Boy, time flies. I still wonder what the heck I should/want to write about. Remember, newbie here. It appears its been almost 3 months since I've written anything on this thing. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, mostly to document the jump into triathlon specific training. Is it really swing of things when I only have a handful of posts?
No Ironman events in this chick's future, but I do want to attempt a few sprint and an Olympic distance triathlon this summer. I've heard and read that multi sport athletes tend to not get as many overuse injuries, so that is a plus. I'd like to remain injury free. I'm also a data girl and want to have a plan that will help me feel confident to go out and give it a try. Lucky for me I found someone that can guide me along this path. An 11 time Ironman finisher who has lots of experience with multi sport training and a good view into my psyche. He tends to set the bar just above what I think I might be able to reach.
This week I get the news that I'll soon be aiming for 8 workouts a week. 3x bike, 3x run and 2x swim. Yeah, no problem. Ha. No doubt it will be a challenge but still attainable. And, important to note, that missed workouts are life so not to get over concerned for the misses. I think I pretty consistently hit 5x/week in a very unstructured format so more will be a challenge. The goal is to stay motivated and healthy so I'm on board with that. For the most part, Chad and Megan are on board too, that IS an important part of me feeling successful. Last summer I encouraged Megan to do a kid's triathlon, but she wasn't interested. Hopefully watching me try one will give her the courage and/or desire to try one too.
Max heart rate tests were the name of the game for this week. I was excited to give this a try...especially from a data perspective. Now I know better. Remember running the mile in middle school and feeling like you were going to puke? Or maybe you were one of the kids that did puke. I didn't, but I totally remember that feeling. Well, that's how it felt - on the bike and run. The cool thing was that I had some kick ass rest days before I had to do these things. During each, I only thought wtf am I doing once. Once! Not bad. Megan said I sounded like a grunting buffalo this morning on the bike, so much so that I woke her up 10 minutes early. I know I pretty much sounded like that when I was running too. Can just imagine what I must have looked like. Good thing it was in the middle of the afternoon on a cold and windy day so I had no witnesses. I was surprised by how long it took me to feel recovered for both the bike and run efforts. I was watching my HR drop and I was still feeling spent. A sign that it was an all out effort? I hope so.
I also hit the pool today with the aquatics director at the Y. Good news is she said I have a solid, strong stroke. Bad news, well not much. Turns out I'm more of a straight arm crawler than a bent arm crawler so she talked through the mechanics and why I could tire quicker with the straight arm stroke. Makes sense and will give me something to think about next time I hit the pool. Who knows, with an open water swim it might all just go out the window and become oh shit, I'll do whatever I need to do to keep my head above water and not feel like I'm drowning.
All this said, certainly I really am overthinking all this stuff, but feeling prepared is half the battle for me. I guess its good to know that about myself, eh? My goal is to train hard and have fun. Solid.
pja
