Questions

I was in the pool today and since I don't have a way to get Usher or Kesha to scream in my ears while I'm swimming it leaves me tragically alone with my thoughts (yikes)....well here's one I had...

Back story:  My husband and I did our first outdoor tri's last summer (only sprint distances) and fell in LOVE!  He is an exceptional athlete.  Like REALLY good!  He is a bit scary good considering the little amount of time he trains and is still knocking off the competition.  Well our friend asked us to do a Half Iron in May of this year (now he asked this back in October) and while I said "no" b/c I'm positive I couldn't be ready (c'mon, I did theatre in highschool while my husband was doing two-a-days on his champion soccer team) he jumped on it!  I thought it was a bit premature but our "trainer" thought he could be ready since he's such a natural athlete. 

Back to the present...we are such tri-newbies that I'm worried he'll do this race and be toast for the rest of the season, so I ask this question, "At what point in your tri career should you consider taking on this type of race?"
The other question that plagued me was, "Should your longer races be saved to later in the year to avoid burn out, or should they be done at the beginning of the season when you're 'fresh'?"  Okay, so you see why my swim was burdened today. 

Off the subject, but seriously needs to be pointed out...my cardiovascular strength is miles ahead of where I was this time last year!  Training ROCKS!!!!

Laying that first brick

Yup, Monday I did a brick training session. It was my first of the season and OH MY!  I ran on Saturday for only 3.2 miles, however, I could have done a lot more and I added hills!  I had a great week last week, there in lies my reason for thinking I was ready to brick.  Well..........I basically did 18 miles on the bike and then could barely do a 9.5 min/mi for the 3 miles I ran on the treadmill b/c I'm pretty sure someone injected lead into my legs somewhere along my bike ride!  I forgot how hard those are and I'm going to be working MUCH harder at getting back to my old self and not feel like I'm dying when I go from the bike to the run. That was insanely hard...too hard!   I almost like identifying weakness as much as I enjoy finding new strength.  It's another goal! Isn't that why we "tri"?

Breakthrough!

BDD, thanks for the interval input!  It is always ALWAYS helpful to have someone more experienced reinforce my attempts at "training".

I had a breakthrough today!!!  I had to teach a spin class for college students (excellent way to make you feel old if you're in your 30's) and since it was only 30 minutes I decided to fit in a 5K run before hand.  So I did the run then rode the spin bike for 15 minutes before class started.  I don't work as hard when I teach, but I do work, so this was a nice size workout, especially since I'm pretty sure I have a stomach virus.  I didn't feel particularly tired after this stint, though, and it got me thinking...I'm not satisfied by workouts less than an hour anymore...infact...I'm not satisfied by my workouts very much at all lately...could it be?..COULD IT BE???  Am I getting (dare I say) stronger???  I can't believe it if I am, but I'm truly working smarter, not harder!   I might be doing something RIGHT!  YAAAYYY!!! 

So that was my breakthrough.  Hang in everybody, I'm proof that it can happen!  Now for my next trick-when DO I get tired??  This could be fun!

A Slave to the Intervals

Wow! I've been AWOL again!  I don't mean to be, sorry.

I've noticed that my way of coping with the mind numbing indoor training sessions has been by doing interval training after interval after interval, after interval...you get the point.  So I decided to do a "long swim" in the pool (1/2 mile--don't judge), while I was pitiful and forgot to time myself I found the effects of the actual workout were the worst of the whole experience, I could barely hang!  You see, I will do drills, sprints, and race pace, etc, but for no more than 200m in a row and I'll do it for up to over a mile, well when you're going a total of  850m non-stop (give or take) it's a big, darn difference!  I don't know why I tend to forget this, but apparently I do...so I'm going to spend some more time doing distance and less on drills for a bit, just to get my swerve back.

Okay the bike...well when you're doing Spinverals DVD's you're doing ONLY intervals, however, this is not so bad b/c where I tend to ride is all hills anyhow, I really think I could have a serious handicap if I were to do a time trial with serious bikers, but, so far I'm hanging with my crowd okay.  I am setting my sites on an International distance later in the year so I shouldn't ignore this weakness too much longer, I really don't do more than 15 miles at a time (hard-core cyclists insert judgment here).  I am smoking the bike portion right now, however, so my confidence there is up.

Now the run...is it bad that I'm toast after just 4 miles???  Don't answer that.  I'm not really training the run, first off I have bad feet, but second...I HATE THE TREADMILL!!!!!  And btw....our indoor track is 20 LAPS PER MILE!!! So yes, there may be some interval training there too.  I can't seem to hold a steady pace, I think that is less about the training and more about the ADD!

So there you have it, my fight with intervals.  I love them, but are they serving me?  How much time SHOULD I be putting into distance training...I think I know where my next research focus should be :)  Maybe I'll learn something new! 

Hope your winters are going well!