Virtual Training Partners via Chicago : Tags : volleyball

Yesterday my activity consisted of an hour of intermediate 4's beach volleyball at Montrose. Our team lost this week and are still hovering around .500. Hopefully we pick it up going into the end of the seasion/play offs. If our level of play was half as much as our competitive spirit we'd be in good shape.

After that I practiced my tri transitions a little bit with Santiago.

Aaaand that's it. My posts are becoming increasingly lame... I promise some fun pictures from the tri on Sunday, though. But here is an aerial view of Montrose Beach to leave you with--the volleyball courts are on the bottom, right part of the beach. Luckily the rain today held off until after our match. The rain is getting ridiculous here... 10 out of 14 days or something and a tornado touched down tonight.

< one hour of volleyball >

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My alarm went off this morning to another gray sky morning. Lake Michigan was strangely still and it was right around 70 degrees--a stark contrast to St. Louis' and Oklahoma City's 102 and 105 temperatures! Just as I clipped in, the sky opened up to let a little rain fall. As made my way down my street and towards the lakefront path on the wet pavement I thought, "this will be fun." I really like running and biking in the rain--but I haven't swam in the rain in a long time.

By the time I hit the path I was feeling fully awake and warmed-up. Pedaled 8 miles down to Ohio Street Beach to where they have the partial lane markers set up just north of Navy Pier in Lake Michigan in a one mile, out-and-back set up. I swam .5 mile and then hopped back on my bike to bike the 8 miles back home to get ready for work. (Side note: the bike path was altered at North Ave Beach because they are almost all set up for the Air & Water show this weekend. Looks as if it's shaping up to be a pretty cool show.)

As Anthony mentioned, running isn't my strongest discipline. Well, swimming isn't much better (yet)! But with getting more training sessions in and checking out , this was my best open water swim outing yet and I'm definitely feeling more comfortable swimming in the lake.

So--why am I doing the Accenture Chicago Triathlon?...you might be asking yourself right now. It presents a fun challenge. And I think that challenge falls into the category of looking for something new to push myself post-collegiate athletics. Toby said to me this morning that it's all about embracing your weaknesses with open arms. I'm going to keep that in mind in the short time between now and the race.

I was also active in my favorite way this evening: participating in team sports (weird, huh? ). My beach volleyball team won our intermediate 4's match tonight at Montrose Beach. We played well tonight but are about .500 on the season. I often wish that volleyball and softball had not both been fall sports at my high school in St. Louis.

Time to get some rest now. Goodnight!

< 16 mile bike / .5 mile swim / 1 hour of volleyball >