Time to Start the next Training Cycle

Day	Planned	Actual	Comments
Monday	50 Min AR	Training 30 min Swim	Left shoulder not happy
Tuesday	Track2.0	Track2.0	4x300, 5x400
Wednesday	XT	Skipped	Skipped
Thursday	50 Min AR	60 Min	4.7 miles
Friday	Off	Off	Off
Saturday	TrickorTri	300yd swim 10 mi bike 5k run	Swim-Bleh Bike - Can't complain run - Nailed it
Sunday	8 miles AR	8.1 miles	10:47 pace

The post Chicago Marathon hiatus is officially over.  I have a few races coming up on the books including Trick or Tri (Sprint Distance) this past weekend, and then Wine and Dine Race weekend in DisneyWorld (Lumiere's Challenge-10K Sat/Half Sun).   So this past week was a last a minute cram session to prepare for the Tri.

Monday - Met with Kei, ended the session with some side oblique, and core work out.  Followed directly by a swim session with SMOG Squad.   SMOG squad was low yardage but a lot of no breathers.  The theme for the night was "Breathing is a privilege".  We only ended up with about 700 yds, but my left shoulder was definitely unhappy when pulling about the last 200 yards.  Also my lower back was super tight and uncomfortable for a bulk of the swim.  I'm attributing that to the exercise prior to Swim.

Track 2.0

Tuesday - Welcome back to Track 2.0.  I felt like I was dying.  We did 4x300's followed by 5x400's.  At the end of the night my right hamstring was on fire and remained sore the for the next couple days.

Track 2.0

Wednesday - I had great plans of going to swim.   But felt horrible the entire day.   I ended up staying home, watching the Dodger game, and then crawling into bed as soon as it was over.

Thursday - Was fashionably late to SBRC run club.  So ended up heading out on my own.  Ran 25 minutes South on the Strand, then headed back to the store to at least say "hi" to everyone.   Felt a little slow like I had not ran non-stop for awhile (almost 3 weeks to be precise).  Around Mile 3, I ran into George from run club and decided I would finish my run (about 1.5 miles) with him and enjoying the company.

Thursday Night SBRC Sketcher's Run

Friday - Rest day.   Again I wasn't feeling great.   I ended up leaving work early and just took it easy the rest of the day.

Saturday - Trick or Trip Race Day!  This is a great fun race up at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale.  I signed up for the sprint distance just for a nice and easy time.  (If you've been keeping up on my training these past few months, you will know that my swimming and biking has almost been non-existent - so I wasn't expecting much).      The swim was a short 300 yard swim.  Should have been easy peasy.   I felt great when I started, but probably halfway in I started not feeling great and ended up breaststroking with my head out of the water,  and continued that battle switching between freestyle and breaststroke.    For such a simple swim, I was super excited to be out of the water.  The first transition took a little longer, because I had to make a pit stop in the restroom.  Post detour, I hopped on my bike and was ready to go.   Still not feeling great. But slowly got into the groove.  The first 2 miles were on the lower road which had lots of pot holes, so I opted not to be in aero-position until we got up on the bike trail on top of the dam.  For the sprint distance its one bike loop and fairly simple ride.  I was able to find my cadence and go.   The bike was about 10 miles, and about 8 miles in my left shoulder was uncomfortable in the aero position.   Once the bike completed it was time to head out on the run.   I was finally starting to feel better (maybe my starbucks latte and breakfast sandwich was not a good idea).  There's not a lot of shade on the course, but luckily it had not fully warmed up yet and ended up being perfect weather for a run.  The run is a flat 5k run around the lake.  I left completely happy with the run, as it is the first 5k run in a normal direction sprint tri that I completed in under 30 minutes.      Overall I improved my time from last year by about 3 minutes, which I'm happy due to lack of training leading into it.

Trick or Tri - 5k Run

Sunday - 8 mile run.  Overall it felt pretty good, ended up ending my run going from the beach up 190th street.  Managed to make it up and over the hill without walking.  Super proud of myself for pushing through.

Sunday Run 8.1 miles

Nutrition: Need to start thinking about again.  Its easy to get out of a healthy eating habit.   Goal is to really focus on this as the holiday season gets closer.