Trying to maintain

Took a fantastic ride on Sunday. I found the plaques in downtown Springfield that mark the spots where Wild Bill Hickok and Dave Tutt stood for their infamous gunfight in which Hickok gunned down Tutt over a gambling dispute. In total I rode 22 miles on a crisp spring afternoon. Today I took a tough hilly ride that was not so glorious, but it has given me some confidence in hill climbing. My legs are burning tonight. I emptied out my hot tub while I was out riding, and now I wish I could get in it.

I'm somewhat back on a training schedule I'm already having difficulty getting a balance with real life. I got back to interval training. I did a workout with the fellas the other day that included sections of the SORT obstacle course as well as some other challenging tests of strength. Hopefully I won't injure myself in the process. I plan to run an 8k race on Saturday. I'll register tomorrow. I'm pretty sure Don and his girl Ronna are doing it as well. We'll see who else shows up. I would kind of like to see if my 5k time has improved, but I think I'd rather challenge myself a bit on the 8k. I should get back to swimming in May. Hopefully I won't lose much over the month's break.

Back in training

I started right back where I left off. My next race is in about two months. I think I'm looking to compete in this one. If I can get my average speed on the bike up to 16-17, and get my 5k time a few seconds better I can improve on my outing in Claremore. I have to admit that I wasn't even thinking about longer distance races, but now I am.

My other hobby has definitely taken a back seat though. This is what I feared. I'm hopeful that when the new wears off of Triathlons I'll find the drive again. I find lately that my time in the studio is not as enjoyable as it once was. I think that will end when I get a few projects off my backlog. After I get a couple of dioramas finished, I'll start some new work and see of lightning strikes. Till then, it's run/bike/swim!

Claremore OK Sprint Tri done

I'm happy to say I did respectably well in my first triathlon. I was thrilled with the swim result and moderately happy with the bike, and slightly disappointed with the run. All in all it was a terrific experience. I plan to do at least two more this summer. After that I'm considering a half marathon in October. That ought to fill my year. There will probably be a 5k or two in the mix as well. The event Chris and I ran last Sunday was full with four hundred participants. Three-hundred-forty-one finished. I can't thank my friends the Lamphears enough for helping us out by picking up our packets and taking some extra pictures of us. Mike was especially helpful with advice and encouragement along the way. I feel like I have a base to work from now. I want to shave four minutes off my time when I do this event next year. The miraculous thing is, I feel great, no significant joint pain, no real muscle soreness. I am ready to train again. My next Tri will be June 19 in Willard MO. I'll be back in the pool early in May, if not sooner.

One week to race day

This time next week, hopefully I will be chilling after a good supper waiting for my first race. When I first decided to do this I was looking only to complete a race. Now I'm looking to finish with a respectable time for my age group. Barring injury or damage to my bicycle, I think I'll do okay. I've been timing my swim and get about 2:10/100y. My ride is pretty good with average speed around 18mph, and my run is decent at about 7-7.5 mph. After this race, I think I'm going to take a week off and reassess for my next race in June. I have never enjoyed training more than I have these last three months. I look forward to each element every day and I've even managed to build on the foundation I started with in January.

Next week, I have to be out of town for a training session. There will be a certain amount of PT I'm sure. Outside of that, I'll take it a little bit easy before race-day.

Stay tuned for results a week from tomorrow.

BRICK!

My first Tri is coming up soon. April 11th in Claremore OK. Chris Tallman and I are going to go down and stay the night and then get up early and try to act like we're athletes. I've been working hard, and I know Chris will be up to the challenge by race day as well. He has done this before, but it's all new to me. I have talked to more experienced friends about tri-athlon logistics, and I think they have given me some good advice. I'm still worried about the swim, but more about being competitive than completion. I've managed to get up to 700y in a session and that's pretty close to my theory of going double distance on all three events. I'll do my first brick Sunday. It'll have to be indoors though. I plan to go 40 min. on the trainer and then 20 min. on the treadmill at about 7 mph. Since I've been training in the pool, I've managed to get more confidence. I've gone from swimming 25y and having to rest to swimming 100y and still having some gas in the tank. It's encouraging, but I still lack the confidence to just crank out 500m. It's coming though.

Dogged determination

I hate to miss a workout these days. I have manipulated my schedule to insure that I don't actually. Other than small modifications to accommodate a race, I don't think I've missed one this year. I am going to have to skip a couple in the coming weeks and I hope that it doesn't serve as a setback. I'm going to have to push a little in the coming weeks to get a little faster on my run and hopefully the bike as well. It's difficult to tell how I'm doing on the bike as I have been riding indoors on the trainer about 90% of the time. One outdoor ride this year actually. As it warms up I expect to change up my routine some. I also should be starting "Bricks" this month, but I will likely put that off until I get into mid-late March. That should be interesting. Swimming is going well. I came to the realization that I'm going to have to push a little harder in the pool if I intend to get any better. A couple of revelations about rhythmic breathing have helped me out some. Some coaching would be of great benefit. I made my goal of 600 yards in a 30 minute session. I'm now working on closing the rest gaps. With seven sessions left, I'll probably buy another value pass to get me up to race time. Next year I think I'll join the Meyer Center for three months and see how I like that. Meyer has more lap lanes and some instruction available as well. I've started grappling once a week with my SORT brethren, and that has added an extra half hour to an hour on to my weekly routine. I don't think it's going to be much help in the Tri-athlon. Looking forward to swimming today to see if I can push ahead a little.

An hour a day

I started tracking my training on Training Peaks. It's kind of interesting to see how much time you spend training and how much time you thought you spent training. I find that on average I spend an hour a day. I've given up my rest day to do strength or swimming. I thought I would regret that, but I haven't yet. I came upon a realization as I was swimming my last fifty the other day. I've been having difficulty with this rhythmic breathing business. Despite the advice I've gotten from some more accomplished swimmers I've struggled with this particular aspect of swimming. The realization is this; I don't need to gasp a huge lung full of air every time I breathe. Just take in what I need. Why the hell I thought I needed to gasp a big amount of air is beyond me. I don't breathe that way when I run or bike. So, I'm putting together more pieces of the puzzle and I'm looking forward to spending some time in the pool Saturday to work on that aspect of my stroke. The running and biking are really just moving along steadily. When it starts to warm up, I think I'm going to extend my mid and longs by a half mile or so. My goal this summer is to do three events. Claremore OK in April, Willard in May and Republic in August. Next year, if I complete these three, I'm going to try to actually compete in at least one. After that, I want to do an open water swim event. I really miss playing volleyball, but this is starting to take it's place as my favorite sport.