The new normal?

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. Most people have 3 days off and, of course, if you are training for a 100 miler in the summer, this is the weekend where you log big mileage. On social media, I saw people did a 20 miler, a 50K, and other long distances followed by another long run on Sunday and Monday. In Northeast Ohio, we are also fortunate to have nice weather this weekend (instead of miserable rain that they predicted). 

I had to try my best to stick to my triathlon training plan and not to go run a stupid amount of miles like when I was training for a hundo. The good thing about having someone (a coach) telling you what to do is you just get up and do it. I like the structure and the fact that someone is doing the "thinking" for me. This has worked out pretty well. 

The city and country have started to open back up. Restaurants, hair salons are opened but they still have to follow the social distance protocols. Gyms will re-open this week. I will not talk about the mask controversy that I have seen/engaged in on social media. People have been talking about the "new normal" and how they have (or have not) adjusted to it. For us, we hosted our last weekly cooking class on Saturday and will change it to a monthly basis. Although we do not plan on going to restaurants/breweries (like we always did pre-COVID) soon, we feel it's better to take time off from the cooking class. 

I went out to run in the woods with friends on Saturday and biked on Sunday (part of the training plan). I started to get used to the new routine (Saturday long run/Sunday ride) instead of back-to-back long runs on the weekend. Health-wise, I am healthy. The good thing about triathlon training is that I alternate sports every day, which gives me a mental and physical break. I just need to find more triathlon training partners so the training is more fun. 

Because we don't plan on going to eat out at restaurants until we are more certain about the virus situation, we have created our own backyard patio dining. To support the local restaurants, we do take-outs instead of dining in. The only thing I miss is donuts from Brewnuts. We used to go there almost every Saturday and that was our Saturday routine. Since COVID, we have never been back :( 

And of course, I also use our patio as my office. It is so hard to be motivated to work on a nice-weather, long weekend. 

In the news, many states and places have been having parties with packed crowds this weekend. Let's see in 2 weeks how many more people will get tested positive. In the meantime, we will stay home, keep social distance, wear a mask in public places, and wash our hands often. That's all we can do to help to slow the spread.