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February 06, 2006
Triathlon Training
Well I believe I have officially started triathlon training. How exciting! From the brief picture into my life this summer that I received this weekend, I think I will enjoy it. I did a lot of workouts this weekend, but I did not do a lot of running mileage. However, I think that is okay. I am not sure what to think about my 10 mile prospects for April. I feel like I am in decent shape right now in general, but crappy running shape. However, that's how I felt in November and I ran fast then. I still want to do 70 minutes, but that means I need to start doing tempo runs! Anyway that is a whole other topic that I will deal with sooner or later.
Here is the weekend in review.
Saturday:
Woke up and Matt decided to sleep in so I went to do a workout before my hair coloring appointment. (By the way isn't it awesome that I can just color sometimes? I was blown away by this. It is great! It saved me $30 because although my thousands of gray hairs were showing, I didn't need a cut. Sweet.) So I went to the gym down in the burbs and ellipticalled for 35 minutes while I watched people do the end of one spinning class and the beginning of another. It looked fun. I haven't gone to spinning in probably 8-9 years but I think I want to try it again sometime. So that was fun. Then I went in the pool (I had planned on doing the pool first but I am bratty and basically refuse to share a lane), where I had a lane of my own. I did sets of two laps and rested for maybe 30 seconds in between because I never swim and I thought it would be nice to start easy. I ended up being in the pool for slightly over 30 minutes so I think I swam for 25 minutes. I did do one lap of aqua jogging just for old time's sake. I love aqua jogging! Then I got my hair colored, and after that I went running with Matt. He wanted to do 6 miles and really stopped just short, doing 5.5 again. I added on to get 6 for the day. After he stopped he was kind of annoyed with himself, thinking he could have done 6, so I told him this was an important mental component of his training. Maybe next time instead of being annoyed he will just run the extra mileage!
Sunday:
Got up and returned slightly late library books and then ran 3 miles. Then went home and made breakfast (hence the abbreviated run, as this was in the plan for a while). Then Matt helped me figure out the mystery of clipless pedals on my road bike. It was so scary at first! But I think I am doing well. I still need to practice so I will take the bike down to the park soon. Then we rode our mountain bikes around for almost an hour.
We watched the Super Bowl and I am happy for Beth that the Steelers won. However I have to say that it was not the most exciting game. We did hang out with our friends during the game which is always fun.
Now I actually pulled myself out of bed to run this morning before work - go me! I don't like waking up early but I do like running early, and it's an especially good habit when I have to go to lunch with people, and when I want to bump up my mileage somewhat. I ran 8 this morning in one of my fastest morning run times in a while. It was colder than it has been but not too bad. If I don't have to go to lunch today I am going to elliptical and lift. I did feel stronger than normal on the bike yesterday and I think it is partly due to lifting this winter.
That is all the verbose news of the day!
Posted by barb at February 6, 2006 09:19 AM
Comments
I have to agree with what you implied -- that speedwork is the only cure for someone who wants to go from being in good general shape to being fast. I'm dealing with this right now. I know I'm in good shape for any competition that might involve exercising all day, but I couldn't run a PR at any distance if my life depended on it. This is why I started doing some running at tempo pace two weeks ago. I can already feel a big difference. Good luck with the triathlon training!
Posted by: Alison at February 6, 2006 01:25 PM