Bricks, Pains and Thinking about the Future

I started my swim/bike bricks this week. I had a 24 hour stomach bug on Monday, so that threw off the first part of my week. I was able to complete my swim/bike back-to-back workouts as scheduled on Tuesday, but my Thursday run really suffered.

I was feeling better by the end of the week, so I left myself get talked into playing women's basketball on Thursday night. After I came home, washed the blood off of my knuckles and prepped an ice pack for my knee, I knew that I was going to be hurting the rest of the week. I could hardly walk up and down the stairs on Friday, so I gave myself an extra rest day and pushed my 2nd swim/bike brick to Saturday. I was still sore then, but swimming and biking as such low impact that it was no problem.

I ran again Sunday night and it was glorious. Dusk, 75 degrees and a full moon made for a beautiful run. I also took a moment to appreciate that there are no mosquitoes or other obnoxious bugs in Oregon. I ran 2.4 miles through my neighborhood. I've mentioned the hill before, right? I live at the top of a hill so coming back up at the end of a run or bike ride is so hard. I plugged my route into MapMyRun tonight and it gave me this elevation report:

Translation: oh my aching knees.

Bike/run bricks are next week. I'm on week 9 of the triathlon training program that I am following. It's supposed to be a very difficult week, but week 10 is mostly rest leading up to the tri next Saturday. I'm not sure how well next week is going to work out for me. I seriously need to get out of the gym and put more miles onto my actual bike, but Dan will be gone all week. I hate to pay a sitter to watch my kids when they already have a membership to go to the daycare at the gym, but I might have to suck it up this week. We'll see.

I've also started to think about what's next after I finish the tri. There is a fun, Halloween run in my little town and a Thanksgiving run in my hometown that benefits a great cause near to my heart. My neighbor teaches a circuit class for women at a local cross fit gym. I went a few months ago and it kicked my butt, but it would be exactly what I need to build strength. I don't know what I'll do yet. So far buying myself a new watch as a reward and getting a massage are the only definite plans that I have.