6 Weeks to Go

Today I got an email from the Iron Girl Rocky Gap triathlon that E and I are doing September 7th. It was some bad news: they have cancelled the race. They couldn't secure a permit they needed for the roadway and therefor couldn't ensure a safe bike course. Whatever that all means, it is very disappointing that they couldn't pull it together properly. And I was especially disappointed for E, since last year she was injured and could only do the swim portion after registering for it. She's been doing such a great job with training, and this was going to be her first complete race. I know she was looking forward to showing up this year ready.

However, she found another one for us to do that same weekend in West Virginia: The Appalachian Traithlon. It's actually slightly farther away, but it sounds low key and fun enough. It is only the second year for it, which kind of makes me nervous. But I think I'll register on Saturday before the race when I get there, because, well...last year there were only 13 women and 32 men. Yeah. TINY. We can camp at the park it's in, perhaps for free. Kinda roughing it, but whatever. It is just going to be a very different experience! Small race, no shwagg, CHEAP, and just down and dirty - what a race should be, really. The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of people. It's just not as fun to not have someone to chase, but who knows. Maybe this year the word has gotten out and it will be bigger. (Right now there are only 4 people pre-registered though - ha!)

So now I have to get my money back for Rocky Gap, cancel the hotel, say goodbye to the prospect of beautiful, clear water and kayaking the next day in Maryland, and now focus on maybe winning the whole damn (women's) race. Because last year's winner had a bike split of 17 mph. And it's a flat course.

So. Back to work!!!

Here's what this week looks like.

MONDAY:
Just back in town from a LeMons weekend in Joliet and friend-visiting in Chicago. It was a pretty fantastic weekend, even with the LeMons race failure.

TUESDAY:
Bike: Tempo. I'll do spinning (first time at the Y I'm now a member of)
Strength.

WEDNESDAY:
Swim: 1500. Warm up 250, 8 x 25 drills, 8 x 75 max (45 sec rest), 4 x 50 sprint (20 sec rest), Cool down 250.
Run: Tempo Run 32 minutes. 10 warm up, 12 tempo, 10 cool down

THURSDAY: 
Bike: on trail 45 minutes. Speed intervals. 4 x 1 min with 2 minute active recovery.
Strength.

FRIDAY: 
Swim: 1500. Warm up 250, 8 x 25 drills, 3 x 200 (45 sec rest), 8 x 25 sprint (20 sec rest), Cool down 250.
Run: 35 min run + 6 x 20 sec strides.

SATURDAY:
Bike: Long group ride - Breakfast Ride.

Here I go. 6 more weeks - woohoo!

Some running, some disc golf and a one mile swim.

July is off to a good start with training. On Tuesday the 1st, I ran 2.5 miles in the morning, trying to loosen up my very very tight hamstrings. I weeded a couple days and that always gets them. Then later I swam what has become my usual 800-1000 yards at the Community Center. It was fine, nothing spectacular. Oh swimming.

On the 2nd, Wednesday, I walked the 2.5 mile loop in the morning. The temperatures had cooled and it was pretty nice out. Again I was trying to loosen up the legs because later that evening I wanted to run the free 5K that Roncker's holds in Loveland on the south side of the trail. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to really run, or just jog and just elevate my heart rate for a bit. Turns out, I ran faster than I've ran in months, and completely blew my mind. I ran a 9:30 pace. I don't know how it happened, having been struggling with 10:30 10:45...even 11 pace some days. I guess my only explanation is that I just got past the break in phase with getting back into training. Whoopee!

Thursday I took the day off. With friends coming into town, I was very ready to have some fun and do some triathlon workouts with Erika. Those of us who weren't working went disc golfing at a newer local course. It was fun. However, I got suddenly sick, and after 3 holes of chills, cramps and sweating, my body finally gave me no choice in the matter and I had to poo in the woods. Like a bear. It was pretty funny, gross and unbelievable all at the same time. And yay for carrying disc golf towels, but I'm going to pack some bio-degradable tp in my disc golf bag for the future. Oy.

