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!