Monday Mileage

This week was a bit of a "deload" week. Exercising is one of my main forms of stress relief, so I normally wake up excited to swim, bike, and/or run. When I don't wake up with that excitement, I take it as a sign that I need to dial things back a bit. I think its always important to honor and trust your body, but this is especially important for triathletes. We are constantly being pushed by both ourselves and by our peers to go harder, get faster, and grow stronger! 

Monday 9/14: Arm Circuit + Bike 16.1 Miles
Just a nice, short bike ride. If I wasn't so slow getting ready in the morning I would have had time for a longer ride. :(

Tuesday 9/15: Arm Circuit + Grappling Circuit
It was raining when I woke up, so I decided to dust off the barbell and do the Grappling Circuit as my "cardio" after the arm circuit. I didn't go crazy with the weight - I just used my empty 35 pound barbell. It was a good workout but I didn't feel like it was particularly challenging. I did 6 rounds of 10 repetitions of each with a 1 minute rest between rounds. As you will see by tomorrow, this circuit is deceptive...

Wednesday 9/16: REST!
Holy DOMS! My legs were so sore I had to do the side roll trick to get out of bed. I considered swimming and just taking it easy, but then I realized I would have to put a swimsuit on, and I'm pretty sure I would have fallen over trying to step into a swimsuit!

Thursday 9/17: Arm Circuit + Bike 18.7 Miles
The DOMS were still bad, but at least walking was no longer painful. I woke up to all these alerts about a possible tsunami, so I decided to go for a bike ride down to the beach to check things out.  

Friday 9/18: Run 7 Miles
Yup, still sore! I ran an easy 7 miles and stretched a ton at work. Eventually this has to go away!

Saturday 9/19: Yoga + Bike 11.8 Miles to Work and 11.8 Miles Home
Yoga felt soooooo good this morning - it was definitely what my body and mind needed and the DOMS is finally gone! I'm a big fan of Bikram Yoga, but I haven't been in a while. When I'm getting back on the yoga "wagon," the hardest part for me is getting used to being in a hot room for 90 minutes. Thankfully, the Bikram Yoga studio right by my house recently started offering an one hour class, and it was just about perfect. Then I decided to ride my bike to and from work - if I'm going in on a weekend, I might as well enjoy myself a bit!

Sunday 9/20: Bike 24.6 Miles
My fiancee and I went for an easy bike ride before running errands and doing chores the rest of the day. At least we got some fun in!

*Goals from last week*
1. Go to Yoga/Keep Stretching - Yup and yup! Thanks to the DOMS episode, I was a stretching machine!
2. Streamline Morning Routine (set stuff out the night before and/or set a time limit) - I think I was actually slower this week :(
3. Get a 30+ Mile Bike Ride In - Nope, but I did get more biking in!

**Goals for next week**
1. Go to Yoga/Keep Stretching
2. Streamline Morning Routine (this is a work in progress)
3. Get 3 Swim Sessions In (since I did none last week)