My internet is down, which is not ideal! Hence the delay on the blog post this week, and the holiday weekend didn’t help either. Where do I begin? I traveled for work last week, which I mentioned in my last post. I hate to use the word fun because it assumes no work got done, but it was fun and a lot got accomplished, so I am feeling pretty good. But you have to take the good with the bad, and unfortunately Leslie Miller “the athlete” does not do well with a disrupted routine.

I am a slave to my routine. Many people assume that I am a very focused person, which I am to a point, but what many don’t realize is that 100% of my focus depends on the health of my routine. I have a very hard time functioning when change occurs, especially a change of location. I hate showing up to a new pool or gym without it fully vetted, I get anxious just thinking about the possibilities, what if the pool is closed? what if the treadmills suck? what if I have to talk to someone new? what is the traffic like? how long will it take to get from place to place? etc. etc. It’s exhausting! So much newness and I’m bound to just hit the snooze button and go back to sleep. So, while my work trip was fantastic on so many levels, my workouts did suffer a little bit.

I made sure to adjust my goals so I wasn’t too stressed about being “fast” and aimed to at a minimum complete all workouts, which is actually a step up from the usual “just show up to the facility”. I fully vetted my pool and gym options prior to arriving and knew what I was facing. This didn’t really change the anxiety factor, but I at least knew how to get to the places and was fully committed to swallowing my feelings for the good of my athletics.

The workouts themselves went quite well considering everything. I did have to skip one run because of work commitments and shorten a swim because the pools closed. So I wasn’t 100%, but I have something to work on for next time, and I did all this without having a panic attack, so that’s a giant win.

I’m back home now and super happy to still be feeling fit, like I didn’t skip a beat. I did have to make up for the four days without a bike on another bike camp Friday through Monday, and for those of you who are wondering I DID ride another century on Monday, but solo this time, boo, and not as scenic as last week!

This coming weekend I’m off to Chattanooga to support Nate at 70.3 Worlds and then I’ll be back to the city two weeks later to race Ironman Chattanooga. I’m starting to feel a little nervous as it seems like I just raced IM Canada and pretty soon I’ll be headed back into an Ironman taper,  but I’m hoping another week and that will subside. All that matters is the body is feeling good.