It is much easier being a triathlete when you don’t have to work a job. I’ve taken the last two days off and I find getting in my workouts to be much easier. I can sleep in if I want to and get out the door at my leisure. Then I can come home, eat, nap and then do a second workout if it is called for. It is such a better routine than swimming, biking and running before 8am in the morning.

I’ve started to strength train again. It feels good to begin building back some strength and I am somewhat reassured in my fitness when I realized I hadn’t lost as my physical strength as I feared. The first time was this past Tuesday. I went to the Dodge Y with my kids who said they would wait for me to weight train after we first went to the pool. The kids had a fun time swimming after and diving for their Water Toypedos. They would race to see he could return the most the fastest. It was a good way for them to build up their swimming endurance. After the pool, my daughter read a book and my son followed me around the gym while I did a quick 25 minutes weight training session.

On Wednesday, I went for a 6am run. The most memorable thing about it was that I was back in my house and back in my bed before 7am. I was able to sleep for another half hour before I had to get up for work. It was like the run never happened and if not for the file I downloaded from my Polar Heart Rate monitor I may not have believed I actually did a run. I also swam on Wednesday evening; a relatively relaxed 2300 yards.

Thursday morning was a trainer ride in my basement. I am liking riding my bike in the basement as opposed to dressing warm for an outdoor ride. I am able to space out and watch a movie, instead of dealing with the cold. Not that it has been cold around here lately, but it was chilly enough that I didn’t feel like dealing with bundling up. Later in the day I met my friend Chris at the Y for my second strength training session of the week. We did dumbbell press on a stability ball, one-arm dumbbell rows, leg press and abs.

Today I did another morning run. I asked my daughter if she wanted to come with me, but she wanted to sleep a little longer and said she would go to the pool with me later. I ate breakfast afterwards and hung around the house for a while. Then it was off to the pool, where my kids played in the water on their own while I swam 2000 yards. We got home a little after 2pm. My kids had snacks and watched some TV, and I did some chores around the house. After a while I cajoled my kids to go back outside. It was too nice outside to let the remainder of the afternoon pass by indoors watching TV. My wife felt I should just let them sit around, but there is something about wasting the time away watching TV when it is nice outside that just drives me crazy.