Learning lots

The last two days have been busy ones. Yesterday began with the gym, a bike ride, lake swim, and concluded with some core work at the gym while Grant had Karate and Spencer had his workout. Then I was back at it, at the pool at 6 am. I ran into Jim at the end of my swim and he offered some encouragement as well as a desired critique. The best news was that he said I "looked like a swimmer". Wow. Considering at the beginning of the summer I felt like anything but, that was the highest praise I could hope for. That said, I have to work on hand entry in front of my shoulder, and not on or over the midline, especially my left arm, which is always the problem child in all I do.

Later we met for transition practice. Jim set up a temporary bike stand and then demonstrated his setup and his transitions for me and another master athlete, Anne. Then it was my turn!

Left foot on left pedal on top of shoe, grab brakes and hop on the bike while coasting, eventually get feet in shoes and straps attached. Then reverse the process with a "flying dismount" which doesn't involve much flying in my case, but it is fun! Then a run back to the bike rack and a donning of the running shoes. I learned a great deal and if anything this helped simplify the process for me.

Afterward Jim ran my strides workout with me and after claiming I could run no problem without socks, a quarter-sized blister proved me wrong. So now I will be wearing socks in the triathlon.

No surprise I am very tired and perhaps coming close to overtraining? I need to be careful and get some R&R the next few days. The most important thing is to keep it together for the next 18 days, to stay healthy, focused, and happy. I also need to get caught up on work and other obligations. That is a major goal for the remainder of the week!

I'm still very much looking forward to the triathlon. It'll be an adventure and another opportunity to find out what I can do!

Running!

Today was a glorious run. It's 66 degrees with steady rain and I headed out for an early run - an 8.5 miler, my longest by several miles, and I needed this one to give me a little confidence as I move into the marathon training schedule in a few weeks.

There is nothing quite like the unique rush of finishing a good run. Done right, there's not much of a mental letup on a run with the constant check on breathing and energy and slight adjustments to pace, form, stride length, and cadence with the ever changing terrain and elevations.

With biking the satisfaction comes from distance covered, time on bike, and the challenge of optimizing gearing and cadence to maximize speed and workout benefits.

The rush of swimming is about the technique, rhythm, the flow through water. Like running, you don't get the breaks, the coasting of biking, but with swimming you have to be much more aware of how much you can push it because it's a lot harder to recover during a swim than during a run. You can only back off so much!

I love the mix of the three sports, but I still see running as my core, my foundation. It's pure and minimalist - no pool, no bike required. And what a great run I had today!!

Rebloggiing

I'm still not back to regular blogging since spring. Dealing with the leg issue on top of semester and family demands just snowed me under. Then we moved directly into swim team and camps on top of the full slate of regular kid activities (cello, piano, gym, tennis, Karate, chess). Plus I have my training, which I try to do as much of in the wee early mornings, but it still adds to the family chaos. About ten days ago, realizing the end of summer was approaching and we'd been on the go way too much, it was time for a family meeting to decide what should stay and what should go. Robert's work schedule and demands keep him busy or gone most of the time. So we are scaling back, taking a hiatus from piano, scaling back on tennis, no organized chess for a while, and NO new activities. This is the year of just say NO and to concentrate on just a few extracurriculars. They have a lifetime to explore the others.

Finishing the first two weeks of training

I've got the first two weeks of official training under my belt and so far so good with progress in all three areas. 

Swimming - this is the most rewarding area at the moment because it is the most challenging for me. I have very little experience swimming freestyle, or laps, and although I built up some endurance last summer, this year I have had this sense of not being able to get enough oxygen. It's as if I panic a bit and obsess about it  But we've been working on technique and a series of drills, and darned if things aren't feeling much better.  The stroke feels more purposeful, I get more of a glide, and I am settling into a grove that I think I can sustain.  I will know soon enough as the scheduled swims are getting longer!

Running - I haven't been back at it too long but am doing 3 miles with walk breaks between. Today I ran my third mile in 6:54 - VERY fast for me.  I've lost endurance, but I still feel like I have the mental toolkit and a sense of pace. 

Cycling - I am enjoying this tremendously and can feel myself getting smoother, faster, stronger, smarter.  The bike now fits me well and comfortably.  It's a thrill to have that mechanical extension of my legs, manipulated by shifting weight, body, fingertips.  My confidence is growing!  There is a real community amongst cyclists whereas running is a bit more solitary overall.

What I love is the mix of all three endurance sports coupled with weightlifting.  Each offers something unique - the technique of swimming, speed and mechanics of cycling, the mental game of running, and the focus and pure effort for a lift.

It's not easy to juggle it all, particularly coming off this darn injury. Trying to balance effort with rest, family with sport. It's a short term experiment from which I hope to clarify my future directions.

Training starts Monday

Well, I got my first set of training plans from Jim (www.oneononeendurance.com).  WOW.  I appreciate the detailed and I think fairly aggressive approach.  The bike rides are of a good duration (1-1.5 hrs) and the swims ramp up nicely. 

The good thing is all the past training plans from Jake have prepared me well for that inevitable feeling of "oh crap, how in the world am I going to do all that?" I recognize that if I looked at the plans and went "oh yeah, that's easy" there'd be no point. There's an incredible sense of accomplishment simply meeting the training schedule and that confidence inevitably carries over to the race. 

In fact, yesterday Grant and I had an interesting conversation. He wanted to know what the easiest job was thinking he might like to do whatever that is.  I had to explain how easy and fun/rewarding are mutually exclusive and fun comes from the challenges we face.

One compromise, we are cutting back my gym time to 3x/week for the next 9 weeks.  I had to let go of our sacred Sunday morning sessions which have been the one constant all year.  It's just temporary.

Lots of new adventures ahead.  I want to push hard but train smart for the next nine weeks and just see what I can do.  I'm picturing myself at the finish of that triathlon - smiling and triumphant!