Nobody told me it would hurt so good!

After almost a week of being sore, we had our final Simulator. For all the newcommers to this blog. A simulator is an attempt to mimic actual race conditions.

This time we are supposed to do the full distance of each event. For those of us who are doing the Olympic distance, that means:

1 mile swim followed by
a 26 mile bike ride followed by
a 6 mile run

For those of us doing the sprint distance ...

Half mile swim followed by
a 12 mile bike ride, followed by
a 3 mile run

I did it, its done and over with and I have to do it all again in 4 weeks. I am sore but it feels good to have accomplished this! Now that I KNOW I can do this event and FINISH ... I can focus on my swim technique and improving my time on the run and the bike.

Dealing With the Morning After

Holy crap, I hurt. I'm sore I'm tired and I had to drive an hour and change to do swim drills! Being in the water was soothing but I couldn't keep a steady kicking pace during my swim. We did drills today with 30 or 15 seconds of rest in between. I had to learn to work through the soreness. I'm still not sure how I'm going to put it all together for race day. Next week is the final simulator where we get to do all of the events - full distance. I have this week to get my 6 mile run perfected.

Somebody recommended Chi Running. I'm gonna check out their website.

Oh and speaking of simulator . . . here are some pics from the last simulator.

How do you put it all together?

I'm able to swim about a mile.
I'm able to bike 27.5 miles.
I'm able to run 4.5 miles.

How do you put all these things together? I've done shorter distances where I would swim then run or bike then run. Today I tried to bike the full distance then run the full distance.

The weather was beautiful but a little windy. I couldn't run for more than a mile before my quadriceps started to "lock up". I would stop and stretch them out but I ended up running less than 2 miles on a 3.5 mile course. I gotta get it together for this event. I only have 5 more weeks!

How do You Increase Your Endurance?

Update: Sunday I did 3/4 of a mile in 48 minutes. Although my swim consisted of mostly 50 yard and 100 yard sets ... I did manage to do a 200 yard set (8 lengths) during my workout.

So I didn't make a mile yet and I have to the whole open water thing to get over, BUT I'm that much closer. The next few weeks I will be focusing on distance and being able to complete that distance in a short time as possible.

The weather has been terrible so I only managed to get outside once this week and did a 19 mile bike ride immediately followed by a 14 minute run. Its the middle of April which only gives me 5 weeks to train.

Even if I was able to complete all of my distances there are a bunch of other things to consider:
Transitions - A transition is the time you take to move from completing one event to starting the next event.

Transition 1 or T1 - is the transition from the first event or the swim to the bike. You have to be able to get out of your swim gear, throw on a shirt and bike shoes, then walk your bike over to the starting area and ride.

Transition 2 or T2 - is the transition from the second event, the bike to the run. You have to be able to park your bike, kick off your bike shoes and put on your running shoes quickly and head to the finish line.

The other things to consider during:
The swim - Let's face it, its gonna similar to that youtube video towards I posted below. It's gonna be crowded and all the pros are gonna do WHATEVER it takes to lead the pack even if that means diving in on top you, kicking and punching you as they swim if they have to.

The Bike - by the time the swim is done you will have gone between 30 minutes to an hour without any meal or fluid replacement. The bike is where you have to make that up. Not only do you have to keep your pace, you have to find the time to suck down a gel, eat a banana and drink some liquid fuel/water mix. They've been pushing us to get accustomed to taking in water/fuel mix every 5 - 10 minutes.

The run - There will be water/fuel stations everywhere. So it'll be easy to get water as you need it. They'll also be handing out fruit for energy during the run.


Wish me luck.

I met the Total Immersion Founder

I renewed my lessons at Total Immersion and met the founder and owner Terry Laughlin (hope I spelled it right).  He just got back from a trip and came in for a swim during my lesson. It was great to meet him and pick his brain. He shared some advice for a first triathlon as well as running! I'll have to talk about it another time.

Here's a quote from Coach Morse ... "Your struggles to get your workouts into your daily hectic lives resembles the daily trials that cancer patients go through . . . . Their struggles, however, are life or death struggles.... Ours are a choice. Choose daily to make a difference in the lives of these cancer patients."

I'm training for the Capital of Texas Triathlon - check out my website at http://www.active.com/donate/tntnyvt/formygranny

Who needs a Coach?

Coach T is probably my favorite coach. He's really tough and doesn't let up. He wakes me up really early in the morning to swim or hit the road and will keep me up late at night to do my sit-ups. During the swim, he runs along side the pool yelling at me to keep going.



When I'm running he's right in front of me in his jogging stroller.

When I'm biking (on nice days only) he's behind me in the trailer.

He's my main coach and keeps me going from day to day.

The head coach for Team in Training is Coach Bonnie and she does the training on Sundays. She's done a million triathlons and has been a professional swim coach for a long time. I get to train with the group and it feels great to get the constant encouragement from the athletes who were in my position when they first started.

Monday nights I was taking lessons from Total Immersion and had my last lesson last week. The classes are great the teachers are patient and work great with beginners. I didn't tell them I was training for a tri right away so there would be no pressure. I wanted to use TI to focus on the techniques and form without the imminent deadline.

Tues and Thurs mornings I train with coach Jaime at a local HS. She's been swimming since she came out of the womb and competed in her first tri at 10! She's been doing alot of work preparing me for the tri. She pushes me to go the distance and makes sure my form is tight no matter how tired I am.

I've been meeting with Coach Wilson to get my long bikes in followed by an immediate run. He's another one who has competed or participated in a million triathlons. He's done the IRONMAN and competes in 4 or 5 events a year. I think he's nuts for doing all the stuff he's doing but I'm not gonna tell him that.

