Monday

We are getting back into the groove of things this week. All of the triathlon residents are back in Colorado Springs and the recovery week is over. In other words...today was a big training day! And it might not look that hard on paper...but add in 6,000 feet of altitude and subtract A LOT of oxygen...and walking up stairs is a serious exercise!
Swim practice went back to starting at 7:30 am (last week we were starting at 9:30am so the the USA World University Games Swim Team could practice...it was so great to see a lot of my swimming friends!:) and this morning we knocked out 5800 meters and I thought I was going to die or explode (or both) around the 4000 meter mark! We did a couple of 900s and the goal was to keep them at the pace of our timed 2000 meter swim from March in Chula Vista...plus 2 seconds per 100 as an altitude adjustment...I was on the goal pace until about halfway when my legs decided to completely quit on me, then my arms gave out, and then it was just a chore to get my lungs to keep breathing:)!
After breakfast...it was time for a 2 hour bike ride with some race efforts in the middle...it wasn't that bad as long as I was going down hill!! Flat sections of the bike ride were rare to come across...but the uphill sections I can't tell you anything about because I think I blacked out on each one!! I did most of the ride with my teammate Jasmie...since I don't know my way around Colorado Springs yet...she led the ride and took me on some fun roads and through some cute towns! I can't wait to get to know the area a bit better so that I can go exploring on my own!
The third (and last, thank goodness) workout on the list today was a 30 minute run on the treadmill right after we got off our bikes. I know that I hate running inside on those darn things...but we did some 10K efforts for 30 seconds and it was easy to plug in the speed you wanted to go and then the treadmill made sure that you were running that pace.
So, in conclusion, today was a great day...filled with all kinds of workouts...that were hard but rewarding! Although the sun is not shining here very much...all I have to do is think of all my family and friends in Florida and hope that they are sending sunny thoughts my way!!!!!:)