August 5 - August 11

Tuesday - Ran 3 miles

It's been a very long time...too long.  I wanted to exercise during VBS week, but it was way too hard.  Rob & I were busy from 7 AM sometime until late in the evening every single day.  I got a sore throat that got progressively worse as the week went on.  On vacation I had planned on getting some runs in but no motivation whatsoever.  I did get three open water swims in at the cottage and both Glenn & Megan coached me.  It was super helpful and my swimming has improved because of it.

This morning I started up again and did an easy three mile.  I went slow and I can tell I have not run in a couple weeks.  It was not overly tiring nor painful.

Came back to see a homeless guy sleeping in front of the church sanctuary doors.  Nice.  Not sure how our church should be involved in South Salem's ongoing homeless young adults problem.

Wednesday - Pool Swim with triathletes- 1 hour and 10 minutes

Rob & I were having a lengthy conversations with my on going struggles with mornings and why anxiety seems to hit me once the alarm goes off.  I always assumed it was anxiety or worse just plain laziness.  I realized I am the not most disciplined person when it comes to different areas of my life.  I can trace that back to several things.  I tend to take the "easy way out" and regret it later.  Rob asked if it would be OK if he would gently nudge me out of bed so I can get my workouts in.  Come fall, early mornings is the ONLY time I can work out.  I watching some of teachers kids from ILS and one of my MOP friend's kindergarten girl.  The income is going to be so helpful and I feel like I am at a place where I will enjoy this and can take pride in it...I would not have been successful if I tried to do this a few years ago...even last year.  I enjoyed watching Annabelle last year and that was enough prep for me to take on more this year.  So I have to get my morning routine on now as it will take a couple of weeks to get a good system going.

I am not really training for anything right now. My main reason is I am not comfortable enough yet to do an open water sprint triathlon.  I am shooting for next June.  I also need to watch my finances.  I need a good running GPS and I'm also planning a trip to LA with my best friend from Michigan to visit a mutual friend.  I also will need new running shoes come winter.  I need a new chord for my running ipod.  I should probably buy a spare set of goggles and swim cap eventually.  I want to take a biking maintenance course sometime in late 2013 or 2014.  It all adds up!

I was very disciplined this morning and went to Master Swim.  There were a lot of people there.  I really worked on my form and tried to remember the things Glenn & Megan told me.  I felt like I was going so slow.  Normally I can do 3/4 of the triathletes workout, but I felt like I was only doing 1/2.  They said it was a longer and tougher workout today so I didn't feel quite so bad about my slowness.  Plus I have not swam with them since right around the 4th of July.  I feel like my form is a lot better.  Near the end of the workout I felt way more comfortable.

Thursday - Group Power

This morning I made it to Power and I can't even remember the last time I was there.  I am thinking it was right before the 4th of July.  I knew it would hurt...and yep...it was hard.  All of it.  But it was great to be there and start strength training again. I feel like I can continue with early mornings.  I am feeling good about it.  Once school starts I think I am only going to do Power on Thursday mornings and not cardio afterwards.  It's too much.  I will probably need to shower at the gym anyway so I can make it on time before the kids need to get ready for school.  I didn't do any cardio this morning because the kitchen was a disaster and I wanted to get it cleaned up before the kids woke up...and I knew it would take me awhile.

Weekend - rest

I was hoping to workout more than three times this week.  I have been having female problems since Friday morning that has caused fatigue and cramping.  We also had a very busy weekend running from one activity to the next.  Looking forward to starting up again next week.

I am not going to push myself to do open water swims right now. I need to work on my stroke in the pool. We were at Andrew & Cheryl's pool this weekend and I was showing my stroke.  Rob said it still looks off.  He is a better swimmer than me, but he has not swam laps in a long time.  He did plead ignorance on some things.  He said he thought you were supposed to breathe on the same side whereas my swim teacher said you do bilateral breathing and breathe on multiple sides.  That is how the people I swim with on Wednesday mornings do it.  I am not following through enough on my right side which is why I am constantly veering off to the right.  I thought about signing up for Adult Swim Lessons this fall at the Kroc Center again.  I really want lessons where the teacher gets in the pool with you and demonstrates the strokes which is not what my teacher did.  So I will probably take them at the gym I go to.  The instructors there work with triathletes.  The problem is that it costs almost twice as much so it might be a couple weeks before I could do it--maybe longer.