A Very Busy Week . . . With Training On Top

We have fantastic training routes. Go SD!

Vacation Bible School. It's a staple in many churches in our community. At our church it mimics camp for the kids. And it's a blast. It takes place from 5:30-8:30 every night, and so for us, that ,means 4:45-9:15 every night. When we add that in with summer gymnastics the six-year-old attends twice a week at 8am along with a week of heavy training, and this week had the makings of a train wreck.

Thankfully we work well together. 

I would've expected the Nazi Kona-experienced trainer to be super nice to me the week after the Olympic tri in the land of 10,000 triathlons. But no. I believe my plan for the week said something like, "This will be hard, but get over it." Or, as Mr. T. likes to say to everyone in the house (including the one-year-old), "Suck it up, Buttercup." 

So we did. 

Here are some of the week's highlights (previous blogging had revealed my love for bullet points--forgive me): 

• Conquering a key bike workout during the kids' rest time on Tuesday. This is a big deal for me since rest time was the only time the kids didn't need attention other than early in the morning or very late at night (post 9:30pm). I did not feel like biking. I did it anyway. And, like every other workout, I did not regret it. 
• Jason's foot feels good. Hooray. He said nothing about it all week, and when I asked him about it yesterday, he said it feels fine. 
• Managing two big bike workouts in the house. Friday I took off for my longest ride yet, and this time God was my only companion. The best part of the ride took place about an hour from home when I crested a hill and saw Ellie, our family vehicle, coming towards me. Mr. T. had all three kids in tow (he had no choice) and a big jug of ice water. That was just . . . nice. (see two points up for Jason's ride info)
• Conquering the long ride alone. As I pedaled solo for four hours (my longest ride yet), I had many a brainstorm. But among the thoughts, I realized how blessed we are to live in such a great area to train and to have such beautiful weather that day for training. I had just enough cars pass me that I did not feel completely alone, but I really did not deal with any traffic per say. I had a few nice rollers on the ride as well. The picture above doesn't really do the view justice. 
• Jason and then his buddy Mike riding for four hours in the basement because of uber cruddy weather on Saturday afternoon. I'd rather ride twice as long outside any day than inside. Any day. These two are animals. 
• Jason waking up at the crack of dawn (which is very early here) on Sunday to complete a 12-miler with his buddy Steve. And then me taking on the same distance with my running pal, Lori, later in the day. And then Jason swimming for 30 minutes while the kids and I played on the beach later in the day . . . in the rain. Yeah, that was a big day. 

Our support system keeps us going. I've been writing this blog (with Jason's critical input) to help us remember this year more than anything. In the last couple of weeks I discovered a few people who actually read it (bless you for going on this journey with us and tolerating our rambling). Two different people have told us already they'd be willing to watch our (awesome) kids when we'd like to train together. I have yet to take them up on it, but they're on my list of go-to people. Jason has a regular biking buddy that he spins with indoors every Tuesday night. We both have regular go-to people for running companions and biking buddies. I just feel so grateful for the people we have to run with, ride with, and recover with. We are so blessed. 

Training was hard this week, no doubt. But now that we take a glance back on the other side of it, it encourages us to see what we can do. Maybe, just maybe, we CAN do Nooga. We'll find out in 16 weeks.