Challenge Roth Training: Week 5

21 weeks to go.

Week 5 totals:
Swim: 2. 3800m, 1hr 56min
Bike: 2. 2hr 44min, Saturday Ride: 25mi, 757elev.
Run: 4. 21mi, 3hr 38min
Strength: 0. 0hr
Total time: 8hr 18min

Challenges:
Started my Friday swim at 9:30pm. Not my best showing of time management. Oh well, at least I didn't have to share a lane. ...or a pool. If you're looking for a great time to swim by yourself, 9:30 on a Friday night is that time. LO prescribed different swim speeds for the set at the end (4x100m at Ironman pace, 4x100m at Half Ironman pace, 4x100m at Olympic tri pace). I think it's adorable that she thinks I have more than one speed. I have one swim speed and it is called "moving forward." I suppose there is a second very similar speed that I like to call "flailing more and expending a lot more energy but still only moving forward, possibly at an imperceptibly faster pace." But mainly just the one speed.

Accomplishments:
Ran 10 miles on Sunday with no breaks. My tried and true "run 1 mile, walk 1 minute" strategy has gone by the wayside these past few months, which is kind of exciting. Also, I listened to one entire Radiolab podcast, one Radiolab Short, and half a Fresh Air interview during said run. Running AND learning.

Surprises:
I am not hating swimming these days. I guess I'm not really any faster, but the simple act of thinking about my form takes up so much of my focus that I don't have time to think about how slow I am. I don't know if that's really a good thing, but there it is.

Bonus:
JK ran the Ragnar Relay this past weekend. He had talked about wanting to run it, but after having completed it the past three years, I just had no desire to do it again. A friend of mine had to drop out of her team, so I put them in touch and he took over her spot. It takes a special kind of person to be okay with hopping in a van with five people he's never met to run together for a couple days, and he tackled it with enthusiasm. I don't think it ended up being his favorite experience (gather together five strangers and you're bound to have at least a couple annoying ones in the bunch), but he made it through. And it was amusing for me to watch the unfolding of the completely-expected Ragnar Aftermath: the sleep-deprived grumpiness and exhaustion and general "I'm so DONE with these people" attitude that affects even the best of friends after 30 hours in a smelly van together. Oh, Ragnar. What a horrible, awful, wonderful race.