Sunday, June 12, 2011

At the beginning

Everyone needs a place to start from, right?

So, here's what I can do right now - my starting baseline.

Swim:
I swam laps last week for the first time in a long time.  I was reading some training guides for tri beginners, and getting a little freaked out by the specifics, but I did get a few metrics to measure myself by.  The sprint race that I'm training for has a 225 yard swim, which is equal to 9 pool lengths.  And it will be a pool swim, not open water.  I managed to do a total of 800 yards in my first dip back into the pool -some of those with a kickboard.  I did one time trial - the training manual I was reading referenced a routine that involved swimming 50 yards in under a minute, waiting the the 15-20 seconds until that minute had elapsed, and then swimming another 50 yards (repeat, etc).  My first question was whether or not I could swim 50 yards in under a minute.  To my surprise, I came in at 50 seconds.  I'm not going to say it was pretty.  My turns at the wall are U-G-L-Y and half the time I get water up my nose because I'm not judging turn radius or depth properly.  I then tried to swim 100 yards at once.  I managed that in 1:52 - out of breath, completely spent.  I've got some work to do to get my fitness level to the sprint distance.

My short term goal for swimming is to work on my endurance primarily - swimming up to 250 yards continuously and maintaining some semblance of form.  And to work on my turns and freestyle form - that might require some assistance/coach. 

Bike:
I've been biking around the neighborhood for a couple of months now, and I've got 3 regular routes that I take (a short, medium and longer distance).  There are lots of hills - nothing monster, but a near constant up and down.  It's impossible to find a route from my home that does not involve hills.  In general, my average speed is just under 13 mph. 

My goal for biking is to bring my average speed up to about 15 mph.  That means that I need to work on my strength climbing the hills and my endurance once I've reached the top of the hill.  I also need to keep my speed up when there are non-hilly portions - right now I'm around 14 mph then.  I should note that I am not riding a road bike at the moment - I have a Trek 7.3 FX WSD, a fitness level bike.  I may consider strap in pedals or other modifications to improve my time, but I don't want to switch to a road bike right now.

Run:
This is my least favorite event, by far.  I've never like running - I just don't have the breathing endurance, and frankly, I get bored.  My knees or legs never bother me, it's always more a matter of cardiovascular fitness.  But I'm working on it.  I've been exercising in a gym regularly for 15 years, but it's only been in the last 5 or so that I've even attempted to get on the treadmill and run for a while.  In the beginning I was doing a 10 minute mile - mostly walking.  I've been working on extending my endurance (how long can I run for between walking breaks), as well as increasing my speed.  I'm currently running a 9 minute mile, and running about 2/3 of a 5K distance.  I've got lots of work to go before I will feel comfortable in this event, and I have serious doubts I'll ever experience that "high" or any feeling like I could run and run and actually enjoy it.  I do occasionally run/walk outside, but not in the summer.  It's too dang hot and humid here to do that.

My running goal is to ultimately achieve an 8 minute mile pace and run at least a 5K without walking, but that is a long term goal.  I've been using the couch to 5K program information to push myself to new levels of endurance, and I will continue to do that until I reach the 5K distance.  Then I will try to work on my speed and running at that pace outdoors.

Coaching - I'm looking into a couple of options for training advice.  I have one lucky connection - one of my neighbors (our kids are at the same bus stop) is a triathlon training coach.  I haven't formally talked to her about training yet, but that is there as a resource.  The YMCA offers a tri training program in the spring, and I'm looking into other local options.  I've considered trying a master's swimming program to work on that aspect, but right now the time commitment involved is more than I can  devote. I really decided to do this only about 2 weeks ago, so I haven't spent much time looking into all the options yet. 

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