Friday the 4th was another breakthrough workout day. In the morning, I just went on an easy run, not quite knowing what we'd do the rest of the day. Erika wanted to go swimming, and belongs to the Y, so we went to the Blue Ash Y (me as a guest) where they have an outdoor pool. I swam laps outside and it was fantastic! I also swam a mile!! Erika wanted to do a mile, and I said "sure" thinking I'd just kill time floating or something after I was exhausted with however far I could go...but I just kept going. I can't believe I swam that far! I have been doing 800s and feeling like, yep that's all I got today, folks. I don't know if it was the sun or maybe having someone to work out with. Whatever it was, it was terrific and I'm so happy and relieved about my swimming abilities right now. 

 

Saturday we went canoeing down the Little Miami for 9 miles with some friends, though probably 6 of those 9 were just floating. It was a little strange. I get the leisurely canoe trip thing, but it felt strange to be so inefficient. I was kind of bored almost. 

Sunday I didn't do anything too physical, but did go on a 72 mile motorcycle ride which was pretty fun. And it was with my old motorcycle! The guy I sold it too is a new rider, so we did a ride that I think is pretty fun from this area, and has some good things to practice. G followed in his miata, though I'm sure at the cautious new rider speeds we were going, it wasn't too fun for him. We stopped for brunch in Waynesville. It was great to finally get out on the motorcycle again...the weekend was so nice. I was itching to go and could have gone another 72 miles no problem. 

So that was the long weekend! Very fun-filled!

I'm in the process of getting a membership to the Y. The swim with Erika couldn't have come at a better time. I'm losing my free membership at the Community Center because G's company changed insurance providers again. So that benefit is gone. While waiting for her to finish getting ready after we swam, I saw a "member referral" process sign in the lobby. So, price-wise, the Y is going to be the cheapest place with some friends giving me a referral. Plus, I can't believe how awesome that outdoor pool experience was. I'm going to sign up tomorrow after an appointment at the Apple store to fix my phone and hopefully fonts on my computer. 

Sooooooo, that was a long winded update for a very full week... And now on to this week.

Tonight, I biked after work for an hour. I wanted to try to find some decent hills around the house that I could maybe do hill repeats on, but no luck. However, it was crazy windy. A storm was blowing over the entire time and pedaling down hill was still kinda rough. So even though I found no hills, pushing through the wind certainly made for a good workout. I forgot my water bottle though, which was annoying. Today I also started doing planks. Erika was talking about how they've benefited her training, and I've known for a long time now that I should start doing some strength stuff. So here's my weak starting point: 30 sec. I am doing the kind where you're on your hands and the kind where you're on your elbows/forearms. I don't know which is better, so I'm just going to do both. Seems like the elbow version is a bit harder. I did 4 sets today, each 30 sec. WEAK!!!

Tomorrow I plan to run a little in the morning and then swim around lunch. It probably won't be outside if the rain is all rainy.

Whooo this was a book. I need to update more often...and start drawing again!

Final Broomball Game and Week in Review

Broomball season has come to an end (at least for the Fountain Square league). It was a fun 6 weeks. I don't get sore anymore. We all had some good plays and I even scored this season. Right about now is when I'm ready for the season to really begin, but it's just the quick outdoor league season fun. Oh well.

Now it's back to focusing on triathlon. Not that broomball took away from it much. But I guess I just feel like it's another little break in things.

Last week was ok training-wise. I took a break from swimming, mostly because of my workload. This week I'll add it back in, but I still want to put most of my efforts into running. I think for now I just need to accept my slow swimming, keep doing it, and keep working on my form.

LAST WEEK:
Sunday - 6 miles
Monday - off (I was pretty sore from the 6. Hurrah for getting back into it.
Tuesday - 3 mile run at the indoor track
Wednesday - spinning class
Thursday - 3.3 mile run
Friday - off
Saturday - broomball? Kinda counts for something.


