Woo it is HOT!

We have had quite the heat wave the last few weeks.  It has not been a good thing for my running but has been extra encouraging for swimming and biking.  Somehow those two sports increase in appeal to me when it is this hot out!

I've got a triathlon this weekend and it marks my one-year anniversary with multi-sports! I'm hoping to cut some time off compared to last year but it is going to be hotter than last year so I'll just have to see what I can do given the weather.  Here's a recap of my week so far:

Monday - Speed workout on the track.  Temps were high 80's and sunny at 6PM.  The workout was a fast 200m then 800m at 5K pace with no rest in between.  After finishing the 800, you got approx. 1 1/2 min to walk across the infield and return to the starting line.  The goal was to do 4 sets.  I got three complete sets in and cut the 800 in the 4th set down to a 400.  My rest times between sets were a little longer but necessary.  There were times when it felt like my face was on fire and I couldn't breathe.  Not fun at all, but also good heat training to build the confidence that I can perform in less than ideal conditions!

Tuesday - Bike ride with the International Team.  We tried out a new route which had a good section of shady roads...heavenly since temps were again high 80's and sunny.  Our total distance was 25.7 miles and we averaged around 16.9 mph.  We had a slightly unpleasant occurrence during the ride.  Our group had broken up with 5 in the lead pack, a single rider, and myself and my friend Maja at the back.  Two dogs came out and chased after the single rider in front of me and Maja.  We were about 20 sec behind him and I knew that the dogs were going to come after us. There was a small dog and a medium sized dog.  The small dog was deterred by me yelling at it but that seemed to upset the bigger dog and it got within inches of biting me.  I have no problem admitting that I screamed like a total girl...it got the dog away so that was all that mattered.  It was not the most fun and I forgot at the time how much Maja hates dogs so this was probably not a good situation for her to witness.  After the ride, two of us did a short run to get in a brick.  Then the girls gathered for dinner and catching up on the Tour de France and the Old Spice Guy Commercials. 

Wednesday - Lunch time laps.  I did a short swim workout at lunch with AJ and Maja which included 100 builds as the main workout.  We did the first 50 easy, sprinted for the next 25, and held medium pace for the final 25.  We did 6 repeats and were a little inconsistent in our recovery time.  Our goal was a short rest break but we had a couple instances where we were social with our lane neighbors.  The pool had a slight fail today in that the lifeguards put the vacuum and hoses into our lane as we were doing our workout.  We ended up switching to another lane only to finish and see that the lifeguards hadn't actually used the vacuum. 

On tap for tomorrow is an open water swim and run at the race site.  I'm also going to try to get my bike in for a little tuneup before the race.  I got a new tire put on last week after discovering a neat little puncture hole in the front tire.