I'm not an ambi-turner

As Derek Zoolander said, " I'm not an ambi-turner. It's a problem I had since I was a baby. I can't turn left". I confess, I can't bi-lateral breathe....How can I call myself a triathlete and not be able to breathe on both sides right? I've been living with the secret ever since my Half Ironman, but it's time to come out and admit it. I've been working on it, but there's a distinct possibility that I may be the only triathlete that does Ironman breathing on one side. Guess I'll have to work on my Blue Steel look to make up for it.

Huge news, I've made my fundraising minimum for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!!! Thank you so much for your generosity - I definitely will keep fundraising but am so thrilled to have raised just over $5200 so far! Training for a higher purpose helps get me through the rough mental patches so thanks everybody! Training for the past week is below - about 12 hours of training (hour of it STrx):

Mon: 3000y Starting to work a bit more on speed with some shorter drills with quick rests. Here was some of the main drill: 2 x 200 (:20), 1 x 100 (20), 2 x 300 (30), 1 x 100,2 x 400 (40), 1 x 100. Felt pretty good!

Tue: 6 mile run, Fartlek/strides intervals. This was a gut buster at 5am but now I'm sucking down a hammer gel pre run so I'm not bonking as badly as I was with just running on an empty stomach. Still isn't fun but ya just gotta do it.

Wed: 2700y. I did this on my own and skipped the group swim. Still trying to work out a schedule to make the group workouts but for now, still missing most of the Wednesday night swims.

Thur: 20 mile bike. I did this at the gym, my bike was in my car with it's front wheel off and all of my gear in it and frankly, I was just too lazy to go get it, put together, hook it up on the trainer and ride in my living room. Sad but true. I think it's a good indication that I'm totally over the trainer at this point. Rode the Spinner bike (the cool one that has the spin class programmed into it or you can ride with your mp3 player). I jammed music and did intervals.

Fri: 2900y. Wrote my program for the swim down, conveniently forgot it in my car and didn't feel like going back out to get it (see LAZY above). Just did a wing it routine since I remembered the distance but not the actual program. I keep trying to get the left breathing down but it's bad so I worked on that a good bit. I don't know what my deal is. I can do it but it's so incredibly awkward and ineffective that I wait for almost nobody to be in the pool to do it. I'll keep working on it but don't know that I'll get it enough to actually try in a race. We'll see.

Sat: 62 mile bike, 2 mile run. Great ride with the whole team. I'm not a big talker when I ride or run so I usually just kind of hang with people. Not draft but just stay with the crew that seems to be about my pace for the day. It's not that I'm so intense I don't want to talk. It's really that I'm wanting to connect in with my surroundings - the landscape, the sounds, everything. Not to mention, I value silence living with a 4 year old daughter! I punked out on the run, was supposed to do 3 but did 2. Was running with a teammate and we made the executive decision to do 2 instead. I haven't been good about getting in my bricks so it was painful.

Sun: 8 mile run. Nothing remarkable to report here. Just another run on a holiday but dang those caramel filled chocolate easter eggs make it all worthwhile! Pre run was Run Like Hell by Pink Floyd:

Run, run, run, run

You better run all day

And run all night 

Love it!

Suck it up Buttercup!

Some of the Team!

Cyclists lining up

Looking back from the start line

These are a few pictures from the Tony Serrano Memorial Ride on Saturday

This was the week before recovery week so really feeling the miles and ready for a reduction in miles/time. Just a little over 12 hours of training again this week including ST.

Monday: 3500y - WU 600 as 50 Drill/150 swim, 2 x 300 as build by 100 (0:20 RI), 3 x the following: 400 negative split on T-Pace + 35 secs, 4 x 75 as 25 EZ / 50 Hard on T-Pace, CD 200. I keep my training in training peaks and had written that this workout rocked! It was definitely time consuming but I really like the variety of it. Good swim for sure.

Tuesday: 21 mile trainer ride. Training in HR zones 2&3 so pushed it at times for zone 3. Not much to report here - trainer rides are boring and I watch the dvr to occupy myself. It is nice to get ready at home though since I ride my trainer at home.

Wednesday: 2900y. Went to the pm group swim finally. It was so good to be back with the team and see everyone again. Tonight we were in the 50M pool which is a switch from 25y. We did another long continuous swim, this time 2000M. Every 2 lanes of swimmers combined into one lane to do a mass start and race simulation so lots of practice getting kicked and mouth full after mouth full of water. Combining 2 lanes of similarly paced swimmers, you have a good number of swimmers at about the same pace. Never was alone the whole 2000 meters for the continuous.

Thursday: 6.5 miles. As the title says, Suck it up Buttercup. Thursday has long since been my crappy workout of the week as far as results but probably the best training on running when I'm tired and not fully recovered. I really could've stopped at 3 miles because my head wasn't into it but I just kept thinking of all of the people that would love to be able to run and can't because of cancer treatment or injuries or whatever. Suck it up buttercup, you've got it pretty dang good so get 'er done and turn your brain off. Turned my IPOD up and finished ugly.

