Monday, February 27, 2006

Training update - Swimming

Well I have a feeling that my blog is going to have a slight shift over the next month or so as I discuss the various things I am doing to train for my event in april. Just to refresh everyones memory its a 400m swim a 13 mile bike and 3 mile run. I feel pretty comfortable in both the bike and run seperatly but its when you put them together that things start to get hairy. Also the only thing I have done over the winter is lift and run so I am a little nervous about my muscles getting re-acclimated to the bike. And then their is the swim.

If you have ever watched pro-swimers you might for the briefest moment think. WOW maybe we are designed to spend some time in the water. Then again if you look at people like me and the rest of the world who dont fall into that 1% of the populace you would have this re-action. Oh my what is that hurt sick or dying thing doing thrashing around in the water. Well thats how I feel most of the time with the swim leg and I feel its my weakest area. However I am going to try and change that this time. How you might ask. Here are my primary workout goals

1. Spend a lot of time in the pool. At least 2 pool workouts a week till the tri.

2. Get back on the bike! I want to try and do some 20 milers before the race.

3. DO some brick workouts probably on my saturdays. (a brick workout is when you ride hard on the bike and then transition to a run just like in the race. Why is it called a brick workout??? b/c when you get off the bike and start running it feels like people are throwing bricks at you. ^_^ )

SO in the start of my training today with a good 5 weeks to go I decided to try and see just how much endurance I still have with swimming since I have not been in the water for like a year. Well I did a warm-up 100 and then I decided to just go for it and see if I could do a 400. Well I did it. I was not fast by any stretch but I did it and I still had energy left over which is how I wanted to feel. I then took a minute to catch my breath and did a cool down 100. this will probably be my workout this week then next week I will go to a 100 - 500 -100 then the following week I will do a 200 - 400 - 200 then the week after that 200 - 500 - 200 and after that I will have to see how I am doing. At that point I might stick with the distance and try to increase speed. or I might jump to a 200 - 600 - 200 b/c if I can swim that for like 2 weeks and feel pretty good then the 400 swim in the race should be like a cake walk which is what I want.

I think my end goal is going to be to come in under 1 hour 20 min. Heres how im breaking down my times

16 min in pool. ( i think this can come waaaay down)
40 min for the bike (this is going to depend on me and the course)
26 for the run. Now I know what you are thinking and yes I know if I add all those up its greater than 1 hours 20 min. Its actually 1:22:00 but I am hopefull that I can shave time off the swim and the bike. Their was a time I could do 10 miles in around 24 min on the bike and their was a time I could run a 5k in 18:00 pretty easily so I am hopefull that I can shave some time. I do not think I will be in any real "competitive" area in terms of finishing but you never know. Most people in my age group are healthy and dont have a bum leg but I have a lot of experiance and I know how to run properly and I know how to bike so who knows. Can we say cinderalla story????

Now I have to give a shout out to my sponsors!

My wife lisa for always believing in me and not telling me that I am too old for this type of thing or that it costs too much money. And also for not laughing at me when I get my race clothes!!!

Sterling Clay for letting me borrow of whole mess of goggles from him that are defecting in one way or the other and no longer good enough for him. However I have finnaly found goggles that dont leak for me which is like WAAAAHHHHHH so awesome. Now if I can just find a replacement strap

Bike nashbar for not being a very successfull mail order company and having lots of old stuff that was exactly what I wanted on closeout b/c most other people have moved on. I seriously ordered three things from them today and no other mail order or online companies had any of it at there prices so I LOVE YOU BIKE NASHBAR!!!!!!

My wife lisa for letting me pursue my dream of the ironman and again not telling me im too old or too fat or whatever and being supportive.

Stay tuned for my next update "The first transition -- making my bike work the way its supposed too."

Cheers!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't you know that skinny people sink? To do this swim, you need some cellulite floats. You know what I'm sayin? And I got some to sell you. I got em, I just need you to take um! Please! Then you gonna go through the water like a friggin dolphin baby. With Yo power and ma floats, you are gonna boogy baby! You might not even get wet. You jus gonna make a move toward the water and be sooo fass dat you get a liddle damp. As in humid. Dey gonna call you "Boogie boy!" Homes. And yo not gonna jus "try" dis TRI -- Yo gonna Ween it, as dey say south of da border! You are a boy scout with wings. You're gonna fly! In three ways!!! Go for it!