I mentioned at the start of this blog that my "A" race, as endurance athletes would call it, is Wildflower Triathlon at Lake San Antonio near San Luis Obispo. I have a personal connection to this race considering I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and I worked the Wildflower triathlon my Junior year in college. Most of the students from Poly experience this race from the heavily inebriated volunteer perspective. Right now I am on week 4 of my training plan moving into week 5 of a 18 week training plan. I have had to readjust my training schedule based on how I feel, time constraints, and my need to get running miles in for an upcoming half marathon. Here is how the day worked out for me.
Monday
I planned on getting in a spin and swim in this day, but my body felt overwhelmed with exhaustion after a 13.3 mile run and 65 mile ride over the weekend. Since I had the day off I decided to take a rest day and move my workouts around a bit. I have found it is very important to listen to your body so as to avoid injury so I decided to adjust my schedule to be a lazy vegetable.
Tuesday
Tuesday is usually a morning strength training day for me, but since I had Monday off I needed time to be sure my classroom was together for the week. After a long exhausting day at work I headed to the gym. Normally I would head to the track, but I wanted to get a swim in and I wouldn't have the motivation to swim after track. My workout started on the treadmill. Since many of my fomo marathoners are training for Boston I had a pretty aggressive workout to stick too. The workout reads 1-2 mile warm-up followed by 1000x5-7@10k pace. I started out sluggish, but I felt really great after my warm-up. I ended up with most of my splits reading 4:30 and my last 2 being 4:22, negative splits are always exciting news, finishing 8 miles total. I ended the rest of the evening with some Pilates mat followed by an hour at masters swim.
Wednesday
I needed to fit in about 2 hours worth of cycling which is difficult with such short days. I decided to hit the gym in the morning for 45 minutes of spin and then hit the gym again in the evening for 60 minutes of spin. Since I had a bit of time between the time I was off work and the time spin started I hit the pool. I needed to get in 42 minutes swimming. I haven't felt very confident in my swimming lately so I wanted to get in a long set to boost my self-esteem. Success! I managed to get in a full 1000 followed by some drills and shorter sets.
Now it was on to round 2 of spin my legs almost felt like they were going to fall off. If that wasn't enough, the spin instructor, Marianne, decided to torture my abs afterward. My sluggish body made it home to call it an early night.
Thursday
I always stay after work on Thursdays to hang out with the Chess Club, and no I do not know how to play Chess. This makes it difficult to find the motivation to make it to the gym. I decided I would make up my spin from monday in the a.m. and then maybe get a run in later. Spin went well, but lots of hills which I knew would make for a sore day. Unfortunately, I did not have the energy to run, nor did I have the time so I moved my run to friday, praying I would have the energy to get a run in.
Friday
So I've been trying to fit in 2 days of strength training and Friday mornings there is one of my favorite classes with body bars, bands, and light weights. Today involved lots of walking lunges, squats, shoulders and core, which forshadowed a tough afternoon run and tough ride the next day. Since my students were watching a documentary I had a little more energy on a friday afternoon than I usually do, so I set my sights on one of my favorite trail loops, the Mt. Diablo Briones Trail. I headed out feeling kind of sluggish, but by mile 4 I felt great and I just kept going. I ended up cranking out 10 miles and I even almost beat the sun, my last mile was a little dark though. I managed to run an 8:34 pace which felt fairly easy, but I didn't want to push it too hard because I still had a long bike ride in store for me the next day.
Saturday
I have a group of forward motion friends I ride with on Saturdays and I was planning on riding with the slower group. However, the leader of the slower, "B," group actually came down with a case of something and wouldn't be making the ride so I had to try and hang on with the big dogs. My legs felt heavy from the beginning, which I had already predicted, and at that moment I decided I will need to find a new weight class because Friday needs to be an easy, or rest day to be able to gun it for 50 miles on Saturday. I kept up okay for the full 47 miles, I did get dropped for a short period of time, but overall I hung on, which is a first for me.
Sunday
I decided after a full week of working out and a difficult ride that I would sleep in instead of running with the FOMO group. I took it easy to have an overall 9:02 pace, but I did manage to get negative splits which is a big thing I've been working on. Unfortunately, after 2 weeks of feeling okay my ongoing injury of my piriformis was acting up a bit today. I really wanted to get 2 more miles in, but I called it quits at 10, making a total of 28 miles for the week running with 2 weeks until Surf City.
Overall a great week in training and I'm ready to tackle week 5. I'm very glad to have encouraging friends and family to keep me going, not to mention beautiful weather in Sunny California!!!
A FOMO run from a few weeks ago...Campo di Bocce route
Despite my bumps and bruises I love cycling! 
What I am finding to be the most important skill in cycling is drafting. For many years I tried drafting (riding close behind someone to prevent the draft from pushing you back), but I never felt it truly made a difference on how I ride. That is until today! Lately, I've been riding with a group of people who smoke me on the bike and I have found that drafting is a very valuable skill that can increase a persons speed and save energy.
