My Slow is Less Slow

I know I'm getting fit my when my slow is less slow. A month ago, my slow run off the bike was around 7:45 pace. This past weekend, my slow pace dropped to 7:15 pace. Saturday started with a 5000 yard swim followed by a race pace effort 28 mile bike ride with about 3600' of climbing, and then onto a 5.5 mile brick run. Part of the run was doing 800's on the track in 4 minutes and I held 2:54's...whew. I say "whew" because these types of workouts don't always go according to plan and can be damn ugly. Sunday was a 3 hour hilly ride followed by a 7.5 mile hilly brick run where my slow was less slow. I finished the day off with 3000 yards of swimming and a lot of detail work: suffering on the foam roller, stretching, and refueling the body with an antioxidant rich smoothie. I'm squeezing every bit of motivation remaining from watching the Oceanside race to keep me fired up. I'm swimming my first swim meet in over five years this Saturday so I'm trying to cram in swim workouts in preparation for the 500 free, 100 fly, 100 IM, 50 fly, and two relays...all in one day. I'm so cheap that I signed up for the maximum number of events just to get my money's worth. I'm a big fan of Kiva.org and one of my former students just started a similar micro-lending organization. If you're like me and not a big fan of the Chinese government, don't let this deter you from donating. The loans are going to poorer farmers in rural China and that's all the justification you need.