It occurred to me this week I’m not sure I’ve done a single workout on the assigned day yet. I might have but it was purely by accident. This week was actually a lot of fun at work, in life and in training. Buy the time I reach week 8 in a 12 week running only plan I’m sick and tiered of running and desperate to rebel and do something different. Only by that point there isn’t time plus I gotta go for a run, again! Maybe it’s the fact that I’m only in week two but I feel like yeah, I get to go running/swimming/biking today. Even running felt pretty awesome again on global running day now that it’s not the only thing I’m doing anymore. It could also be that there are only 4 workouts a week at this point. According to the forecast at least Juneuary (a really cold June) is perhaps drawing to a close. But then again as I hit publish there is yet again another frost warning so we’ll see. One of my favourite, yet needy this week, tutoring kids finished up his exams this week. So hanging with him this week has been a lot of fun too! Kinda sad it was grade 12 and he’s done now, sad face, but onto bigger things right? Oh and PS if you have leech tips… please keep reading and send them along.
Wednesday: 13 km run: Runs are the easiest to get to aren’t they? I accidentally went running on global running day and it was a long one. This week’s training theme is to go beyond race day distances running and on the water to build some confidence early on. I know this was the motivation of the writter because that’s me! This run was so much fun even though it was a tad cold, late and I was a quite overfull. I ate a turkey platter of poutine for lunch at three which doesn’t mix well with running. Even though I had a side stitch from my gluttony for three km it was a great lunch and a great run!
Friday: 20 km bike ride: I got stood up for standard driving lessons, as the teacher not the learner and believe it or not I was disappointed. I like to say. “Real chicks drive sticks,” but that’s not really true. My mom had us learn on standards (at driving school) and I really do prefer it. I’ve taught a few people say 5 to drive a stick and I was about to go for 6 but I got stood up. At the point I left on my bike I thought that it was just a running late thing not a cancelled thing. I was all psyched up and had my lesson plan ready. Perhaps another day. I went the opposite way on my bike this week and honey got all my progress emails after renewing my cyclemeter subscription so that’s great. If you do any mountain biking especially please, please read this post for more info on the potentially life saving app. It was a great ride but when stopped the bugs were chewable. Why haven’t these frosts killed the black flies yet?
Saturday: 5 km run: I saved this run for the Michelin Tire Trot with the fam fam. I’m going to spare you the details since I wrote a race recap. But basically it was a too easy 5k run.
Sunday: 1700 m swim: If you follow me on instagram you’ll already know that this one evolved into a production. First of all it was to be longer than race distance, it wasn’t I called it at 1500 m and it was COLD! 11 degrees Celsius cold (52 f). I wore my rash guard and short wetsuit again, But I added my old swim cap and a ew set of speedo vanquisher 2 goggles. I didn’t want to go but I had thrown a 4 on the scale of 1 to 10 tantrum after it looked like we’d be to late to hit sport check and buy goggles on the way home. For reference it was the silent type of tantrum but like REALLY silent. At the lakefront it was my poor behaviour that turned out to be for no reason that ultimately got me in, plus a few man up texts from honey!
If you read my post on how to conquer the triathlon swim you’ll see I advocate for swimming along the shore since it’s safer. Why do we think we’re above taking our own advice? After an out and back across the lake I realized, alright partway through, that it was too cold for me to be this far from shore and I did the last 900 m along the shore. It was freezing but I kept telling myself if it were easy everyone would do it. I headed out on the last 400m out and back to bring it to 1600 m but I was just too cold. About half way I talked myself into a few more strokes and then decided it was already over at about 1400-1500 m.
Which brings me to an unorthodox triathlon decision I made this week. I think I’m going to do the swim with breaststroke. Triathletes (all?) use a modified freestyle with a heads up portion for sighting and favouring their arms over their legs. Back in the day I had a wicked fast breaststroke and used to do the majority of my timed swims that way. The nerves during a triathlon are the highest during the swim so doing a familiar stroke is a nice thing. Also I wear glasses and without them I’m essentially blind. Like once almost kissed the wrong guy blind! Doing the breaststroke will make sighting a lot easier for me without my gasses. Finally the swim is the shortest portion of the race and if it takes me three or four extra minutes it’s not the end of the world if I feel more comfortable. Plus I checked and my breaststroke is still wicked fast.
Finally the last chapter of this swim. When I came home I headed straight for a hot bath and as I got in I realized I had my very first leech between my third and fourth toe! Of course I screamed for honey to bring the salt. He seasoned my right foot and took the leech off. I thought about making him take a picture first but he was good and freaked out too. Ewwww but once it was all over it made me laugh pretty hard. I wonder if my sister will let me keep the flip flops she lent me after my half marathon if she finds out they touched a leech?
Sweat Sweetly 
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