9 Weeks to Go!!

The first part of the week was light training in Germany but I made up for that as soon as I got home. Since May was, “Bike to Work Month”, I bike commuted weds-thurs and since I was on a team who was focused on beating another team at work (by biking the most miles), I occasionally got lost on the way home which caused me to really pile on the miles (157 in 3 days).

I have really cut down on the sugar to the point that I don’t eat anything that has sugar added unless it’s fruit or vegetable based. This really helps when you’re taxing yourself, it’s a lot better than turning to coffee or tea several times throughout the day. Now for the training:

Swim: my swimming was very limited due to my travel schedule. I did however get in the lake. It was refreshing to swim a mile and have it feel like a warm up but I did feel some shoulder fatigue the next day which I know is from the wetsuit. I may decide to do Ultraman in a sleeveless wetsuit to help keep my shoulders from getting too fatigued.

Bike: I topped out at 257 miles this week, not including my hotel bike journeys through the countryside in Germany. Today’s ride was 100 hilly miles with our friend Ben who is pretty amazing. Rob and I began the ride on our little titanium speed machines where we have taken every ounce into account, down to our carbon water bottle cages. Ben had a pump and bike lock attached to his bike, along with 4 water bottle cages, but let me tell you, none of that slowed him down. Rob and I agreed after the ride that it’s a good thing he didn’t have a little speed machine because we probably would not have been able to keep up!

My focus now while I ride is to stay in the aero position as much as possible, especially on the hills. The stronger I get in this position, the better I will race, the toughest part is getting my neck used to it but that will come with a few 100 more miles.

Run: It was a great week for running. I had a few 1 hour + runs and tomorrow I will do my 3:00 run. I took tomorrow off from work so I could put off my big distance stuff until I felt more recovered from my trip. Traveling overseas is tricky business when you’re in full training mode, your immune system is already taxed from the training and then you throw a long flight and no sleep into the mix. I surely don’t want a repeat of what happened after my last overseas trip (URI, Sinus infection, the flu, hospital etc…)! So, I have given myself 3 days since traveling before doing any big distances.

This next week will be another high volume week and then it’s off to Canada to train on the course! Now that it’s officially June, I bet many of you have a race in the next couple weeks; I wish you the best of luck and don’t forget to have fun out there!

Thanks so much for reading!!

Beth