Monday, July 02, 2012

Triathlon Training: Week One Review

Last week, I wrote about my plans to compete in a sprint-distance triathlon at the end of August. In preparation for this, I found a great website called trinewbies.com that has a newcomers training program. Because it's an 11-week program and I only have nine weeks to train, I jumped in at the end of week two on the training schedule. So what I'm calling my week one review is actually the third week in the newbies training schedule. However, I'm a strong swimmer and a regular walker, so I wasn't starting from "couch potato." Here's what happened:

Monday
Monday's an official "day off," but the program recommends at least two days of light weight training, a good balance of upper- and lower-body conditioning, so I went through the program. They say to keep the weight light, which is great for me, because in terms of weight-lifting, I am really weak—I mean 5-lb. or 10-lb. dumbbells max weak. Really, really sore after this.

Tuesday
Swam 300 yards, walked/jogged 20 min. Piece of cake, but still really sore, especially in my lats and delts, which makes swimming painful at first.

Wednesday
The training program said to bike six miles, but I was supposed to bike eight the previous Sunday and only did six, so I did eight today. However, my old bike went kaput while I was trying to make it road-ready, so I had to invest in a new mountain bike. Sometimes I am just grateful that Walmart really does sell for less. Loved the new bike (pictured right) and did eight miles on a really hot day.

Thursday
Swam 400 yards, which is the swimming distance, but not all at once. I'm actually swimming an extra hundred yards more than the training schedule says because I'm already such a strong swimmer. The twist today was that as soon as I got out of the pool, I walked 30 minutes. I'm not as sore as I was just a few days ago, and I felt good after the walk. Another plus, our local indoor pool also has an indoor walking track, so I avoided the 100+ degree heat.

Friday
Another "day off," another day of weight training. Same weights, but not as sore. Progress!

Saturday
Like much of the country, we are in a terrible heat wave in southeast Missouri. Today I had a 30-minute run scheduled, so I did it at 9 a.m. before the thermometer got into the nineties. The temperature topped out at 107 in the afternoon—too hot for late-day training.

Sunday
Sunday's temps were even higher than Saturday's, so I got up at 6:30 a.m. and did ten miles on the bike before going to church. Advantages: cooler, little car traffic, getting stronger on the bike. Disadvantages: Dogs. Lots of dogs out in the mornings. They do not like bicycles. When I finished the ride, I walked/jogged a quarter-mile just to see if my legs would hold up—they did. For the first time, I started to feel like I could actually do this thing!