Friday: 2200 yards. Thankfully made it to the gym in the early AM again so didn't have to deal with the PM scene at the gym. I got there a little later than normal so at 6:30am I was getting out of the pool as a huge amount of people were coming in. Not sure what the group was but note to self to be there and done by 6:30am unless I want to swim circles.

Saturday: 62mile ride. What an awesome day. I mean REALLY! Got to ride with the team and do the Tony Serrano ride out in Monroe GA. Tony Serrano was training for Ironman when he was hit by a car and killed leaving behind a wife and 2 small kids. This is a ride that is in his honor. There were probably 500 riders. Gorgeous day, nice clean road, rest stops that were awesome. As I was driving to Monroe from Atlanta, the sun was coming up burning off a little fog - had to listen to a little Van Morrison, Into the Mystic:

We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

Sunday: 9 miles. See thursdays Suck it up buttercup message. Today was another one of those. Could be the tired legs from yesterday but started out too fast and then got irritated by someone that kept trying to race me it seemed. Would pass me, I'd pass her, then she'd pick up her pace, pass me again... Meanwhile my pace stayed the same the whole time. You get the picture. I finally dropped her going up a hill for good. Though my pace was consistent mile to mile, it was too fast so I was hurting by the end. I kept looking at my HR and pace and telling myself to slow down but my legs wouldn't cooperate. When in doubt, blame the legs right?

Recovery week starts tomorrow, can I get a Woohoo?! This is going to be a busy week at work so it's good that training chills out while my work ramps up. Please consider making a small donation to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!!

This week our daughter Brooke turned 4 so here I am with mini me. We did a 5K with me pushing her in the jog stroller so this was taken right after the race. She took my race belt as you can see. Happy Birthday Brooke!

Bring on the training for the week (12 hours of training this week including Strength Training):

Monday: 20 miles. Horrible thunderstorms and lightening in the morning so no swim. I did my trainer ride that was scheduled for Tuesday instead.

Tuesday: 3300y swim. Nice swim this morning. I really like this scheduled workout. Good amount of 50y drills but then also had 4x500y.

Wednesday: 3300y AM swim. Ladder workout which was pretty tough especially doing back to back 3300s. I skipped group swim in the PM since it was Brooke's birthday celebration. I have to admit, it's so hard to do the late PM swim followed by an early run so it makes me want to keep with the early AM swim vs. group PM but I get so much more out of the evening group swim and coaching that I just have to suck it up for the most part.

Thursday: 6 mile run. This morning it was Kanye - Bigger, Faster, Stronger:

n- n- now th- that don't kill me

Can only make me stronger

i need you to hurry up now

cause i can't wait much longer

Good run again. I suspect that it's because I didn't do the late swim again but who knows. Our bodies can be good or bad with little explanation sometimes. My garmin battery died unfortunately so I didn't get my HR so that may have been why the run was so good too. I couldn't obsess over my HR and keeping it low.

Friday: 2200y swim. Had to do this after work again. Brad had an away match so couldn't go to the gym in the morning but luckily he got back early enough to pick up brooke and watch her so I could get my swim in. Funny, it was pretty much the same scene as last Friday PM.... gray guy frog kickin' and the rest.

Saturday: 60mile ride, 1 mile run. So yes, I skipped the group open water swim followed by the long run - I was planning on doing it but when one of my teammates mentioned riding with the Summer and Spring training teams to get our long ride in vs. the open water swim, I jumped on it. First, the water temp was around 54 degrees and the air temp was around 45, second, I've only gotten one ride in outside, all of my other rides are on the trainer so while I had the Saturday to train as long as needed, I opted for the ride. Don't worry I'll get in some open water swims, just really needed the ride outside. It was pretty hilly and definitely windy (wind advisory for the day) so I think it was good practice for AZ which I've heard is super windy on the bike. GREAT ride, fueled with Hammer gel, Hammer Perpetuem and a granola bar. Hit up on oatmeal and peanut butter pretzels pre ride. Did a quick 1mile post ride just to get a quick brick in. No run scheduled post ride but had to do a mile at least.

Sunday: 9 mile run. Wow, who turned on the heat?? Hot run today around Piedmont Park and Midtown. This is going to be some tough training in the summer in Atlanta. I know it's always hard the first few runs in the heat or cold so this was one of my first really hot runs. No doubt the pollen is ugly too but it's all good training right? I don't run outside with music so last song I listened to before heading out the door was Unchained by Van Halen. Yes, I admit it, I'm a child of the 80s so sometimes a good classic rock song can work wonders:

Change, nothin' stays the same

Unchained, and ya hit the ground runnin'

Change, ain't nothin' stays the same

Unchained, yeah ya hit the ground runnin'

I dare you to listen to that song before or during a run and not get a little energy jolt.

Til next week! Thanks for your donations and for following along on the training!