So that's about 3.5 hours of training. Adding three swims back will be close to 6, plus I need another bike session in there. The hours will be ramping up again.

Tomorrow I'm hoping this sunshine sticks around and I'm going to run 8.

Two Days in a Row!

Wednesday I ran 4.5 miles when it was 22º but sunny outside. Thursday I ran 3.4 miles when it was considerably warmer (but cloudy. meh, it's winter). I met a friend at Winton Woods and we did the loop twice. I was surprised by how ok I felt! I've had no energy lately, feeling pretty bad after 10 minutes into any workout. So this was a very nice change. It's always good to start feeling like yourself again.


And now a little bit about the week:

Monday: swam 100 yards. Yes 100, and it wasn't really swimming. Hurt my back while sleeping and ended up having spasms. Went to an awesome massage therapist and it's on the mend.

Tuesday: no spinning because school was cancelled (and therefor the classes at the Comm Center). Plus, my back. I did hop on the trainer for 40 minutes though. That was all my back could take. Also, it was so cold (50º in the garage) that I brought everything into the living room because I hate the cold!

Wednesday: couldn't take it in the house anymore, so I got outside with my balaclava and ran 4.5 slow miles. It was 22º which is way warmer than it's been and tolerable, but I was definitely getting cold by the end. I could have stayed in the hot shower for an hour.

Thursday: ran 3.4 miles at Winton Woods. It went surprisingly well. I could breathe ok too. Last run at WW was very bad.

Friday- today!  I'm planning to swim today. I have pretty high hopes that my back will be fine. It's still sore, but there is no more tweaky jerks when moving into a certain position. Maybe now I'm at the point where the swim will help loosen me up.

Saturday: I will be playing two broomball games - our team and subbing for another team. And I think it's going to be pretty slick since it has gotten warmer and there may be rain. Ug.

Sunday: Indoor triathlon!!!!!! Looking at it as a kick-off workout to the season. I'm in terrible shape but whatever. Here goes nothing.


And smoothies. I've been making smoothies. So far banana peanut butter with some chocolate powder is my go-to one. I should experiment more though and try some new ones. I'd like to be able to recreate Bolthouse Farms mocha one. Yum....

Here's one I tried with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, yogurt, and....chocolate powder. Because I have to have chocolate powder in everything.

Thanksgiving Week

The week was, as I expected, hit and miss with workouts and chock full of eating :)  But it's ok. The previous week wasn't much of a recovery week thanks to my hilly long run with the Dav-Huffs. I'm actually fine with how it's gone this week. I feel like I've learned a bunch these past 5 weeks and am excited for December.

Some things I've learned:
1. Eating and Hunger. My appetite has been through the roof. This week I finally felt like I wasn't hungry a lot...but I also only did a few workouts, so I guess that's why. I'm not gaining weight, but I'm not losing anymore either. I guess I'll need to cut back some more calories.

2. Swimming. It continues to be a struggle. However, I know where I need to get stronger before I start worrying about never getting better at swimming. My core and upper body is so very weak.

3. Biking. I am cruising through biking ok right now. Nothing is changing here at the moment and that's ok. I've settled into the Tuesday spinning class and alternating Saturdays with spinning or riding at home with a run afterwords when I feel like it.

4. Running. It was rough running with E and R through the hilly neighborhoods. I got pretty down about my fitness, but realized I had no business thinking I'd be suddenly good out of nowhere when I haven't been working on running all that much. I think that's going to come in December.

5. Overall Strength. I am so weak. I have endurance, but I don't have strength or power. I've decided in December I'm going to work on weights and building some power. I think it will be fun!


So...December is going to be fun. I'm looking forward to seeing some improvements and feeling good! When it gets crazy around the holidays, so be it. I'll do what I can. But first is the Jingle Bell run on my birthday! It's hard to say how it will go. I would be elated with 9s. We'll see, it will be fun to run no matter what.

