Between Swimming, Biking, and Running

I’ve got 40 minutes before my next training session. It’s been go-go-go since the alarm went off this morning…and the end is getting closer, but I’m not there yet!
7am it was time to grab a quick bit to eat in the cafeteria…nothing too heavy or it might not sit well in my stomach.
7:55am I dropped my running gear off in the back of Cliff’s car and met the rest of the group on my bike.
8am we all rolled out from the OTC on our way to the Garden of the Gods. The ride to GOTG was our warm up and when we got to the loop we split into groups and rode 3 loops hard followed by 5 minutes easy spinning. We re-grouped and rode another 3 loops hard before leaving the park.
10am we rolled up to Monument Valley Park, had a fast transition into our running gear that Cliff set out on the sidewalk and started running down the trail on our first 2K.
10:10am I started my next 2K on the trail; this one was faster than the first! After 3 minutes of recovery it was time for a pace change on a 1K. We had about 6 minutes recovery and then one more 2K to finish the workout!
11am I rode back to the OTC easy for my cool down. Since I sweat like a race horse, I jumped in the shower before grabbing lunch in the cafeteria and sitting in the cold tank in Sports Med. to help my legs recover.
12:30pm get out of the cold tank and walk back to my room to check emails and write a blog.
**Now I’m going to start writing about the future:)**
1:10pm I’m going to head over to the pool and get ready for swim practice.
1:30-3pm: we will probably be cranking out meters in the pool for most of that time. As soon as practice is finished, I’m going to change really quickly and go to the weight room for 30 minutes of core strength.
3:45pm I’m going with about 5 or 6 of my teammates for a hot drink (hot chocolate) at a café in downtown Colorado Springs. A perfect way to finish off a hard day…Coffee Talk with my good friends!
Tonight I’m probably not going to have enough energy to push the keyboard so I thought I’d get this blog typed now while I’m still semi-coherent! These are the days that make-or-break a professional triathlete…if you can stay mentally focused and technically strong…you will see a benefit on race day when it gets hard! I know that training days like this before my race at Alcatraz helped me finish strong after climbing all those hills and cliffs.
This time we aren’t training for hills…we are training for 180 degree turns on the bike and hot weather on the run during the National Championship race in Long Beach next weekend. I think we bike around a loop 6 times in the race and on each loop there are 4 x 180 degree turns…so 6x4 is 24 turns!! Good thing we’ve already started practicing our 180s! And I’m pretty sure that we are going to get a bit of heat on the run because the Pro Women start at 7am…plus 2 hours…means we are going to be finishing our race at 9am in southern California in June!
You can check out the start list for the Long Beach Continental Championships and other information at www.triathlon.org.