July was Hot Hot Hot

The stats:

Swim: 51,300 yards, 14 swims (3600 avg), 1 race
Bike: 7 miles, 1 ride
Run: 75 miles, 11 runs
Strength: twice
Yoga: 10 times

Obviously there was a swim focus in July, but running 75 miles is pretty good too after only getting 40 miles in June.  51,300 yards actually ties my largest swim volume month ever, which is actually kind of crappy because I took 5 days out of the pool and missed my long swim last weekend. If I had actually been able to finish out the month it would have made for a nice volume pr. I'll have one more chance to knock that out in August before tapering for the 12 mile swim in September.

Yoga has taken a backseat this month. It shouldn't, but it is. Since I turned 40 on the 7th everything has started hurting and I know yoga will help that. But the motivation is right on running in the mornings instead. I also think it's time to scale back the strength training. Right now I'm in a heavy endurance build for swimming and running so it's only making me sore and making the swim practices less effective. In the morning, I'm given the choice to run or do yoga, and need to run minimally tuesday and thursday, but should run monday through thursday and save the long run for the weekend.

The weekends have a new trend as well now, getting a long run and a long swim on saturday then resting on sunday. This leads to a lot of eating. The first time it was 15 miles running in about 2:24, followed (not immediately) by 6000 yards swimming. This was also followed by camping out at a baseball field (more on that later) and all of the stadium food I could get. July is HOT in NC! So freaking hot that I have to run first thing in the morning or not at all. My hip still isn't letting me use the treadmill, so if I don't get out by 7 am it's all gone horribly wrong. and August surely isn't going to be any cooler. Come on fall!

Here's some other cool stuff that happened in July

Ella's first concert! Got to take her to the Rolling Stones

The Avett Brothers opened up

Happy kid

Giant Mick Jagger

She's slept in that shirt every night since then

I also got to take her out for an ice cream date before school started

4th of July we were at the lake with Kelley's mom

and a bunch of family! Uncle Henry brought coconut moonshine

Beautiful weekend at the lake

Homemade peach ice cream

Actually got a picture with Cousin Leigh!

First day of school was on my birthday

The 40 year old me with my girls

I cannot believe I didn't make a post all on it's own after the weekend, because it was so freaking cool. Evil Genius and I got to go to a Durham Bulls game with her Indian Princess tribe, march in a parade before the game, enjoy a fireworks show then camp out on the outfield grass after the game. So freaking cool. That was a once in a lifetime experience, and not just because I'll never choose to camp out on outfield grass again. I'm too old for that shit.

we got there early

marching in the parade

I couldn't get both of us in the shot with the field in the background

Fun times!

Waiting to get down to the field with all of our camping gear

New tent!

On the bullpen pitchers mound

They roped off part of the outfield into Tent City - notice the bar above the jumbotron

Caught EG asleep the next morning

still got my cute shot

Right after the game started I knew I was screwed. We went to get food and I had to pee, so I just got her food that she wanted (a hot dog, popcorn, and water) and got her back in the seats so I could hit the men's and then get my food. By the time I got back, of course the hot dog was apparently spicy. So when she was frantically grabbing for the water popcorn went flying everywhere. She spilled the entire bucket, dropped the hot dog, and managed to get it cleaned up a bit by the time I got back. There's a $12 dinner on the stadium floor. She also got (and actually ate) a funnel cake later and another bucket of popcorn. So she was happy. But at breakfast the next morning, they had sausage biscuits, pancakes, and tater tots. So she had the most pitiful empty plate and cup of water ever, but actually didn't whine and cry about it! My little girl is growing up.

Overall July was a really solid month. Probably the most solid July I've had in the last several years. Don't get me wrong, my Seasonal Affective Disorder is still kicked in and I'm trying to just bear down and stick to the plan until cooler temps arrive. but there was a lot of highlights this month.