Team,

As your body is currently reminding you, this was a long, hard weekend of training. Saturday was a long open water swim in some very cold water followed by a 7-10 mile run! Then Sunday we threw over five hours of swim/spin/run/strength at you. And, to top it off, we do it during a crazy rain storm!

Great job completing two back-to-back big workouts. Coming into this season, your Ironman goal had a faraway feel to it. It may have seemed impossible. Or at least improbable. And you probably had no idea how you were going to do it. In fact, it may still seem that way. But looking back a few months you probably did not imagine almost 10 hours of training in two days - especially in the rain. You probably also did not imagine spinning in pop up tents in the rain at Stanford and doing funky bear crawls with bands on the wet muddy grass.

You heard the coaches this weekend… It’s all money in the bank… It’s about going beyond your limits… They’re cliché, but they’re all true. Each build cycle is a progressive overload. You tax your body. You find your limit. You move past it, and then you rest. And during that rest, you get stronger, so when the next build starts, you can go a bit further. By this summer you’ll have enough strength, endurance, and experience that you’ll be ready to toe the Ironman start-line, and cross the finish line.

With that in mind, we head into this week’s recovery week. As you’ve learned over the past few months, recovery week does not mean no workouts. But it does mean that you should focus on your recovery. Get an extra hour of sleep… get a massage… STRETCH! In general listen to your body. This is especially true if you are getting over one of the nasty bugs that have been going around. If you’ve been sick, be extra vigilant about your recovery. You don’t want that sickness holding on any longer than necessary!

Look to this weeks Captain’s Update for this weeks workout details.

Again, great job this weekend. You showed a lot of commitment to get out of bed to swim in a cold lagoon and then do a spinnerval in a rainstorm. And that will pay big dividends come race day. We’re very proud of your accomplishment and dedication. You should be proud of yourself as well!

A quick tip for drying out those bike shoes or running shoes - stuff the inside tightly with wadded up newspaper - the shoes will dry out overnight. Just don’t forget to remove the newspaper.

Special thanks to Ricky for sharing his story with us and reminding us why we all signed on for this journey.

Go long, stay dry -

Ann, Chris, Steve and Dan