This week has been fantastic!  My training is not what it would be back home, so I get nervous wondering if it is “enough.”  Yet it is challenging, and I do think I am getting stronger.  I am in Caminha, Portugal and I am training with a group who is putting together the local 70.3 race Triatlo Longo de Caminha  which I am racing this coming Sunday, July 14.  You can read more about what it’s like here. It was my last “heavy” week before the race, and I took advantage of the generosity around me to train as much as I could.

My highlight was definitely the bike ride, but I did manage to finally get a long run in.  Caminha lies on the mouth of the Minho river, so I ran along the river, and then crossed over to Moledo, the neighboring town, and ran along the ocean.  I’m not sure if it was the novelty of the scenery or the strength I am gaining on the mountains … but the run felt better than usual.  I’ll take it either way.

Here it goes this week’s training:

Monday: OWS – my first time ever in a river and my second in a wetsuit!

Tuesday: RUN – as “tempo” as I could get given that I didn’t know where I was going!

Wednesday: BIKE – 30ish miles – my first mountain climb … again, you can read more about it here.

Thursday: OWS – a longer but faster swim in the river as the current was a bit stronger

Friday: BIKE – back to the mountain for 1 ½ loops.  35ish miles but much of it was going up! I rode with someone who will be doing the bike portion of the race in a relay.   So his sister (who is doing the swim) drove a support car behind us the whole time.  Talk about PATIENCE as some of the inclines were at less than 5mph!

Saturday: REST … as much rest as you can get as a tourist in Europe!

Sunday: RUN – 14.5 miles – my first long run in two weeks.

How about you? How was your training this week?