Swimming Breathing: the Quest for Air Continues

Monday I had to get an insurance physical and blood work done. So I did that and wasn't really done with all of it until about 10:45. The pool lanes open back up at 11, so I headed to the Community Center to swim then, after ravenously devouring a breakfast bar and stopping for a coffee. I'm not a good faster.

I have been swimming in the earlier mornings and was reminded why this is a good decision. The pool just kinda had an overall funk to it – a mix of perfume and sweatiness topped with odd country western music blaring over the speakers. It was so crowded. Most of the people that go at this time aren't very good at sharing the lanes, unfortunately. I did my best, hugging the lane divider and sighting often (sighting practice!). And then it wasn't too long before I had my own lane which was nice.

It was an easy swim (it's a recovery week):  250 warmup, 6 x 25 pull drills, 5 x 100 base interval set, and 250 cool down for 1150 yards total. For the main set, I tried something new. Breathing is definitely my weakness. This has proven true for all the sports. But I've noticed it getting better since I've been swimming, which is awesome! I think that the swim intervals are helping, forcing me to breathe in a way that I never have. I decided to really really focus on my form for this swim and not worry so much about my pace. To do that, I really wanted to not have to breathe every other stroke, which means breathing on the same side. I wanted to practice reaching and rotating, and breathing on one side makes you kinda lopsided. In the past I've been going down the lane breathing on one side, then coming back breathing on the other to work on that whole one side is dominant thing. But I wanted to swim like I can with the pull buoy between my legs, breathing every third stroke and feeling myself in the water better.

To do this, I tried to slow down, but eventually got too out of breath again. But then I tried a different breathing pattern that I think worked out. I basically fit the every three strokes breathing in there when I could. So, it looked like this:

stroke - breath right,
stroke - breathe right,
stroke - stroke - breathe left,
stroke - breathe left,
stroke - stroke - breathe right,
stroke - breathe right....
....and repeat.

(And yes, I just air swimmed to make sure I had that right)

When I knew I was going to have to take two strokes before breathing again, I exhaled a little differently, and consequently, feel I controlled it better. But the quicker breaths allowed me to keep getting enough air.

Voila! Maybe on to something here, to increasing my VO2 max, lung capacity or something.

In the evening, I ran 4 miles and it felt very easy. I haven't had any more achilles tendon soreness, so maybe I'm getting used to my shoes.

Last Week's Summary

Three weeks in to new training, I (finally) made ALL my workouts. I have been having a hard time with Thursdays and Fridays. I still didn't do everything quite exactly to plan, but I think by listening to how I felt, I actually did a better choice of workouts at the end of the week.

Last week:
- Monday I swam 1400 yds and ran about 4 miles.
- Tuesday I did a one hour spinning class.
- Wednesday I swam 1850 yds and ran about 4 miles. I was pooped from the swim.
- Thursday I rode on the trainer for 1:30:00...the longest I believe I've ridden inside. At least in a long time. Also the longest I've ridden since not doing Saturday morning breakfast rides (since I don't want to ride in the cold).
- Friday I swam 1500 yards and was supposed to run my 2.5 loop. But the swim was pretty rough, and I was so tired. So I decided I'd add that run to my ride the next day and make a little brick out of it
- Saturday I rode on the trainer for an hour to music and then, somewhat quickly, changed into my running stuff and ran as steady as I could for the 2.5 mile loop.


Stuff I Learned:

1. While on the 1:30:00 trainer ride, I watched an episode of Breaking Bad and two episodes of the Colbert Report. This was nice to pass the time. But I've realized I have a hard time keeping a steady pace while watching things. So it was a pretty slow hour and thirty minutes, but hopefully my heart rate was in a decent zone (didn't wear it). When I ride to music it's a much better workout.

