Accidental Triathlon

So yesterday, I kinda did a triathlon by accident.  I know, accident... how do you do such things?  I blame it on over-committment and feeling like I have to follow my training schedule to a T.

I was pretty fried last week from Tuesday's speed workout.  Recovery day was Friday, so I slept in, got a 1.5 hr massage, took a nap.  Felt MUCH BETTER.  Saturday was a 6 mile Z2 run.  Didn't feel as good as the previous week's Z2 run (5 miles), but didn't feel awful either.  I attribute this to the extra mile, slightly higher temperatures, and a slightly faster pace.  And maybe still being tired from the week.

Sunday was my scheduled brick.  2 hrs cycling and 30 min running.  I went with two coworkers, did 27 miles on the bike in ~1.75 hrs.  Then ran 3 miles in Z2.  And it was TOASTY out.  80 degrees.... I am going to hate life in a month from now.  Finished that up at 1:30 PM, then I had to meet my swim team friend at 2 PM.  She has a new wetsuit and is pretty new to swimming, so she wanted to hit one of the local lakes to test out her suit and get some confidence.  We did 2 leisurely laps around the lake (about 1600 m total... maybe).  Water was 60 degrees, which felt cold at first, but once you got moving it felt nice.  I went moderate - mainly wanted to stay ahead of my friend but didn't want to work too hard, given my earlier efforts.  I thought the swim was pretty nice actually - good recovery and psuedo "ice bath".  Plus, it was only 30 minutes.  To me, that's barely even getting started for swimming.

I post all my workout stats into Training Peaks, and I immediately get an email from my head coach, which consisted of the following back and forth:

HC: Did you do a full tri today?

Me: Nope. I did my brick then met a friend over at 288 Lake. She got a new wetsuit and wanted a small confidence builder swim before Gateway.

HC: That's what i was saying all 3 sports today right? A zone 4 swim after a brick is a lot.

Not quite sure what to make of all that.  I didn't consider my swim a Zone 4.  Maybe based on my estimated distance and time, which were not wholly accurate.  I didn't feel like I worked hard.  And I almost feel like he was admonishing me, when really, I was just doing an easy swim with a friend.  Which happened to be after a bike and a run.  I personally didn't see anything wrong with that.

As a bonus, my legs actually felt good today during swim team.  Normally, Monday's are hard - my legs are lead weights after a hard weekend like this.  That just makes me feel like the swim was a good recovery and no harm was done.  And that I know my body and what its capable of.  Plus, it was a beautiful day and I had fun with friends, which to me, is most important.