Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry.........

Did I say that I was sorry?

I haven't managed to find the time to update this. I used to be able to squeeze about 15 minutes or so in the morning at work on a bit of a coffee break. But I have a new job at work and things are pretty crazy busy. There is a lot of 'catch up' work to do, so I am trying to do that as well as stay on top of all the new stuff that is happening.

But, I got to the pool this morning at 6:30 to find it closed (again!) and so here I am at work way too early with some time on my hands after visiting the Starbucks.

So things have basically just been clipping along. My running and swimming are coming along nicely. The bike still has me scared to death. I am consistently doing a long ride of 100K+ but I'm still slow. I am most worried about things I can't control. Not in a 'paranoid' way, but in a 'what if' way. I know that my bike time is going to be slow. I am not a very good hill climber. So I know that I will be keeping an eye on the time for the bike cut off. I worry that if it gets windy or we get any other kind of weather that might affect speed that I just might not make it. I know tht the possibility of not finishing is just part of the risk you take, but I know that it would be disappointing.

Last weekend I rode with some people as part of the Toronto Triathlon Club. That was kind of fun for a change. My only complaint about it was that everyone left at once. So the crazy fast riders lead this charge of people in a huge group. The slower riders were in with this group, keeping up (because of the draft) but the pace was still a bit too much. I wanted to keep up (despite being outside my comfort zone) because I knew that once the slower riders got spit out the back the would otherwise be too far ahead for me to catch them. So it would have been nice if the slower rides left a bit earlier to get a head start and set their own pace. But after I hooked up with three other women at my pace we had a lot of fun. There was only one section (on the way back to the meeting place) where the traffic was bad. The rest of the roads were quite nice.

So this weekend I'm on for 120K of riding and about 18-20km of running.

I'm ready for my rest week...

Most training plans work on some kind of on/off schedule where you work hard for 2 or 3 weeks (increasing your distance over those weeks or working at high intensity) and then you take an easy week. During that week you give your body a chance to recover (and you can finally catch up on the house work and your TV watching!).

So this week is my rest week and I feel like I earned it and I am ready to take it!

Last week ended up looking like this:
Swim: 5000 meters (two sessions)
Bike: 168K (two sessions)
Run: 38K (three sessions)
Total: 12 hours 55 minutes

(And, as always, just for fun, this time last year I did 4600 meters, 78K, 28K, 8 hours 30 minutes)

My long ride on Saturday I followed a map from a charity ride site (they post training maps for their riders) that took me up to Inglewood. The ride up was great except part of their north bound route was closed due to construction, but I found an alternate. I actually got far enough that I saw FARM land. Once I turned at the half way mark I hit the wind and this is where things started to go downhill. It got tough. I was getting tired. I had to squat in a ditch and pee. I was getting hungry. And then the south bound route back into the city was closed also for construction. Thankfully I just invested in a cell phone. I called Shayne to get on google maps and find me a 'safe' route home. Safe meaning tell me which road to take that won't have any exits for the highway. He found one for me while I was stopped at the Tim Hortons shoving donuts (yes plural!) down my gullet. The south bound route turned out to be really good as eventually I found a route that was one of the signed bike routes. Toronto has put up 'route' signs for suggested streets to ride. Very helpful at a time like this. I finished up coming through High Park which was nice after so much traffic. I stopped at the Starbucks near my house and ordered a cinnamon dolce latte which was the best tasing coffee ever. In the end I covered 123km. It took me longer than I thought it would.

Saturday's long run was really quite lovely. Nice weather (although windy again). I did 20K, the final 5K were tough as my legs started to remind me that I had ridden over 100K the previous day.

So, I'm ready for the rest week. I might tackle some sewing with all my spare time. I have a dress I made a few years back that needs to be altered. It has never been worn. So sad.