As much as we all wish training for endurance events could be rainbows and butterflies all the time, the truth is it comes in cycles. There are bright shining moments where every run, swim and bike feel strong and victorious, while other days feel nearly impossible to will one leg in front of the other. There are days filled with energy and days you need a forklift to get you out of bed and out the door. During the past few weeks, I’ve been on the low end of the spectrum, struggling my way through workouts and even searching for my motivation. This week marked a positive turn-around. A clear sign I’ve climbed out of my dark training hole and, simply put: I’m back.

Here’s what last week’s weely training recap looked like:

Monday: Rode 15.77 miles on the trainer at a steady aerobic pace

Tuesday: Ran 5 miles of speed work: Warmed up slow for 1 mile and did dynamic stretches. Ran 2 x 1-mile at 6:44 pace and 2 x 800-meters at 6:35 pace with a 400-meter recovery jog/walk between each. Cooled down for 0.5 miles and then did some walking and stretching. This one felt really tough.

Wednesday: Easy 5-mile run. This was my first run of the season in 90-degree (F) temps, so “easy” is not really how I would describe the way I felt.

I followed the run up with 30 minutes of upper body strength work and abs. I did this arm workout from Jessie Loves 2 Run with 4 ab workouts in between each set.

Thursday: Biked on the trainer for 1 hour with 8 x 30-second sprints at a high gear (to simulate a large hill) during the middle of the ride with a 2-minute recovery spin between each. The total ride distance was just under 14 miles.

On Thursday evening, my triathlon training group got together for a happy hour/dinner meet-up. It was great to see what we all looked like not sweating, with make-up on and not wearing spandex for once.

Friday: Swam 1,550 meters
300-meter warm up
5 x 150 meters alternating 50 meters hard and 25 meters easy (15-second recovery between each)
8 x 25 meters at maximum intensity (20-second recovery between each)
300-meter cool down

Saturday: Ran 10 miles from our local running specialty store in the morning with my pals Elizabeth from Running for Bling and Katie from Misplaced Marylander. I wore my newest summer running outfit, which are 2 of my favorite pieces: the Brooks Running infiniti support tank (I also have it in blue) and the d’lite 2.5-inch racer shorts (I also have these in pink). If you’re looking for some new running clothes to keep you cooler on summer runs, these are the ticket. This was an extremely hilly and humid run. We celebrated after with brunch.

This was on the floor of our running store track. I like to think of it as 10 miles (for our 10-mile run), even if it really is 10 meters!

Later that afternoon, Mr. rUnladylike and I took our hybrid bikes out for the day. We hit up a local arts festival, a friend’s house and dinner. All in all, we rode about 12.5 miles around the city. So much better than driving!

Sunday: BRICK: 2-hour bike ride (35.65 miles – 17.8 mph average) followed by a 2-mile run at an average 8:24 pace. The first run mile was 8:45 and the second was 8:06.

We spent the rest of the day enjoying our Memorial Day weekend at the pool.

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How did your training go last week? How did you celebrate your Memorial Day weekend?