2. I needed a new saddle. So I bought one Saturday afternoon! I'm excited to try it this week.

3. The brick...I think I'll do one of these every 3 weeks, timed before my recovery week. Such a good way to get a real idea of how strong you are. It is amazing how terrible I run after riding. And I don't run well to begin with, so...extra terribleness.

4. I miss running. I feel like I don't run much anymore. I'm learning about balancing these three sports. It's very interesting trying to think about which sport's mindset I'm in. Mostly, I think I need to think about putting them all together. That is the big difference from just running.


This week is a recovery week. This morning I only swam 1150 and it felt crazy quick (as in the time I was there, not me moving through the water). After this week, I think I might repeat these past 3 weeks since I now finally feel like I handled the training ok in the last week. Maybe I can aim to do them better, especially the running. I must must must add some core also.

It Got Cold Out = Time to Whine

Wednesday's p.m. run was....cold. It has gotten cold, I know this. But this was the first run I've had to do in tights. And a head warmer. And gloves. Sigh.

Turns out I just went too late and the darkness got to me. I am historically a morning runner. But now I don't run in the morning at all because I swim in the mornings (when the pool is less crowded and less perfumed by, well, perfume). Monday, Wednesday and Friday are a.m. swims and p.m. runs. When coming up with my schedule, I thought this would be awesome for winter, because I'd rather run in the sunny winter afternoon than cold cold morning still in the 20s. This thought still holds true. I just have to remember the time change happened and it's dark at 5:30.

From the above, it looks like I match when I run. I don't typically. (But I am sure I run faster when I do. Hmmm...)

Anyway, it was a good 40 minute run, despite my grumpy face. It was dark, so no one could see it anyway.

Swimming Morning Confusion

This morning's swim workout was supposed to be this:

250 warm up
6 x 25 drills
5 x 150 (50 easy / 25 hard) (:15 recovery)
4 x 50 sprints (:20 recovery)
6 x 25 kicks
250 cool down
= 1750 yards


But for some reason (and I even went over it in my head and counted up the yardage before I got in the pool) I did this:

250 warm up (correct!)
6 x 25 drills (correct!)
6 x 125 (50 easy...except 50 easy twice in a row / 25 hard) (:15r)  (EERRRNT!)
6 x 50 sprints (:20r)   (EERRRNT!)
6 x 25 kicks (correct!)
250 cool down (correct!)
= 1850 yards

So for some reason I just got the main sets all mixed up. Sixes were in my head. And when I went to do the 150s, I even thought to myself but how can it be 50 easy 25 hard...did I really see 100 easy?  And those sprints!! I was dying by the 5th, and took a bit more rest before the 6th.

I guess I'll need to work on memorizing a bit better before leaving the locker room, geesh. I only went 100 yards more, but I didn't do the 150s right and I did 2 extra sprints. I would have liked doing the 150s in the format they were supposed to have been done. And it would have been interesting to recover on 50 after going hard 25.

Anyway...... not a big deal. I just find it funny that I can't seem to keep swimming workouts straight. Maybe I need to laminate some cards.

Still Settling In

The end of last week got busy. Instead of running at Kingswood, I ended up riding inside on the new bike setup in the garage. I watched some Colbert Report and fit in 50 minutes of riding.

In the past, I would bring my fluid trainer and bike out into the living room. I'd set it up and pick something to watch on Netflix or Hulu+...or just listen to some music. And from the street, this is what you'd see:

I'd bring a fan out, grab a cup of water and ride. It's not a terrible amount of setup, but it does kind of take over the living room in our small house. Now everything is set up out in the garage (which is heated to some degree and carpeted with carpet tiles). I have a roku to stream Netflix and Hulu+. That is all hooked up to an old monitor and receiver. I can also plug my phone in and listen to music. It's a pretty fantastic setup for the winter, and makes it easy to just hop on my bike, since it's already on the trainer. I just pump up the tire(s), get some water, pick my media and turn on the fan. No excuses. I don't take over the house, and I can easily get a ride going in a couple minutes rather than 10.

