Let's do a quick review of July for posterity

Hours trained in July.

My life has been crazy lately and it's already the 9th of August, but let's do a quick review of July anyway. I ended up logging the most miles I've ever swam or run in a month, ever, so I have to put that in writing somewhere.

Monthly swim totals since last year.

Swim: 15 swims, 10 in the pool and 5 times in the lake (counting an open-water mile and aquathlon in the same day as two separate swims), for a smidgen less than 40,000 yards (about 22.75 miles) in about 15.25 hours. This was easily the most I've ever swum in a month, and I surpassed the 100-mile mark for the year this month, which makes it all the more frustrating that I'm not really improving. I'm going to stick out this training cycle and probably change it up for next season.

Monthly bike road miles.

Bike miles week by week.

Bike: 13 bike sessions, 9 on the trainer in my living room and 4 times (once per weekend) on the road, for 215.5 road miles and about 22.5 hours all together. I'm about where I was last year on this, although I'm spending less total time on the trainer when I do get on it. However, I am incrementally faster on the road. It's frustrating to improve only 0.1 mph at a time, but it is improvement. I just have to keep working.

July marked the most miles I've ever run in a month, ever.

Run: Another rock star month. I'm not especially fast, but I love running and I get out there whenever I can. In July that was 24 times, all on the road, for 187 miles in about 29.5 hours. When I saw I was coming up to my previous monthly record of 185 I knew I had to beat it, and why beat it by 1 mile when you can beat it by 2?

Of course, much of the increased mileage comes from marathon build, as I had a 16.25-miler and an 18-miler in there. But I have also been good about running most days of the week -- three weeks in July and July/August I ran six times. That all adds up. The good news is that I have two more months of marathon build to beat 187. Plus, that puts me ahead of the average of 125 per month I need to make my ultimate goal of 1,500 in '15.

Other: I didn't do a thing this month except swim, bike and run. Oh well. After triathlon season I am making it a goal to get back into pre-hab and yoga, at least.

I'm already a third of the way through August but it's going to be more of the same to wrap up training for my big race in two weeks (EEEK!). After that I can take a break from swimming and running if I want to, although last year I felt I had one more tri in me. Right now I need to focus on finishing this season strong so I can execute on race day.