The Volume of a Cylinder is not equal to the volume of training we are doing!

My how things change when you shift mental gears and hit the stage of acceptance for all the mechanical misfortunes the gremlins throw your way!

Yesterday I was all set to get up and do a 10 mile run when I, at the last minute, decided the bed looked more inviting that the beautiful morning that awaited out the door. An hour later...crap! I need to get going! So I ditched the run to sleep in but am not too broken up about it and I haven't been for sometime (Sleeping in versus working out that is!) I relegated myself to run an hour at lunch to get a longer run in and use the opportunity to acclimate to the summer heat at mid day.

The run was uneventful and my legs felt a bit heavy the first half as they do when I take a day off. The 2nd half I really opened up and negative split the run (although I turned around on the path at work 30 minutes out), but it is all up hill on the way back so I felt pretty good. My heavy sweating problem was apparent as I went through all four Fuel Belt Bottles I brought with me in that 1 hour run! Was definitely parched by the end but felt pretty good overall.

Work was uneventful even though I have tons to do. Working at my own pace allows me to put off tomorrow what I could do today, and then work long hours the week the project is due to make up for it. It is kind of nice, but I am the only one doing it to myself...when will I learn!

Luckily I got after I got back from my run that my Road Bike was ready to go so I left right at 5pm to get it from the shop before going swimming.

So it was DC Tri Club Masters swim at Catholic University last night and I was in charge of the workouts. I put together a pretty hard 2880yd work out that had 3x240 descending (The pool is a 40yd pool) and 4x160 descending, where you make each set faster than the one before it. Although my arms and back were tired from the almost 5000 yards Kirsten and I had already done this week, I felt like I was finally getting my form back after being in the pool only 3 or 4 times in the past 4 weeks. Kirsten and I split the lane since there wasn't enough people there to fill up our lane. It was the first time she and I have swum (swim, swam?) side by side in almost a year!!! It was a good gauge of where my swimming has gone since I have been feeling like I have been getting faster, but not really keeping time all that much. We pushed each other pretty hard on the longer descending sets and I am pretty sore today. Even driving with one arm my shoulder was screaming at me.

Didn't sleep all that well last night since I kept waking up and tossing and turning, but I woke up at 530 and felt refreshed and ready to go for some reason. I have no idea why! I got up and got ready to go biking and Kirsten declares...."I AM EXHAUSTED!", so I respond "You should go back to bed....but I am riding ;)" haha! She slept all the way until I got back from my ride.

The ride felt awful at first, I was all alone all the way to Hains Point and and my legs felt heavy and sore from the run. I met up with the usual group and stuck with them for a while until the roadies started infiltrating the group and started pushing the pace. It quickly degraded into paceline sprints for 3-4 miles with everyone letting me lead the pack...I pulled off a couple times and asked a couple guys to move up to which they said "I am tapering for my race"....great....I was stuck at the front for the majority of the ride and on each set. Oh well...the legs were screaming but surprisingly I was keeping pace longer than I thought I could. So much I even had a couple pull away sprints in me...but that last one HURT. I ended up riding home with a guy in our club that was an NTPer but a seriously strong cyclist for being new to the sport.

Anyway, it was a solid two days of training and now it is time to concentrate and get some work done. I am throughly sore and feel great as a result! Relaxing with Kirsten tonight will be a well deserved break!