Summertime training

The top perk of being a teacher = summer vacation.  Man, do I love summer!  I'm just about the laziest endurance athlete you've ever met.  I do my workouts super-early in the morning before my mind is even awake so that I have no chance to procrastinate about doing them later on.  The rest of the day, I prefer to do pretty much nothing if given the chance.  Truthfully, I usually end up doing some laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. but most of my days are pretty low-key.  My kids don't have a ton of scheduled activities in the summer.  Charlotte is on the swim team, which involves practice every weekday morning and meets on Wednesday nights, but none of the other kiddos have any big commitments.  

Charlotte at one of her meets.  Seeing her swim makes my heart super-happy!

Oh, Joey has soccer camp 1-2 nights a week, but it's spread out through the summer and it's no big deal if we don't make it.  So the first couple of weeks of summer vacation were filled with Safety City for the twins and Vacation Bible School for the older two, but now we've settled into our chillaxed summer, where the days run together.  We are such a go-go-go family during the school year that I think we all need the summer to be unscheduled.

My summertime training schedule, on the other hand, is very heavy!  Now that I've taken on the task of training for my first triathlon, I am doing double-workouts several days a week in order to fit in all three sports.  I would never be able to do this kind of training during the school year, so I'm very grateful that as a teacher I can fit it in.  Not only do I need to do the workouts for tri training, but also I know all of the cross-training is only helping my running.

Here is what my schedule has shaped up to look like:

Monday: bike. I can fit in anywhere from 13-18 miles on Mondays before hubby has to leave for work.  I do this solo, and typically ride a big loop around Westerville or do an out-and-back on the Westerville/Genoa bike path.  I take this ride slower, just working on feeling comfortable and working out the kinks from my Sunday long run.  I also typically do BodyPump at DK Fitness on Monday evenings.  I'm sooooo happy to be back to doing Pump again!  I always feel a bit sore for the day or two after a class, which is proof to me that my muscles are continuing to get stronger.

Tuesday: run & swim.  I start out with an early 5-mile run.  I like to keep this run on the easier side.  My favorite Tuesday partners are my MIT girls; they are great at making my legs slow down a bit.  I always love our runs together!  

Look at Steph Harless rocking the 36-week preggo belly at a recent run!

After I run, I usually head over to the rec center for about 45 minutes in the pool.  I try to get some hard yards in, since this is a shorter workout and the run is easy.

Wednesday: bike & run.  Shorter bike ride this day (around 8-10 miles), so I push the pace a bit more on this ride.  I follow it up with a 4-5 mile run at the "late" hour of 7 AM. I've ran with Allison for the past two Wednesday runs, and we are both bad at keeping the pace easy, but I love our runs together so much!  

For me, I've found that when I run immediately after I bike, I have trouble keeping my pace in the 9's.  It's weird; my legs feel super heavy but they can't run slow!  My chiropractor (who I see each Wednesday) is a triathlete and told me this is very common.  

Thursday: rest day.  I reserve Thursdays for doing nothing. I am working very hard to stay true to the rest day!

Friday: run & strength class.  I meet a few friends to run about 4 comfy-paced miles super-early before our 5:30 AM strength class.  The class is specifically designed for runners to improve on strength and explosiveness.  It's put on by Marie Miller, who is the personal trainer who also leads the core class that I love on Sunday mornings.  I signed up to do the class for 12 weeks (basically, my entire summer vacation). I've found the hardest part so far to be the plyometric exercises--anything involving jumping!  

Saturday: swim & bike.  I did my first "open water swim followed by bike" brick a couple of weeks ago with some fellow triathletes at Alum Creek (45 min swim plus 18 miles on the bike).  So much fun!  I'm planning on doing the same thing most weekends if possible.   

Sunday: long run.  I'm working to increase my weekly miles by increasing my long run.  I did 10 miles last weekend and plan on 12 this weekend, and then I'll do a drop-back week where my miles will go down.  I want to get my weekly miles up to the 30-mile range before I add any true speed work back in.  I miss core class on Sundays, but since I am taking up Saturday mornings with brick workouts, I can't ask too much of my hubby as far as time away, so core class has been one area where I've slacked off.

Sunday Run-day... love running with both of these ladies!

So that is how my weeks are shaping up.  Obviously, there are times when things change.  Last week it was pouring on Wednesday morning, so my bike ride became an easy 4 miles.  The beach was closed on Saturday due to high water so I headed to the pool for a workout.  I'm flexible, for the most part :)

The other thing that's changed is my triathlon goal.  I decided that August 2nd was too long to wait, so I registered for a mini sprint tri at Alum Creek on July 11th--just over 2 weeks from now!  I was especially attracted to this race as it is an all-female triathlon.  It is very short (0.25 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 2 mile run).  The race will probably take me around 1 hour and 15-20 minutes to complete.  I am super excited to begin my foray into triathlons with this race. I have a few friends doing it as well, and likely will have a few friends there cheering as well.  I still may do the race on August 2nd, depending on how my first race goes and also what's going on with my running.  For now, I have some studying to do... I need to figure out transitions and a ton of other tri-specific stuff! Good thing YouTube is so helpful, and of course I have the time... again, yay for summer!!!