8/3/13 4 hours on the bike in Barrington, then Lolla Day #2

It was pretty tough to drag myself out of bed on Saturday morning after the jest evening of lolla- despite leaving "early" @9 or so. I had gotten up on Friday at 5am, worked out and worked a full day following at the office (as usual). Adding to that 4-5 hours of walking and jumping around and I was beat. 

This was made even more clear when I wanted to cry when my alarm went off at 5:30am on Saturday. I let myself "sleep in" another hour and got in the at for the hour drive to Barrington to get to some hills. 

The good news was it was a glorious morning as far as the weather went and there were plenty of cyclists on the roads so I didn't feel as "lonely". The other good news is that I was riding up the hills much easier!!

After 4 hours of riding, I drive the hour or so back home, showered and headed back to Lolla. It was a long, long, long (!!) day!!

Day #2 on Green Street

8/4/13 - 3 hours on the bike trainer, 1 hour run, then Lolla Day #3

I was pretty beat (understatement) after two nights of Lolla but super psyched for day #3 since it had most of the bands I wanted to see. 

I decided to ride indoors at TCS @7am for a few hours and after that went to FFC for an hour run on the treadmill. 

After all that, I showered and cleaned up and met Natasha at my apartment around 2:30.  By 3 or so, we for in the car and headed to the Loop. I parked at one of our properties (thank god that was an option- saved a lot of time and effort!) and we were back at the festival grounds. 

Two Door Cinema was the first great band we saw and we ended up most of the night on the north side of Grant Park. By the time Phoenix was done, I was literally dragging my tired legs back to where we parked and off to get home. If my body feels worse after the race, I will honestly be shocked. Apparently this week was supposed to be a cut back week but due to Lolla all weekend I reaped no rest benefits. I'm still feeling the after-effects a week later. 

Natasha also sent me some beautiful flowers to thank me for letting her stay at my apartment that weekend. :)

Sunday 7/28. Another wedding shower + yoga

Me and Emily

After my Madison Ride, it was time to drive to Wheeling for Emily's wedding shower.  She is marrying my cousin Ian on September 13th in Winnetka.

It was a lovely shower put on by my mother and "aunt" Kathye and it was small and not too long (thank goodness).  The food was excellent and I had a good time at the table with Melissa, Aunt Tarie and the little cousins.

After that, I drove home, unpacked from Madison the day before and did a yoga podcast on my living room floor. 

It was a long day and a long weekend and I was glad to fall asleep relatively early!!

7/31- Sculpt yoga class before work

I very much have a love/hate relationship with yoga scuplt at Core Power Yoga.

I think when I finally let go of the idea that they're selling it as "yoga" I could do it more often and get more out of it.  There is very little yoga involved and it's basically a weights class in a heated room with a few plyo/cardo things thrown in.

And it's HARD.  It's hard work that class...  they even try to make me do burpees, but if you read this at all, you know that I don't do burpees.  It's like Walter from "The Big Lewbowski", I don't roll on Shabbos!

I think after Ironman I may go to more of these classes to tone my arms.  We always joke that the goal is "Michelle Obama arms".

Friday- day off for Michael Franti concert! 7/26/13

It was nice to have a Friday night date night with my Michael for Michael Franti and Spearhead at Lincoln Park Zoo.  That being said, I was a bit stressed about it since I had to get up at 4am the following day to drive to Madison for a two loop ride and run.

I did need it for my soul though, that time with my buddy and listening to a musician that I think it really positive and supportive and upbeat.  It was a great time with Michael and my friend Angie who was also a trooper!  She had literally just walked off a plane with connections from the Tour de France and Paris.

8/2/13 FFC weight class before work and the start of Lollapalooza

I had a strength day in my plan so I decided to try another new FFC weight class before work at 6am.  It was brutal getting out of bed so early as I'm still in a very tough place mentally and physically.

This class focused on the arms and since my arms have been burnt out already from earlier in the week's sculpt yoga class and then almost 2 miles swimming, it was tough!

The instructor was nice and a great combination of peppy and direct.  Not too much of either and I liked her.  I must say that I am always amazed when an exercise instructor isn't super fit-looking but she did motivate and did a good job.  I was a bit of a wimp on a few occasions, but did use the 5# dumbbells throughout the class and had a solid amount of weight on my bar... maybe 20#?

I cleaned up and headed into work on time so I could get out for the first night of Lollapalooza.  It's hard enough to pack for working out and work, but when you add in also outdoor concert going... it was a lot of gear to work on Friday!!

8/1/13 - 1.5 mile swim that was actually 1.9 miles

II have sort of given up on outdoor open water swims and started doing them in the outdoor 50 meter pools around the city. It takes a hell of a lot of effort and logistics to swim in general, let alone at Ohio  beach. 

I need to keep up my swim fitness and understand ows is harder than a pool but I'm never affectively swimming out there. I bought a month lap pass and have tried out a few "new" 50m pools (new to me!). Jean from TCS doesn't live too far from me and emailed me all the pools and schedules on the north side. 

I decided to hit up Portage Park pool as it was on my way back from Arlington Race Track where we had out company outing that afternoon. 

They gave me a hard time that unwanted to swim (at all, really) laps during family swim. I wasn't allowed to swim in the lap lanes (ok, fine) but they all but said I needed to be there with a kid to swim. I was like, "so I can't swim if I have a kid and left them at home?"  I was so confused at first because I thought they were telling me out of concern for me and I was like, " oh it's no problem, I'll just swim around people" (thinking I'd get some IM practice that way anyway!) but then became annoyed when I realized that they didn't want to let me swim. They also do not allow bags of any kind in the pool deck and caution you to not leave anything locked in the lockers of value. You tell me what you're supposed to do- that was ridiculous. After I walked back to my car and left everything inside that, I just walked in and started swimming. If they wanted to arrest me for swimming during open swim, then I figured I'd let them!

Eventually, family swim stopped (& by the way, there were at least two creepy dudes swimming around without kids during family swim!) and they made us all get out and sit outside the fenced pool area for 15 minutes until lap swim started. Ultimately, I swam almost 2 miles of laps and then left. I don't think I'll be back there to swim laps but maybe to go off the high dives!!