More Learning (I hope it never stops!)

10×10 seconds, 3 times

• Lunge with Russian lunge
• Glute ham with reps to the top
• Push up with altitude drop to start and then push up and pop up for the rest
• Crate crunch (to be completed)

I'll be honest—I did not want to finish the push ups. It didn't help that Will left me to do the last 2 sets on my own. After he left, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But I finished.

On the Russian lunge, I had a tendency to relax just after each RL. On the glute ham, I had a tendency to relax just before I made it all the way down. I think what I really need to remember is what Will said the other day when we were doing the manual holds. We had 4 reps left, and he said, "You're 2 minutes from your PR." That was something I understood. It put it into perspective because it made me realize that the work I do off the road should translate to speed and mental toughness on the road.

The other thing he reminded me is that you really have to over-emphasize everything. He said he's still learning this—it might seem like you're doing it right (for example, with the RL, I thought I was stopping myself hard at the bottom but he said I looked like I was relaxing and that's especially where I should over-emphasize the action) but it's likely you're not and you're just doing it normally. In a way, knowing that Will's still learning things like this is encouraging. He's already a professional athlete (hockey player), and I have somewhere in the back of my mind the idea that to be a pro, you have to know it all and be all there already. Bree Wee, my favorite professional triathlete, writes a fantastic blog. She openly communicates her successes and failures and tries to let us readers know that she, too, is still learning. Maybe there is hope after all, because I am always learning: how to swim, ride, and run correctly and better, how to use my muscles efficiently, how to be strong mentally, and more. But I know that God has made me who I am and will give me strength to do what I do, whether that be triathlons, work, relationships, or other.

A quick brick was on the schedule for after work (after chatting with Robin and Aunt Renee). I was supposed to do a 45-min ride and a 30-min run, but my 45-min route has been taking only 40 and I didn't want to short myself. Plus I wanted to time myself on a route I had recently done. So I did my hour route, that last week took me 56:56. Today it took me 55:58. Hooray! Every little bit counts! My transition was approximately 45 seconds, and that was even with a few seconds of thinking about whether I wanted to change shirts, and then it was off to run. I haven't really gotten any farther on this 30-min run. I don't know if it's because I'm not getting any faster, if it was the wind, if it's the hills, or what, but I definitely need to work on this. I can't seem to make it past just around the corner. If I could make it farther, I'd end downhill instead of uphill. New goal for next week!

Now that I've looked at this on mapmyrun a hundred times, I should be able to remember that it's 2.11 miles out and another 1.69 miles back to the corner of Moores Lane and the Landings Drive. Total: 3.8 miles (the entire route back to my apt is 4.22 miles). Unfortunately, that's a pace of 7:54. It's still under 8, but it should be a lot faster. Granted it's hilly and yesterday was windy, but that shouldn't affect me that much! After cooling down for 0.3 miles, I ran into Brian, my neighbor who was a pro triathlete for a year before being sidelined by injury after a bike crash. He was driving(!) to go do a tempo run on the path behind the Y. That is a great place to run!

After that brick, I finished the 10×10 seconds, 3 times, exercise by completing crate crunch. Then it was a quick supper (I don't like eating after 7pm and didn't even get home until 7:03; maybe I'll have to change my attitude about that) and off to bed.