Sunday, May 29, 2011
It is a gorgeous day, sunny, highs near 90. Unfortunately the heat and humidity make my long-run of the week much tougher. Since this is the end of the recovery week, I only have to do 35 minutes, but it feels like forever and is excruciating. I am drenched in sweat only a couple minutes in. I walk for ten minutes after I finish the jog portion. We go a total of just under three miles. I'm soaked with sweat by the end. But at least my boyfriend and I do the run at Green Lakes, so as soon as we're done, we jump in the water, which is refreshing. It feels so good!

Monday, May 30, 2011
I do my first 5k race today! It's already warm early in the morning. It's so exhilarating to see so many people cheering us on. But I have to say, I prefer when we get past all the people and I can just focus on running my pace versus trying to look like a runner (versus a really slow jogger). But the crowd is definitely encouraging. I make it to mile one in just over ten minutes! That's the fastest I've ever run a mile, and it gives me the encouragement to keep going. But before mile two...we have to run up a huge hill. It probably wasn't really that huge, but it felt pretty tough to me. I only walk two steps and run the rest. I pass people on the hill, which makes me feel great. But after the hill, they come back and pass me. I run the whole way, and finish in 35 minutes and 27 seconds. I sprint my hardest the last tenth of a mile and am totally wiped out by the time I finish.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011
After finishing yesterday's race with a good time, I feel motivated an encouraged. Today, I decide to ride my bike to the gym and back. It's another 90-degree day, which makes the bike particularly tough and makes me really sweaty.

At the gym, I swim about 1800 yards, which is close to three quarters of a mile. I do some drills and then time myself for 26 lengths of the pool, which is about what the length of Iron Girl is. It takes me 11 minutes and 30 seconds. I'm disappointed because I think I should be much faster than that. I will have to step up my swim training a bit. Anyway, I feel really good after the swim.

It's a tough bike ride home. I feel like I'm improving a little, but the hills in Fayetteville are still excruciating. They are so tough. I make it up the first hill fine, but then I have to walk up the second part of the hill. Then when I get to Manlius, I have to walk up the hill a little bit. I finally make it home, but I am so exhausted, I can't bring myself to do my 15 minute jog. I plan to do the run later, but it never happens. I'm disappointed that I miss another run because I took three days off the run last week. I don't want to lose all the progress I've made so far.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Another 90-degree day. It's eighty degrees at 9am! I go for my bike ride early to avoid even hotter temperatures. I'm supposed to ride for one hour. I ride out on Oran-Delphi Road, which seems a lot hillier than when we rode it last week. I am exhausted and totally worn out. I don't even make it to Route 20 before turning around. Once I get back to Manlius, I ride around a couple parking lots to get the full hour in. I go just over ten miles.

I force myself to do the jog almost as soon as I finish the bike because otherwise, I know I won't do it. I jog at a really, really slow pace for 20 minutes. It is so hot out that it makes working out painful. But at least I got the jog in today, and I upped by time to 20 minutes.

Hopefully it will be a little cooler tomorrow for my running group.

Today, I sign up for another 5k that will happen June 18th. It will be on the Iron Girl course right after our bike session, so I will be able to get a good feel for what running a race after biking will be like.

Thursday, June 2, 2011
At my running group again. I love the running group. It is so motivating. We do a 10 minute warm-up jog. Then we do a 5, 7, and 3 minute as hard as you can for that amount of time with 3 minutes rest between. We do a five minute cool down. The workout feels tough. My legs are pretty sore by the end.

Friday, June 3, 2011
I wake up with extremely sore legs. I'm so exhausted. I decide to make today my rest day. I just jog twenty minutes and walk five. I'm so tired, that's really all I can manage.

Saturday, June 4, 2011
I completely forgot the open water swim was today until I saw a sign Thursday at the YMCA. I was debating whether or not to do it the past couple days because the water is cold and I don't have a wetsuit here with me. I get to Oneida Shores where the race is because our Fleet Feet group is meeting there for the bike ride. I get talked into doing the open water swim. They tell me the water is 68 degrees, which is a lot warmer than the 62 degrees it said online last night. But after I'm signed up and ready to go, they tell me it is really 65 degrees! That's really cold without a wetsuit. A few of the women, including one of our coaches, did the swim too. And one of the women lent me her bonnet, which is basically a neoprene swim cap, which really helped keep my head warm. It was so cold! At first I was more concerned about not being able to see because the water was so murky and people kept kicking up the silt while they were swimming. Not even half of the way out to the buoy, which is the turnaround point, my legs start to get slow and stiff because of the cold. My arms feel heavy, and I'm having a terrible stroke. I have to switch to backstroke for a little bit to catch my breath because it is so cold it's hard to breathe. But I make it. I finish in 18 minutes and 26 seconds, which earns me a 15th place finish overall out of 49 (I think). I come in 8th out of the 30 women who participated. It feels great. Cold but great.

Before the swim, I biked with the group for an hour and did ten miles. After the swim, I bike the full Iron Girl course with one of the coaches. My legs feel really tired. I didn't think the swim would take so much out of me, but it did. My legs get tired really easily. But I do the full 18 miles, which makes me feel great. And it brings my total bike mileage for the day to 28 miles! WOW! If you had told me in January that I would bike 28 miles in a day, I would have said you were crazy. I'm so proud of myself.

I fall asleep before 9:30pm tonight because I'm so tired. But sleep feels great!