A good week

This week seems like it has been very good for training. Lots of good key sessions that were done with motivation and purpose. Until the weekend got here. Was tired going into Saturday and Sunday. Rallied though and now that it is over feel very good about it. Had some great company on Sunday which helped.

Calgary- We are going to leave Friday morning. Hopefully get there early enough to check in and get our packets and swim? My idea is that we get our bikes ready to go on Friday and then bring them to the T1, likely do a ride on Saturday, and then drop them off. All in one fallow swoop!! We will drive home Monday morning.

Schedule- Am starting a big experiment that I will take down the Tuesday we get back from Calgary. I shouldn't plan on doing anything during the workday.

PT- Didn't get to see regular PT last week. He was out of town. The other one just did the dry needling. Was doing the prescribed stretching one day last week and really felt my hamstring release!!! Woohoo!!! Anyway, the run after the ride on Sunday felt really good. No left leg pain.  I am going back to the PT today to get another run evaluation and more dry needling today, so I can ask him more.

Tuesday- am ride was great. I got up made some coffee and headed out the door. The day was blustery and only got worse as it went by, so the am ride was perfect. Had a a good set of 3 minute intervals. I kept running out of road though. Two minutes recovery didn't give me enough time to get back very far. Oh well, it was fine.
Masters swim- Also great! I was motivated to get in some good yardage. One of my favorite things is how I feel post a good hard swim. It seems nicer to make a delicious dinner. My lane at Masters is driving me crazy though. For one, the fast lane now has very fast 19 year olds in it. So, the old lane 5 fast people are moving down to lane four. That makes the lane faster than I can handle. Also, they talk a lot, and all finish after 3000. See Thursday for more....  Anyway, got in good yardage.

Wednesday- At 3pm saw a warning for severe thunderstorms in the area until 10pm. The sky looked mildly cloudy, but not bad, so I hightailed it home and got on the bike. Good thing I did. The last 20 minutes of the ride or so were pretty spooky. Lightning in my path and a good old soaking in the rain. Had a good hard, pretty hilly ride too. Funny how in Bozeman it can go from 90 and you think you are going to melt, to getting caught in a thunderstorm. I have to confess, I didn't do the post ride run. I felt like I had enough adventure for the day. By the time I was making dinner it was sunny again.

Thursday- One hour run at lunch. It was hot out, and I wasn't feeling super snappy. Started thinking about Calgary. I am really excited to go up there and race. That got my legs turning over a little better. I don't think that there is a huge # of people doing the race. On the swim start heats it said 250 AG women. I am excited to race those women.
Swim- Demoted myself to lane 3. We really need 6 lanes at this point. One super fast lane, one fast lane, one medium fast lane etc. Anyway, I was totally fine with it. I wanted to get in a good workout that was at my pace. The workout was really good too. Some longer swimming to get a good rhythm, some IM but not an overwhelming amount, builds, fast, etc. There was only one other guy in the lane and I actually had a good time with him. It is amazing how fast the yards go by when you don't stop and listen to everybody talk for minutes on end. Actually finished the workout. 3000-3500 or so.

Friday- I think you could call that run more of a waddle. I stretched my piriformis yesterday and maybe held it a little too long. Those muscles on both sides were sore. I also wanted to take it easy to rest up for the weekend. Did the PT afterwards. Felt my hamstring release!! Woohoo!! Rode to and from work and to and from downtown for some dinner. John and Lisa showed up really late for dinner, so we sat around waiting for them for a couple of hours. It made for getting home a bit later than I wanted and also for being tired on Saturday. I need to be more careful about socializing to much on Friday nights.

Saturday- Swim in pond. It took a little over 3 minutes to get to the other side, so I added two extra intervals. I was tired this morning and was really having to rally to get motivated.

Ride- Rode with Lawrence. We rode up Hyalite, to the nudey bar, out to the mouth of Gallatin Canyon and home. It was about 65 miles and more like 4.5 hours. A little longer than prescribed. I was super tired after this. Hangry.

Sunday- Lawrence, Art and I did the Castle Mountain Tour. It starts in Ringling, then Martinsdale, Checkerboard, White Sulpher, and back to Ringling. It is also a bit longer than prescribed 88 miles and about 5:15 of ride time. It is a great look to settle in and those 25 minute intervals were perfect for it. Really liked the 25 minute intervals. Was really tired going into this morning. Started intervals out a bit slower, but comfortable. Really focused on IM pace. It was great though, because as the day went on, I felt better and better. The last 25 minutes was climbing this little pass out of Checkerboard and I felt amazing!!!