Monday: Today was the MRI for my shoulder…hopefully will show no tear and whatever is going on is easily treated and I can get back to “normal”. Today because of a chaotic schedule I only got in a quick 2 mile run…and my legs were not fans of me, guessing that the lack of “recovery” after the Goat is causing the heavy feeling in the quads. Looking forward to the swim tomorrow night.

Tuesday: Ahhhhh!!!!! Loved the swim tonight! Got a crushing workout in and felt spent and awesome after a non-stop session…have been working on a few tweaks in form that Coach Helene has suggested and tonight a few of them “clicked” and I felt a huge difference in speed and glide! Just an awesome feeling! Like flying in the water! The core tonight was a hilarious endeavor! Love this group, we not only have a safe environment to grow and learn as athletes… but there really is a feeling of family! Tonight Katey W and I got our injured Dinosaurs on and could not stop laughing, which is a core workout in its own right! Love the strength from the core workouts, perhaps the most body transforming part of the training, which is a bonus to actually helping prevent injury during training~

Wednesday: Coaching night at the pool-tonight was the first night of the new coaching schedule, which has me coaching the later group. I was sad not to be able to see all the athletes but the relief in not having to have the husband rushing home so I can rush to the pool was nice. In coaching the later sections I have taken to coaching the upper lanes of more advanced swimmers and the challenge is that most times the things they need most are the slightest of adjustments, hand positions, stroke length, etc…which can be challenging to diagnosis but the intensity of critiquing each individual pushes me as well. I am looking forward to when we do more complicated drills and mass swim starts…this will be a fun group to watch on deck!

Thursday: Run coaching tonight was difficult, draining and in some ways both crushing and inspiring. The drill tonight was hill repeats for 3 then a jog out to the Westside trail of the parkway where we did long interval sprints through trails and recovery runs back on pavement for 6 repeats. I started out doing fine but quickly realized that for many reasons my arthritis in my knees was flaring up tonight…it felt like running with shards of glass in my knees…part of me wanted to cry and stop…but I had to “coach”. Okay, time for sucking it up. Although by the 4th repeat I was just managing to keep pace with the group and I am guessing the “coaching” tonight was less than stellar…I personally fought that inner voice and was victorious…even managing to keep an overall decent pace for the 5 miles we got in. Leading core for the group afterwards was rewarding, I really feel strongest coaching core and swim and when I do core for the run group I always feel more like I “know” what I am doing and apparently that shows…got asked by one of the athletes what I did for a living, and when I told her I was a teacher, she replied “Oh, I thought you were a drill sergeant”.

Saturday: Bike day! I was flying solo coaching the Periwinkle group this weekend, however the coffee was great this morning so I am already off to a better start! The group is made up almost entirely of the athletes from Winter Session and they know me and my goof ball antics well. Lots of fun today, making fun of my bike “crash” from last weekend, actually was a good teaching moment for the new drills for today. We started out with the standard drills then went into the new drills of looking behind and drinking while on the bike. The group did fantastic! Even got a complement from Coach Helene on how great they looked!
The kids were at their grandparents for the weekend and the husband was at a conference, so given some free time and the need to get a good bike ride in I took off with my good training buddy Jim Peterson (he was the legs on our Relay Sprint tri this spring). We ended up getting in a decent ride but half way down the parkway he met up with some run buddies and I met up with Coaches Erin and Christine and we took off for a bit. When we headed over to the Westside trail I let loose and flew down the trails…the need for speed was great! At the end of the trail is a loop and I did a couple one legged drills around, as much as I hate being indoors for training I have missed the crushing workouts on the bike and it felt great to get in a few of the drills! Met back up with Peterson and we raced back down the trails! Such a beautiful day!