Week 7 was a little less intense than the past few weeks of training have been. I took another non-planned rest day on Thursday because I’ve been having a few hamstring issues and didn’t want to do any damage. (Plus I was tired…I know…I know. Excuses.) I had a 20-mile ride planned for the day and figured it would be OK to skip it this week. I also took another rest day on Sunday (which was planned) since we were in Chicago.

Week 7 Overview:
39 Total Miles
5 Hours 28 Minutes

The Trouble With Swim Training…

I had to get my swim in early on a weekday this week since I wouldn’t be home for my normal Saturday morning swim training. It’s nice though because then it’s just over with (if you’ve been following my journey you’d know I have been dreading my time in the pool lately).

I’m not following my swim training correctly though, I will admit that. My plan has me in the pool three times a week, but with my schedule it’s just not feasible. Plus it’s 100 times easier to go to my work gym (without a pool) than my gym with the pool. Also there’s the hair washing issue – ladies with thick hair know what I’m taking about! I wash my hair about three times a week because it’s so thick and I burn through condition like no one’s business. And of course every time I swim I have to wash my hair because it gets wet, so add this into the mix and it’s a huge time suck. Also some of the training has me in the pool for just 25 minutes and I’m like “That’s not even worth me moving around my schedule and hair washing” haha… but I’m actually being totally serious… Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks like this?! I don’t know, maybe breaking up my swim would make it better and easier, but I just don’t see how I can do that right now. Maybe I’ll try it out in another week. I plan to up my swimming time the closer I get to the race and when the weather warms up with OWS’s. Stay tuned!

This weekend my husband and I traveled to Chicago for a wonderful weekend away. Chicago is ALL it’s cracked up to be and the food scene is insane. Everything everywhere is seriously so, so good. We were typical tourists and stopped by all the Chicago landmarks and hot spots. We did a party bus pizza tour and had a complete blast (and ate SO much pizza).

I did manage to get up at 6:30 Saturday morning and get to the hotel gym before we started our day. I ended up only doing 3.5 miles because someone else was waiting for my treadmill and I wanted to be courtesy. (Typical hotel gym with 2 treadmills! My view from the treadmill was pretty good though and I spent my 40 minutes people watching on the streets below.) I mixed in some power weights after the run and felt great the rest of the day. We walked everywhere too so it was actually a very active weekend despite all the eating – LOL!

We will definitely be going back to visit Chicago again – what a great city!

Happy Training Week 8!