"The real work"

I just finished the first two weeks of 12+ hours. Right now I'm exhausted but really proud of myself for finishing it. This week was 4 bike rides for a total of 6hrs 20 minutes, 2 swims 1.5 hours, and 3 runs 3hrs 55 minutes. I managed everything but the intervals on the bike on Tuesday. Yesterday we rode outside for 3 hours ride time, but we were out for 3.5 hrs. I had a good ride, and was even at the front for a while. I've definitely found a great riding partner that is a bit better than me and I enjoy riding with (not to mention our Cervelos look really hot together!)

Last week my coach came to the pool for a workout. It was really good! He said I'm 15 seconds/50m faster than I was in January. It's great to get faster, but for me the real improvement comes in how I feel in the water. Now I'm at the point where I can swim at my easy pace and not get tired. I'm currently doing about 1400m in 45 minutes and feel like I haven't done anything. My real goal on race day, is to get out of the water and have my legs feel a lot fresher than last year (specially with that nice little hill right at the beginning of the ride)

All of this training has made me REALLY tired, every night I'm just crawling in to bed. The knee problem seems to be rearing it's ugly head a little (although not bothering me enough I can't do my training), so I'm back for some IMS (voodoo) treatments tomorrow.

With 10 weeks to go, I feel good. I think I've worked hard for this, and I'm starting to see the results of the training. It's been intimidating and something that seemed way out of my zone but I love to see what I can really do when I tell my doubting mind to shut-up and just keep going forward.

Cheers to rest week!!!!