Little bit of this and that...

Well, another weekend come and gone. I love my weekends! So here’s what was up:

Thursday, July 7 – Spin class & Swimming
I’ve discovered that Thursday spin classes are actually a little tougher than the Tuesday class…I like that and think I’ll keep going! It was grueling, but fun. After work, I headed to the gym to swim. This swim was much better than my Wednesday swim! Much smoother, much less effort...I did some drills and then a ladder. Overall, I swam 1,200 yds.

Friday, July 8 - Rest

Saturday, July 9 – Bike ride and parties
I joined my biking homies for a nice, new route. This route was along some pretty country roads about 30 minutes from my house. It was definitely more challenging than our usual, flat route – this ride included some nice, rolling hills and less protection from the wind. We had some views of the countryside, some views of a lake and even some flowers…naturally, we had to stop and enjoy! We did a little over 40 miles. It’s nice that 40 miles doesn’t seem too bad, even on the more challenging route. Although, I have to admit that the last few miles were tough mentally - by that point, I was sick of the rolling hills and felt like I could barely make it up the last couple.

Taking a little break...

Yes, we took time to stop and smell the flowers...these were growing on the side of the road! So pretty!

Later, after doing the grocery shopping and some laundry, we headed to a friend’s house to celebrate their daughter’s graduation from high school. Crazy, because I remember this daughter when she was just a baby…and now she’s graduating…kinda makes me feel old! The Hubby and I debated on whether or not we wanted to bring the kids along, and we’re glad we did. They had an awesome time playing with all the other kids and just being silly. Great food, great friends, great fun…

Sunday, July 10 – Run and swim
Sunday I had the option – get up at 4:30 to run, or wait until 7 pm in the evening. The Hubby was planning to meet up with his tri training group for their weekly run at 6:15 am, then we’d head to the lake for a swim after…this meant that I either had to run and get home before he left for his run, or I’d be running later in the evening. With the “feels like” temps in the 100s, there was no way I would be running in the middle of the day! After waking up before 5 am for 6 days in a row, I decided to sleep in. The Hubby enjoyed his group run and we still had time for breakfast together before dropping off the kids at my parent’s house and heading to the lake.

We were surprised to see such a large number of people out at the lake. Then we realized that there was an open water swim clinic being held. That group had already finished their swim…this made me happy, because I hoped they’d already scared away any snakes or other creepy crawlies out in the water. LOL! This was the hubby’s 1st open water swim and he did great! He was actually in the water before I finished putting my swim cap and goggles on. I was pretty proud of myself too…I had absolutely no anxiety whatsoever. After having a handful of really crappy open water swims in the spring, it felt good to have a good ows! I swam a little over 1,000 m, so it was a pretty decent workout!

Here's the lake where we have ows practice...looks nice and serene, huh?

Once we were home, we hung out with the kiddos and finished the laundry…exciting, huh? Then, it was finally time to head out for my run. I wasn’t really feeling it…I started to get a sore throat earlier in the day and just felt kinda crappy. Plus, my quads were sore from the bike ride the day before. Plus, it was hot! I really didn’t want to run.

Did I mention it was hot?

I had a horrible time. I walked, I whined, I cursed, I walked some more. Let’s face it, I am a morning runner. It’s about 10 degrees cooler and the sun doesn’t glare down on you at 4:30 in the morning. I know a lot of you out there run in this stupid heat and deal with it…and I don’t know how you do it. I am sure I need to get acclimated to it, but ugh, why? I’d much rather run in the morning. I don’t think I felt really good until I got to mile 5…by then the sun was low enough for me to be in the shade. At least there was a breeze. So anyway, it is what it is – a horrible, slow, walked way too much and I hate running kinda run.

I am kinda bummed that I am calling 6 miles a *long* run! Before the whole toe incident, I was easily running 8 – 10 miles, heat and all. And now, well, I’m a pansy.

It’ll get better, right?

I hope so.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!