Lately......

Whew, I can't believe it's June 19th already! Today is my dear friend Chrystal's birthday and Hazel's 1st birthday was yesterday! Amazing how time flies, it seems like it was just the first of May and now it's middle of June! At least the weather is still the same as May 1st though........ I have to admit, I'm getting frustrated and gotten a case of the blahs with this weather. But we persevere, not much use dwelling on things we can control now is there???

So I'm off to Lithuania on Wednesday to speak at a swim conference there during the Lithuania National Swim Champs so I'm looking forward to that. My Dad is going with me and after the week in Lithuania him and I are taking off for Latvia and Estonia and I am SO excited! I never thought about going to the Baltic States but now that we are, I have heard such good things about traveling over there, especially with my Dad being such a history buff, it's going to be a great experience.

As for workouts, it's been a crazy summer with work, I'm back working with football so I"m up bright and early everyday now!! It kind of cuts into my energy levels for workouts but such is life, I absolutely LOVE working with football in the summer and have really missed it these last 2 years, thankful to be back with them.

My little brother, his wife Nicole and my beautiful niece Hazel visited last week and we had a blast, walked down to Farmer's Market, walked to Black Cypress then Licks, and walked Kamiak, above are some pics from their visit. Even Hazel loves my turquoise shoes!!! I absolutely love her.

I have been doing a lot of swimming, cycling AND running, but getting a ton of work in. I was going really hard for about 3 weeks and then last weekend, just crashed. I was exhausted and hit a wall, could barely run 10 miles last Saturday, then to top that off I headed up to CDA to swim in the lake and whew that was tough and I cramped like a son of a *itch. Rough first open water training swim but it was a good experience.

Some of my greatest workouts have been:

Swim workout:

Warm up 2 x 100

3 x 25/1 x 75

3 x 50/1 x 150

3 x 75/1 x 200

Rest

2 x 25/1 x 75

2 x 50/1 x 150

2 x 75/1 x 200

1 x 100 Cool Down

That one was tough but really fun and felt great to achieve it, the most yardage in the pool I've done in one practice!

Another day, the day before I ran 10 miles, I cycled for 18 miles, then got off and ran 2 miles hard, averaged 6:46 minute/miles so felt good about that. Then I totally bonked the next day during the 10 miler but oh well.

Two weeks ago I did a 17 miler while Michele did a 12 miler and I felt good, I averaged 8:05's and it was hard but good. I ran from my house to the Chipman Trail, took that all the way out past Eastside Marketplace, turned around and ran back to the U of I soccer fields and met my roommie who drove me home.

Yesterday I ran 20 miles, the first time I've run 20 miles in 6 years and I felt incredible. Michele ran 15 miles and she killed it, I was so proud of her, of us, it was a GREAT day. Amazing how conquering a hard run can just make you feel giddy, we both were, it was awesome! Then friends took us out to Swilly's that night and we had a great time, talking to Lori and Dan about their 4 weeks in Italy, talking about my upcoming trip to Lithuania, and just catching up in general. Great food, even greater friends, thanks Rob, Sara, Zach, Michele, Dan, Lori and Brady!!!

So those are just a few of the workouts I've gotten in, nothing too exciting but it feels good to be feeling this good, especially when I said I would NEVER RUN ANOTHER MARATHON! Now I"m running the same one I ran in 6 years ago and I won! I think I will PR though, on this 20-miler I ran 12 minutes faster than my 20-miler 6 years ago, 34 seconds faster per mile!! I was really excited, it was a hilly run and I felt good. My last 3 miles were 7:57, 7:52 and 7:29! That made me feel the best, that I had negative splits.

So despite the blisters (which I have WAY too many to count, and they look disgusting), I have no pain in my back and that to me is a miracle. So blessed.

Happy Training All!