Right now, I'm just going with the flow of things and trying not to worry about missing a workout here or there as I learn what is going to work with my schedule. I am prioritizing swimming and going from there. It's been hard to adjust to colder running weather. I love the warm afternoons we've been having, but they also tease me into thinking it's not going to get too cold. I'll be better when it's just always cold. 

I took Sunday off and did a bunch of yard work. Monday I got back to things with a 1400 yard swim in the morning and a 40 minute run in the afternoon. It started raining right as I was beginning the run. It wasn't that warm and I thought I'd have to bag it, but I stayed out there, running close to home in case it started raining cats and dogs. It never did, so I wasn't too wet by the end. Hot shower immediately!

Last night it snowed, and it was 27º this morning when I scraped the car off and drove to the gym for a cycling class. It was a really tough class! We did two sets of hill intervals and tabata. The hill intervals were 2:00, 1:30, and :30-30 where we'd increase every so often, then push the last :30. Then we'd bump it back down to one gear above where we started the previous interval and go again. I think there were 5 in each set...2:00, 1:30, then :30-:30. Then right after that, we went straight into a tabata that had about 6 sessions I think? I was toast after this entire first set...and then we did it all again. Except this time the intervals were done out in 3rd (instead of seated). My legs were getting jelly-like.

My average hr was 145, but I forgot to stop the monitor until some time during cool down. I maxed out at 170 during the second tabata (which was also when I thought my legs were going to fall off). The instructor said this ride was designed to make our heart rates go up and then back down over and over, and as I watched mine that is indeed what happened.

I'm pretty tired and need to recover well today in order to get up and swim sprints and run my 2.5 mile weekly time push route in the afternoon. Yikes! Like I said, still settling in....

Winter Training Week 2

This Monday appears to be beginning like last Monday: nice sunny warm weather (for fall). There is the difference of the time change, however. I like gaining that hour, but everything is always a little wonky for a bit.

The time change didn't keep anyone from the pool this morning. But it was smiles and friendly "good mornings" from the Cocoon cast, as usual.

Today's set:
250 warmup
6 x 25 pull drills
5 x 100 intervals, 30 sec rest in between.
6 x 25 kicks
250 cool down

Shared my lane with a pregnant woman who I see regularly. That must feel good to be in the water! She's faster than me. Of course. (Maybe the baby is kicking to help?)


THE WEEK:
Monday - Swim 1300 yards / Run 40 minutes
Tuesday - Spinning 1:00:00
Wednesday - Swim 1500 yards / Run 25 minutes
Thursday - Bike 1:10:00 + transition run for 10 minutes
Friday - Swim 1500 yards / Run 45 minutes
Saturday - Bike 1:15:00


I didn't have a great week training last week. Missed Thursday because of work and I think I missed one other workout. But I wasn't really worried about it. I expected some adjustment woes to happen. We'll see how this week goes - should be better and I'm excited!

This Week

Planning and planning and making schedules and changing the schedules...

I've decided to try an Olympic distance schedule to see how I handle that amount o' stuff. But for a few more weeks, I'm just going to take it easy, doing all the workouts, but no serious pushing or strict direction to follow.

So, next week is going to look like this:

Monday: swim 1500 yards / run 2.5 miles
Tuesday: cycling class / strength: upper body
Wednesday: cycling class / quick swim 800 yards
Thursday: run 3 miles / strength: upper body
Friday: swim 1500 yards / run easy
Saturday: cycling long ride (tentative - because it's fall and I don't want to ride in cold rain)

Strength Training

I have never done much strength training, at least never consistently or properly. In my ongoing triathlon knowledge research, I've been reading a lot about what different athletes do in the off-season (aka Season of Pie, see previous post) as well as regular season. I have a ton of room for improvement as far as my strength goes (in other words, I'm pretty damn weak). I have free weights, but have been wanting to try out the Machines. Machines!! So yesterday after spinning class, I went wandering into the weights area of the community center.

