May 14-20: I Was Promised A Cow. Twice.

As a native Wisconsinite, my ears perk up anytime I hear about cows, since they remind me of home. No joke, I went to elementary school next door to a dairy farm, and we watched the cows over the fence during recess.

This week, I was told that I would see cows twice. The first time, at the Ballston pit stop for Bike to Work Day, the cow actually showed up.

But the second time, during the Columbia Tri, where the cue sheet actually mentions a cow (go check for yourself), there was NO COW.

Hmph.

All I got was a dumb trophy.

I’m undecided on whether or not that makes up for the lack of bovine scenery.

The weekly training recap, cow-filled and cow-free sessions all included:

Monday: An evening session with 30 minutes of strength training followed by an hour and five minutes of easy spinning on the trainer, also known as nearly intolerable boredom. It’s very tough to get on the trainer for steady-state efforts now that the weather is generally good for outdoor riding.  On the other hand, it’s necessary at times, since this gives me a chance to go at nonstop pedaling without the need to break for traffic and the like.

Tuesday: 3500 meters of swimming at DCRP practice, with a ton of IM stroke work and some faster 100s and 200s.

Wednesday: A 3.76 mile tempo-type run with some hill repeats at the end.

Thursday: 2x1500 meters in the pool in the morning, with the second one building to race pace (finished in 24:05, so much for sub-24). 30 minutes of stretching, foam rolling, and core work in the office gym at noon, where I ran into a coworker, which was completely not awkward, of course.

Friday: A rest day, with no scheduled workouts AND no work. So what did I do?

Participate in Bike to Work Day, of course!

In addition to the above-pictured cow, I ran into Beth at the Ballston pit stop.

Where we also found lots of free goodies, including free Bike Arlington vuvuzelas. 

 

Since we hadn’t loaded up on enough free stuff, we headed over to the Rossyln pit stop. I wound up biking 16 super easy miles at about 10-12 mph, and coming away with lots of free stuff – water bottles, KIND bars, pens, sunblock, bike lights, bike socks, pens, and a vuvuzela, of course.

Saturday: 2400 meters of swimming with DCRP, trying to not anger my lanemates with my pre-race slacking. Moderate success there. Followed by bike check-in at the Columbia Tri race site, with a 20 minute bike-check ride where my front derailleur misbehaved but then got back on track, and a 10 minute shakeout run.

Sunday: 1500 meters of swimming in 23:39 (1:23/100 yards), 25 miles of hilly biking in 1:32:52 (16.2 mph), and 10k of brutally hilly running in 1:04:46 (10:26/mi) at the Columbia Triathlon. More on Thursday.