Good times, good times

Well, I managed to put a pretty good training week in the books. This, despite the fact that I decided to trade in a long run for a strength session on Thursday (as a brief aside: all-in-all, I like the "Be Tri Fit" plan that I've been [mostly] following, but it is decidedly run-heavy. And he includes no strength sessions. In fact, if you elect to follow his "Competitive" program, you'll be running five times a week. Yes, I said five times a week. I didn't run five times a week when I was training for a stand-alone marathon, let alone an event with two other disciplines. Personally, I think all the running is a bit excessive, and potentially harmful, so I've cut down accordingly.).

Anywho, I had Friday off for the Independence Day holiday, and celebrated by riding for two hours along the Lakefront path and around Northerly Island. The ride was lovely, but I'd forgotten how crowded the path is and how poor the pavement can be - we've obviously been spoiled by riding out in the suburbs. The path around Northerly Island (the former Meigs Field) actually saved the ride for me - although it's only a little over a mile circuit, the pavement is pretty new and very few people are ever out there. And the City views are spectacular. If you can handle the monotony of one-mile loops, which I apparently can, it's like having your own personal velodrome. Very nice.

Saturday, Cath and I swam 3,000 yards at the pool (5 x 600) in about 55 minutes, and I took the rest of the day to relax.

Sunday, Cath and I returned to Palos and had a great ride. It was crazy foggy for about the first hour - droplets of water were attached to your arm hairs and dripped off your helmet - but the sun soon burned it all off and we were treated to largely windless and mild morning. We explored a little bit, and finally crafted a route that pretty much eliminates all the poor road surfaces that we've come to hate, but with all the crazy hills that we need to prepare our legs for IM. We did four hours on the bike (just over 70 miles), and then bricked that for 30 minutes on a hilly section of trail close to where we parked. By then, the sun was starting to bake, and the running was hard, but we felt great at the end.

After some recent concerns about low volume, this past week's efforts did a lot to ease my fears and get juiced for our final push to the start line. The poor economy should also help my training, as I have a few mandatory furlough days to take in the coming weeks. Although our bank account will be a bit lighter, at least I won't be forced to cram workouts in before and after work, and might actually get some open water swimming in.

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend, and your training is humming along.