It was intimidating, but I know it will get better once I'm confident with what I'm doing.

What I did:
• Curls
• Seated row
• Tricep extension
• Rotary torso (rotisserie chicken?)
• Lateral arm raise
• Shoulder press (really hard...which might explain why I am swimming slowly)
• Abdominal something or other (which I'm pretty sure I did wrong)
• Bench press thingy (awesome- felt very good for swimming muscles)

Then I did some core work:
• Leg swirl thingys (I should come up with better names)
• Reverse crunches
• Crunches
• Plank (I hate planks.)

Then I high-fived myself. Not really.

Schedule Making

After many weeks perusing the internet, trying to find a training plan for the "off season" or figure out how to make one, I finally broke down and bought a book.

It's huge. Very thick. And has every imaginable scenario for training. It covers Sprint, Olympic, Half-Iron and Full Ironman distances. Within each, there are 10 levels of plans to choose from/manipulate into something that will fit. And there are 2 levels for off-season training. Perfect!

The difficult part is deciphering it. There are codes for everything. You don't just run, you RFR3 (foundation run level 3 which means it's for a certain time). Or maybe you RLT2 (lactate threshold run level 2).  What? Also, the design of the book is pretty clunky.

So what do I do? Redesign my chosen plan, of course! (I am a graphic designer, after all.) I made an overview schedule, where I can just see what sport I'm doing every day in words, not codes. Then I wrote out the codes of my chosen plan in sentences for each day so I know what I'm doing. Because I'm never going to be able to remember what something something 3 is verses something something something else different 2. I already can't keep human being names straight that begin with the same letter.

So I'm settling into a plan that I'll use until the new year. Then I suppose I will start actual training for something or multiple somethings. I still don't know for sure what I want to do, which is pretty lucky. So many things to choose from:
1. Flying Pig half or something
2. Sprint triathlons (definitely want to do these)
3. A half ironman? (because crazy?)

I've done a triathlon. Now what?

On September 8th, I finished the triathlon I had been training for all summer: Iron Girl Rocky Gap in Cumberland, Maryland. .5 mile swim, 16 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run. It was very very fun, and sealed the deal for me and triathlon hopefully living a long life together, for better or worse.

Here's what my training looked like for those months. Click to see the calendars larger.

May it began. I was hesitant to get in the pool.

June. More consistency and increased swimming yardage.

July. Man I am serious here. Look how few days off there are!

August. I've never been this consistent with any training before in my life.

September doesn't have much to show; I hurt my back and had to scale things back a bit.

In general, I feel I trained pretty well...consistently if nothing else. I really enjoyed it. I looked forward to most workouts and it helped break up my days working by myself. 

Looking back, I think I could have taken more rest. I was worn out a lot when swimming. Definitely my weakest link.

Looking forward...well I'm still working on a base/maintenance training schedule for winter. But the goals and focus for the next few months are this:

1. Lose more weight, get leaner.  Eating healthier is helping this. I feel like I've finally balanced the constantly hungry feeling with the right kind of food to keep me fueled. But damn, I like sweets.
2. Get stronger in general.  I have no upper body or core strength, and, well, swimming takes a lot of that. My swim is pretty slow, so I'd like to make it better.
3. Get stronger on the bike. I watched my legs get bigger and bigger as I trained, but I lack power. The Saturday morning 45 mile ides I've been going on have illustrated that as I creep up every hill. 
4. Figure out how to run faster. It may just be that I'll never be able to run fast. But perhaps if I get all these other things in line, I can see how I can strengthen my run. 

And why? I have to ask myself why I would spend 7 - 10 hours currently on training. Is it my hobby? Am I winning? Is there some ultimate goal?  I think the answer to the why is simply balance. Balance for my health, my day working solo, and the empowerment and happiness my accomplishments (no matter their size or impressiveness) give me.