Turning Corners In The Summertime

Here's how the summer's going so far:
I'm eating A LOT of this (so yummy!):

I'm seeing this on my bike rides/bricks (so pretty!):

There's plenty of this going on around me (loud but so much fun!):

(That's only four of the seven we have for the day - but the other two boys have gone bowling with friends and the Princessa is at a party. I can add ferrying kids all over creation to the list of summer happenings.) I LOVE having everyone (and their friends) home again.

In triathlon news, things are definitely shifting. In a good way. On Saturday morning we had a Team Sakina 7 mile trail run at Umstead Park. Now anyone who's been reading this blog for a while will probably expect me to start stressing about those seven miles. But guess what? Donna and I both realized that we'd turned some sort of corner in our training or confidence or something because neither of us was stressed about the distance or the trail or the pace. We were both the most stressed about getting good directions to the park!! The trail was GORGEOUS - lots of ferns, rocks, hills and trees everywhere. And our pace? We did seven miles in 80 minutes - which is an 11:26 min/mile pace!! (That's fast for us - especially for a hilly trail. In fact, I still find it hard to believe it was a full seven miles, but our leader and a couple of others said it was. Woo hoo!)

This morning we did a short brick (15 mi bike, 3 mi run). I felt great - centered, solid, perfectly fueled. I brought fantastic intenisty. I don't know exactly what the bike pace was but the run pace was 11:10 min/mi. (Did I mention that's fast for us?) Donna had significant fueling issues and totally, completely bonked. But have I mentioned she's a machine? She led on the bike, pushed me on the run, and put up the same numbers as I did. She may not have been a happy camper at the end of our brick but all it took for her to regain the will to live was some solid food. We spent a good hour afterward figuring out better nutrition/self care plans for the upcoming week. (Last week she worked at least 4 12-hour days and this week looks like more of the same. Thank God Thursday is her last day for the year!!) It's amazing how much we keep learning about adapting. I love this sport!

This week our training plan has three days of bricks, two long swims, a 45 mile endurance ride, a run with short interval speed work, and a 5K (Race For The Cure). It looks tough but doable to me. And that, my friends, is pretty much the nail in the coffin for the "old" me. I'll probably still freak out about stuff occasionally (that triple brick for instance) and I'm sure I'll whine about things (that triple brick for instance) - but triathlon has irrevocably changed me. (For the good I think.) I love this sport!! Hope everyone else's summer is going great too!

TODAY I LOVE: triathlon and locally grown, organic strawberries still hot from the field!