I'll have the grease wheel, please

That was after I'd ordered the Guinness. Did I never tell you that our book club usually meets in a pub? And seriously, one of the entrees is called the grease wheel. It's actually a pretty good burger with bacon, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, and isn't particularly greasy at all.

I felt no guilt, since in fact I had worked out before the meeting. Rode 25 K taking just a hair under an hour, nice and easy, spinning well. There were a bunch of times I got in the groove, relaxed, and let my legs do their thing. They were going so well, and it was such a nice day I almost regret not having loaded up on nutrition and gone for a much longer ride.

I wanted to try the same workout as earlier this week, ride then run, but this time ride a bit longer. Like last time, I set water bottles in the shade, and took Clif shots with me. I've discovered the flavour of the chocolate is good, but it's much thicker, and takes more work to get out of the package, and more work to swallow it. After a 2 minute transition the run started. Same idea, run 15 K in 3 laps, with the first two easy and relaxed, and the last the fastest.

It took a little longer than normal to get into the groove. My pace for the first lap was quite unsteady, and I was almost tripping over the tilted sidewalk slabs during one section. I don't really attribute that to having been on the bike, particularly. There's days it just takes that long to find the groove.

The second lap felt much easier than the first. I got into a nice groove, my legs relaxed, and my breathing relaxed to the point where I felt I could not only keep up my end of the conversation, but give a speech. I was getting tired towards the end though.

I didn't think the last lap would set any speed records, but I tried to run smooth and lightly. By now it was getting hot. As planned it was the fastest, so I'm pleased about that. My legs were heavy and tired and my stride was getting a bit sloppy, so it took a bit of encouraging to keep them going. Well, except for one point. about the 3/4 point I found myself running really well, really strongly, breathing well, good stride, covering ground like there was no tomorrow. I wish I could do that more often. Of course, as soon as I noticed and started thinking about it, the stride fell apart.

Here's the times for the laps.
1 35:54
2 36:37 (I'm pleased the first two are much more consistent than they were earlier in the week.)
3 31:38 (total 1:44:10)

Not as fast as last time, but that's sort of what I expected given there was more bike up front. This has been a lot of running for me this week, so most of the running I wanted to be easy and natural. It was really important for me that the first two hours of the workout were to set up the last half hour, and worked hard mentally trying to stay strong and focussed. Walked and stretched after. Need to stretch more, my calves feel a bit tight now.

Weekly Summary
Swim 1.75 hrs
bike 3.5 hrs (bike is down from missing Tuesday's ride)
Run 5.0 hrs
Total 10.25