Week 3 Wrap-Up

The burn-out factor was certainly pretty high for me as I headed into the week—I really had no motivation beyond just getting the crazy race over with and moving on with my life—and believe me, words do NOT express how unmotivated I was. It’s still amazing to me that I managed to get in the workouts that I did—even with the taper, it took every ounce of mental fortitude to get my butt out of bed and to the pool/fitness center each morning, but I did it. My focus, though, became less of getting the workouts in (which I did anyway) and more on how to regain the enjoyment of the workouts to make them less painful mentally. I got off the treadmill for my longer mid-week run, which meant I had a nice early morning jaunt through Harms Woods, and bagged another swim workout in favor of a massage on Thursday night—all well worth it.

Friday night, I had my first “real” summer event—I went to Ravinia with Julie and Theresa. Ravinia is, hands-down, my favorite thing about Chicago in the summer, and it was killing me that I had yet to make an appearance this year—I typically go at least 4-5 times each year. But, Julie had a brilliant idea of going to see the B-52’s, so we grabbed appropriate picnic food and headed out. It was a blast—a little sketchy weather-wise for a while as we sat through a light drizzle, but still, it was a beautiful late summer evening with great music and awesome company—and it made me feel almost normal again. It was a great treat to be able to spend some time with friends just doing normal summertime stuff—plus it helped me a ton mentally.

Continuing on the “fun” theme, I opted to forgo a road ride on Saturday in lieu of a 60-mile mountain bike ride along the Des Plaines River Trail—basically the same ride that Sue, Michele, and I did on the 4th of July. It was a blast—nothing crazy, but there is enough variety along the trail that it kept me entertained the whole time. As an added bonus, I peeled off at about mile 57 to bike to the Libertyville sports complex to watch Emily, Doug and Theresa’s oldest daughter, play a soccer game—even got to see her score a goal, which was very cool. After the game, I biked back to my car, hit Culver’s for a late lunch, and then came home and basically crashed after cooking an awesome stirfry dinner.

Sunday, I went to church for the first time basically all summer, and then hit Starbucks for my traditional post-church latte before coming home and getting ready for my run. I had an 11-miler to do, and the weather was awesome, so I set out along my normal path (the Great Western Trail). I felt great during the run—my HR stayed well under control and things just felt awesome—probably the best run I’ve had all summer, frankly. Mentally, the run was perfect for me, too—after the trainwreck of a 13-miler last week, I needed this one to get my head back in the game.

All in all, this was a great week—I took some time for me that didn’t involve training, and I think it paid off huge! Two weeks to go…pretty crazy…

Here’s the roll-up…

Swim: 0:56:00 / 2400 meters
Bike: 6:45:43 / 110.10 miles
Run: 3:53:46 / 31.40 miles
Total: 11:35:29 / 136.74 miles