I definitely appreciate the time and effort all of the trainers, coaches and volunteers put in to help me compete this goal.

Triathlon Training Week 9: Simulator

We're 9 weeks into the training schedule and things are really progressing. We had our third simulator today and it was pretty tough. For a guy that couldn't swim 9 weeks ago ... I did pretty decent. I swam 24 lengths in 45 minutes, jumped on the bike for 45 minutes, and ran 3 miles in 35 minutes.

I've been in the pool 4 days a week:

Mondays at Total Immersion
Tues and Thursdays at a local High School
Sundays with the TNT (Team in Training) group.

I'm finally running and biking outside. It's totally different from the treadmill and stationary bike but I'm getting used to it. During the week my short runs are 45 minutes or a little more than 3 miles now that my pace is improving. My short bikes have been about 6 miles. On the weekends, when I'm doing a simulator the long runs have been 4 miles and the long bikes have been 14 miles.

I'm on schedule to finishing the Olympic tri and if I can add a few more focused runs and bikes I might do really well.

Snowed in!

Yesterday we got 18 inches of snow so I guess I'm trapped in the house. What better excuse to catch up on this blog.

I got to the pool late last Sunday! It was daylight savings time, I didn't sleep well the night before but I made it and I was ready to swim. Coach had a present for me - an Orca wetsuit provided by Team in Training! I don't have to worry about drowning or staying on top of the water now. I can focus on form, technique and endurance.


Trying out the wetsuit in the pool.

How many of you can say you're training with Olympians and Superwomen?

I'm still running at a slow pace but at this point the distance is more important than the time.

Did I mention that I am sore in body parts that I long ago forgot existed? After last weekend's swim and run my shoulder started bothering me. The next morning it was KILLING me. Not sure why but at the very top of my shoulder it felt like someone hit me with a hammer! So I gave up any weights this week and focused on my swimming. I worked abs 3 days, ran 2 days and of course I hit the pool 4 times this week.

A Glimpse of what it's really like

If this is what it's really like ... I quit!

What a Week

It's bedtime but I promised to give a quick update. I went to FL last week on business and even though I got to the airport over an hour early, my plane never took off. Due to mechanical problems and not being cleaned the night before ... all the passengers were bussed to the nearest airport 2 hours away! Peter Pan bus lines did the right thing and got us there in one piece safe and sound. We got the New York's JFK and had to fight for meal vouchers. It was the least they could do. I felt like Tom Hanks in the movie "The Terminal". I helped a woman who didn't speak any english. I made sure all of the passengers from my flight knew about the meal vouchers even though we got split up across different flights. I didn't find an outlet and wireless in the same area until it was almost time to board the plane, so I charged my phone and read my book. Once we got on the plane ... the Jet Blue flight was great. I was supposed to arrive in FL around 11am and ended getting there by 6pm.

I had an interesting week working in FL, I learned much and pray that the customers don't misuse the new features they are about to get. I'll be giving presentations next week to all of the employees ... let's hope I retained all the information.

I was able to swim everyday once I checked into the hotel, did the stairmaster one morning and ran another morning. I took today off and its back to serious hardcore training in the morning.

I came back to find that the electrical work on kitchen rehab 1 is complete. We are waiting for an inspection. The wall and base cabinets have been purchased and delivered! I talk to the contractor tomorrow so we can plan for this week.

Oh yeah, I'm about halfway through the Wealthy Pauper and will be doing a book review soon.

Triathlon Simulator 1

OK so today was the simulator! This is what everyone was dreading. We are supposed to swim, bike and run back to back with no rest in between except to change. Almost like a real race except everyone took their time changing. Each event is performed for 30 minutes and the coach records your progress and gives you tips.

It seems that although we are 5 weeks into the training schedule everyone's only focus has been swimming.

Results:

OK so if this were a real race I would've drowned but I did 16 lengths or 8 laps in 30 minutes. My breathing was labored and I stopped to rest but I completed 16 lengths! Not bad for someone who can barely tread water and couldn't swim 5 weeks ago!!!!!!

The bike 30 minutes, indoors on a trainer - no problem. But the run was outdoors and it was about 30 degrees today. Even bundled up I was freezing but toughed it out. I must have walked about a third of the way. I reaaaaally shouldn't have run yesterday.

Triathlon Training - Week 5

5 weeks ago I couldn't swim. I could float face down and flop around looking like a fish out of water . . . except I was in water! As of yesterday I can do a lap. I ran 2 days this week, but today was the first time outdoors . After 45 minutes I realized that I needed to spend more time outdoors. There were definitely different muscles at play here.

Background:
After the first couple weeks of attending group swim coaching, I realized that I wasn't going to cut it on my own during the week and group sessions on weekends. The head coach hooked me up with her daughter who agreed to coach me 1 on 1 Tues and Thurs at 5am. This was great news!

Obstacle 1:
I have a 17 month old son and his daycare center doesn't open until 6:30am . So what do I do? I wake up at 4am, get him ready and get to the pool by 5:15 or so. After I change, he follows me alongside the pool screaming dada!!!!!! while holding coach's hand. Of course this takes away from the coaching experience but some improvement is better than no improvement.

Schedule:
After swim I usually drop the baby off at school and hit the weights at the local gym. Tuesday = lower body and Thursday upper.
Mon, Wed, Fri I usually run and stretch in the mornings followed by whatever bodypart I missed on my weight day.
I haven't touched the bike yet ... at least not consistently.