Riding, Running...and Swimming?!

Spectating at Musselman on Sunday got me super motivated to have an awesome week this week.  I still didn't completely follow my training schedule (shocking), but I kept it interesting and did pretty darn good regardless.

Monday was a bike day so I packed up Mr. Trek in my car and planned to hit the road right after work.   That meant that I had to do a quick wardrobe change in the bathroom at work:

corporate america mollz

cyclist mollz

Someone walked in as I was taking that second picture and gave me a funny look.  I'd probably do the same if I saw someone in bike shorts in my office bathroom taking pictures of themselves.  Good thing it wasn't someone important. 

After my outfit change I was ready to go.  I even prepped and mapped out my ride so I wouldn't get lost on the country roads:

Great idea in theory, until I ran into this right smack dab in the middle of my route:

why

I thought I had it under control when I detoured via the detour signs but my brain must have been in sleep mode because I ended up getting completely lost.  How do you get lost following detour signs?  I don't know.  

I pulled over to check my map on my phone to figure out where the heck I was and as I was doing that minding my own business, I got stung by a bee.  And then I toppled over on my bike as I was examining my sting.  That was fun.

don't worry, i didn't let that bee ruin my ride

After my eventful ride on Monday, it was time to run on Tuesday.  I was finally able to make it to a group workout for the running class I'm mentoring and it was good to be back!  I paced the 13 minute milers on a two mile run and even though it was ridiculously hot, it was a good run.  I loved talking with the girls in my group and they gave me a run for my money at the end when they kicked it up to a sprint the last tenth of a mile.

Steph and I had planned to go for a run after I was done mentoring and I was probably on my biking high when I agreed to that.  It was so flippin hot outside that I just wanted to go home and sit in my air conditioning after mentoring.  

i don't wanna run anymore.

One of the plusses about having running buddies is that you feel bad letting them down.  As much as I wanted to bail on my run with Steph, I sucked it up and went.  We ended up doing about 3.5 miles which brought my daily total to just over 5 miles.  And guess what?  It was actually a good run.  Look what happens when you suck it up and just do it.

Wednesday night is kickball night and I almost worked up a sweat prancing around the kickball field.

When I got home from work on Thursday, it was like Christmas when I saw that some of my recent online shopping had been delivered:

Nothing gets me more excited than some new gear.  After realizing on Sunday that I'm a wanna-be triathlete, I ordered this book that someone recommended to me:

It's about 400 pages and my new best friend.  I've been flipping around in it since I got it and someday I will look like that man on the cover.  But not manly.  Just really hardcore and legit.

Since I didn't do anything on Thursday, I should have ran yesterday but I'm just too obsessed with my bike right now so I went for a ride.  I had planned on doing 20 miles again, but Mother Nature had plans of her own and I ended up cutting my ride short and booking it back right before it started to pour.

What to do when I can't run or ride in the rain?  Test out my new swimming gear of course.  I headed to the gym after my ride to do laps in the pool for the first time in my entire life.  I realized real fast that I had no idea what I was getting myself into with swimming.  I thought it would be way easier in the pool than the lake, but it was HARD!  

It didn't help that the pool at the gym is less than stellar and looks like it's 50 years old and hasn't been cleaned since it opened.  And the group of older women doing water exercises across the pool in their flowery bathing caps didn't make for the best swimming buddies.

I swam for literally 12 minutes and felt like I had just swam a marathon.  That 12 minutes of swimming included breaks pretty much every other minute.  Can someone please teach me how to swim?  I don't think they allow the doggy paddle in triathlons.  Even though it was fun (ish), swimming will be taking a backseat for a little while.

thumbs up for a good try?

I had a bright and early wake up call this morning to go volunteer at a 5k/half marathon.  As much as I love volunteering/cheering/spectating at races, I get a little jealous when the gun goes off and I'm not out there running.

I was stationed right around mile 6 and was ready to direct and cheer.  Of course I came prepared to cheer extra hard with my cowbell:

I was there for a while before the first person came through.  This dude was BOOKING IT.  It still boggles my mind how some people can run so ridiculously fast like it's nothing but a thing.

first person flying by

I enjoyed being out there and cheering for everyone, and lots of the runners thanked us for being out there.  I think they all secretly really enjoyed my cowbell too.

I was there for a couple hours and was done with duty once the last runner had gone by.  Volunteering was the only activity I could fit in today because now I am off to the airport for a work trip.  It's our company's Annual Meeting at our home office, and there's a 5k tomorrow morning as part of the festivities.  Last year I "ran" it and it was the most miserable experience of my life (obviously this was before I picked up running).  I'm interested to see how much I can crush my time from last year!  See you next week!