My first sprint tri is a week from today. And I have to say that after this morning’s swim, I feel like I’m finally ready.

I have been SO tempted to slack off on the exercise this week (and I have to some extent). On Wednesday, I was supposed to swim and do weights but I took the day off because we had care group after work and I just haven’t been able to get up early enough to work out this week.

Thursday, I was supposed to do a 12 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run. I had been VERY lazy after work…I laid on the couch watching TV until 7:30 but then I finally got my butt moving. I did the 12 mile bike ride (my time was 50:53) but then discovered that I was locked out of our house. We always leave the back door open when we go on runs or bike rides but I hadn’t realized that the guy who taped and textured our skylights had locked the screen door too. Luckily, I was just able to pull the screen out of the frame enough to slip my hand in and unlock the door. I used that whole situation as my excuse to blow off the run.

Yesterday, I was equally as lazy but around 8:30, I felt like a disgusting slob so I did one of my Pilates videos, cleaned the kitchen, and put away the laundry.

So today was the first day in a while that I’ve actually done a decent workout. D and I went to Big Soda Lake down in Morrison to do our last open water swim before the tri next weekend. I was determined to take things slow and not get out of breath. And I did it!! I swam the whole 600 meters without stopping in 15:15. I am SO pumped. My goal for the swim time is 15 minutes (allowing leeway for unforeseen issues) so this has given me the jolt of confidence I need for next weekend. The bike and the run are just matters of endurance, not survival.

After our swim, D and I went on a run in the State Park around Soda Lake. Neither of us had been out there before so D had just mapped out 5 miles using Google maps. Wow. It was a hard course. The majority of the run D had mapped was on horseback riding/hiking trails (so rocks, roots, and narrow footpath). There was a lot of sharp and rolling hills, running on a slope, and jumping around horse poop. Needless to say, those 5 miles did a number on us. We were completely wiped by the end and even now, I feel somewhat like an old woman walking around. We’re not even quite sure about the distance since we didn’t know if we were on the right trail or not. But we were running for 56:38, so I have to assume we were at least close to 5 miles.

I’m looking forward to this week of tapering. It will be marvelous. I do need to practice my transitions some but I’ve been running them through in my head so I have at least some idea of what my plan is.

Last week!!