Days 6 -10.

Day 6,

A portion of Cherokee Valley Rd

I'm lucky to have a friend to train with. We were able to get out on the TT bikes for a "long ride". We rode 2.5 hrs on a Saturday morning & our route took us through some of the tornado stricken areas around Apison. The land has been reconstructed by an act of God. There are driveways leading to empty lots where houses used to stand. Forest has been destroyed like a lawn mower cut it all down. People lost everything. Some people are rebuilding. But the recovery process is not even close to over.

Day 7,
Rest day. Quick swim & am tempted to join the LBS group ride for some intense riding, but decide not to last minute. It would be an unscheduled ride, definitely out of my zones & probably off the charts. But it would be fun. Instead, compression socks on, TDF on the big screen, I rest & try to entertain the kids best as possible.

Day 8,
12 hours in the ICU followed by a 1 hr quick recovery ride with my husband. We are lucky that the sun doesn't set until almost 9 pm.

Day 9,
Long run day. This is only my 2nd "long" run, scheduled for 50 minutes. While the kids are at swim practice, I slip away to get it done. Pleased with not having to take any walk breaks, I glance at my Garmin 40 minutes into the run & want to cry, I am sooo slow it hurts! But, you have to go slow, in order to go fast. Later in the day, I catch a quick recovery swim & call it a day.

Day 10,
Early ride with J.S, my cohort in IM training. My day is off to a rough start. The  Tassimo pours my coffee without a cup under it, my fault. I have a flat tire awaiting me in the garage, air it up & hope it holds. Get to the meeting place, or what I thought was the meeting place to find the tire did not hold. Drive back home & change the wheel, not the tire for the sake of time as JS is waiting on me & realize I had gone to the wrong meeting place in the first place, we had spoken of meeting at the VM, not the school! Oh my, can I go back to bed & start this day over please?

J.S. & myself pre-ride

Once the ride is underway, things get better. We pedal the 30 mile loop 15 minutes faster than it normally takes. Faster is always more fun.
Quickly grab the swim bag & a non-fat sugarfree vanilla latte & it's off to the pool. Kids in tow. The swim workout takes 1 1/2 hours! The Sports barn pool is hot, it's 98 degrees outside & it's time to eat! I plan to take the girls out on their scooters later tonight while I run. That's a 3 a day.
This is a challenge for me. For the last 2 years, cycling has been my focus, so workouts consisted of a bike ride. even if it was 4 hrs long, it's still just 1 workout & 1 thing to plan for. This Ironman training stuff takes multitasking skills, especially when the kids are out of school & with me almost constantly. Good thing they like to swim.