IM Arizona Week 6: It's starting to fall into place

6 weeks down, 18 weeks to go.

This week was a great week of training, I would have to say that it has been my best so far. I was a little worried that I would start the week feeling pretty tired, after a heavy weekend of workouts. I think Gordon's delicious spaghetti bolognese on Sunday night made all the difference to my recovery! We started out the week with a 60 minute fartlek run Monday evening around the Lake Austin Blvd. / Scenic loop. It was a very chilly evening, but I felt really good running. My legs didn't feel crunchy at all, quite surprisingly.

Tuesday evening I swam and felt good. Wednesday I ran home for lunch with Gordon and then he dropped me back at work. An easy 30 minute run and nice to know I can get home quickly on my own steam if I need to! Thursday was double workout day - swim in the morning, trainer ride in the evening, then we celebrated our double Thursday by going to Austin Java for some dinner and a beer. It was gooooood.

Friday I was a woman of leisure and had the day off from work (burning through some vacation hours) so I met up with some of the T3 group for a mid-afternoon ride around Circle C. I don't think I've ever been so cold on a ride, and I was pretty rugged up too! The sun went away just as soon as we started riding, and it was pretty cold from that point onwards. Even the hot chocolate from Starbucks didn't warm me up much (note: I must order it extra hot next time!).

Saturday morning we met up with some fellow T3'ers for a 15 mile run around Town Lake and central Austin. It was a really, really good run. Much better than last weekend's long run. I felt like I could have run an extra couple of miles at the end, which is always a good feeling. Sunday morning we showed up to do a 70 mile long ride with the group, but it was foggy and drizzling so Gordon and I decided to go home and ride on the trainer. I'll ride in rain if I have to (like the Shiner ride back in May) but if it's not necessary then it's much safer and more comfortable to ride on the trainer. So instead we did a 3 hour "tough love" trainer ride. We watched a cycling workout on DVD, which honestly made all the difference. If it wasn't for the DVD workout then 3 hours on the trainer would have been pretty tough. Plus, it was a tough workout and I ended up working harder than I would have if I'd ridden 70 miles.

I didn't quite make my hours this week, but I did more than last week and I'm really pleased with my progress.

Goal hours: 15.5
Actual hours: 12.25

Bike: 5.75hrs / 109 miles
Run: 3.8hrs / 24 miles
Swim: 2.5hrs / 6600 yards

Next week is recovery week... I need it!