2 a year) days when the water is 75 degrees and the waves are 3-5 feet, making it the best way to enjoy the big lake. There was also a strong undercurrent in places, but I dug my feet into the sand and held my ground while being pounded by the waves.

So now, its back to the grindstone. Hopefully I can get caught up on everyone over the next few days!