Triathlon Training

I kinda sorta forgot about updating this the past two weeks.  Hey, I’ve been busy.

I finally got running shoes (post is almost done, look for it tomorrow) and that’s made a difference in the overall health of my feet, but I’ve had a slight setback with the running. I’m back down to four sets instead of 5. I’ve had a bit of shin pain this week, so I’m just slowing down a bit. It could be the fact that I’m actually running in shoes that fit, but it’s taking a little getting used to. I’m trying to break them in and have been wearing them to school to loosen up a bit.

In other news, I’ve decided to do the Chicago Triathlon next year (August 2011) so that goal is firmly in my mind. If I can do a sprint distance triathlon earlier in the summer, that would be terrific.

• Running – 2 days this week (been back at school, so I’ve been exhausted) That’s no  excuse, I know, but I have to figure out how to mesh my workouts with the, you know, real world.
• Biking – didn’t get to it this week — tomorrow (Friday) is my goal
• Swimming – haven’t had time and the pool schedule isn’t exactly matching up with mine. I need to work on that situation.

Thanks for all the supportive messages, people. I really do appreciate all the kind words, and they are keeping me motivated when I want to just rest on the couch.

I know it’s not Thursday and technically not my update day, but guess what!!?!!

Today, July 17, 2010 is the first day I ran all
4 of my 60 second runs the entire way through!

This is big news people, I have been running for almost a month and couldn’t get through 3 of them and today I did all 4!

I feel really, really wiped out, but exhilarated. There almost was a treadmill accident when I closed my eyes for a nanosecond midway during rotation #2 and almost ran into the shelf behind me.  My foot got stuck on some shelves, but I managed to free it without losing my running pace.  Not sure how, I think angels were looking out for me.

I felt so good after the fourth rotation that I almost pushed for a 5th one, but I decided that I should:

A.  check on my foot, which was starting to hurt

B.  not press my luck and just push for 5 rotations on my next run.

End of update! Yay for me!

P.S. my foot is fine, just a little scraped up.

Today I started swimming again.  It was the first time I’ve been in the pool in a year or two and before that it  had been 18 years since I was swimming regularly.  When I think about it, that’s really sad.  I love swimming, being in a pool, the chlorine, the feel of the water on my face.  All things I thought that I couldn’t live without.  Then life happens and sometimes you forget all about the things that you love.

I’m really serious about this triathlon thing, even if it kills me.  I’m sore right now and that’s with taking it slowly!  I’m frustrated because it feels like I’m not making any progress, but I have to keep reminding myself that it’s going to take time. I have a lot of weight to lose and muscle tone to redevelop.  I’m not expecting miracles to happen overnight, but at the same time, it’s hard to watch such slow progress.

Right now, biking has been the easiest for me.  I have a really nice stationary bike at home, right next to the treadmill. It has a lot of program options, but I just set it on random hill settings and either set a time limit, 15 minutes to start or sometimes I set a distance limit.  The bike is pretty easy on my body, my legs feel worked, but aren’t horribly sore.  I’m happy with how that’s going. I do know that I’ll have to step it up soon.  Last year when I was going to the gym regularly, I was biking 30 minutes and up to 12 miles at a time and it was really easy.  I’m thinking about getting a bike to go outside, but the running shoes are the first purchase on the list.

I went to the pool today with the intention of swimming ten laps.  10 laps, not a problem, right?  I am a good swimmer, I used to swim 100 laps a day at practice.  (OK, when I was 16)  I’m not expecting to do 100 laps, just 10.  This morning, I shared the pool with the lap-walkers and another swimmer.  The water was nice, a little too warm for my liking, but that’s ok, at least it wasn’t bathwater warm.  I got my swim cap on, pulled on my goggles and started swimming.  I made it a whole length before I had to stop and catch my breath. (not bad, really).  My lungs felt like they were on fire but it was a good feeling.  I had to stop for a short rest at each end, so there was no fancy flip turning. Those were one of my favorite parts of swimming.  When I learned how to do a backstroke flip turn I was ecstatic.  Was that too geeky?  Probably.  So back to my day of swimming.  I ended up doing five laps.  It took me about 20 minutes with all the resting that I had to do.  Initially, I was disappointed that I couldn’t start with ten, but it’s more than I did yesterday and tomorrow, I’m shooting for 6 laps.   My swimming plan is to get to the pool as much as possible before school starts.  My arms were killing me immediately after my swim and they are still sore, but not unbearable.

Ok running updates.  This one is harder because I have no experience to compare it to.  The running is progressing very slowly. I still can’t make it through all the four minutes of running. I keep trying to push myself, but I can’t get there.  I have to work on getting the right shoes and that may help.  The running portion is at 4.5 mph and it feels too slow for me, but 5.0 is too fast, so I’m adjusting the speed trying to find something that feels right.  I’m a little discouraged that I’ve been running almost every other day for three weeks and I can’t get any farther than when I started.  Baby steps, I keep telling myself.  Baby steps.

Things I could do to improve my workouts.
#1 Track what I’m doing.  I haven’t done that yet.  I don’t know why, really.  Just that I don’t get around to doing it. Thursday will  be my update on the blog day and I’m going to add a Training Log at the top, too.   It won’t help with my day to day workouts, but it will help me stay motivated.

#2 Find healthy snacks! Snacks that won’t undo all the exercising I’m doing.  Right now, after I’m done working out I’m starving.  Especially after swimming.  Swimming makes me as ravenous as a brain hungry zombie. I want to find all the fried food I can and binge.  I’ve been very good about NOT doing that…for one reason.  The scale is NOT MOVING.  If I’m doing all this working out and still not losing weight, there’s no way I am going to start eating crap after a workout.  I am eating mostly healthy food and have cut out almost all processed food and fast food.  The amount of food I am eating is NOT the problem.

#3 Water! I love water so drinking it is not the issue. T he problem is that I don’t remember to drink water when I’m not working out. I even got a nice water bottle for Christmas from my work friend, Kim and I haven’t used it yet.  I need to make that a habit too.

Feel free to cheer me on or make snack suggestions.  I’m ready to take any help and as much as possible to accomplish this goal.  Thanks for all your support!

So you know how I posted this BIG NEWS about a year and half ago?  You remember, the post where I wrote that I was going to be doing a triathlon?  Yeah, that’s gone about as well as my landscaping plans.  BUT! I’ve been rejuvenated the past few weeks and I’m actually making progress.  S l o w progress, but progress.  As you may know, triathlons are made up of three parts, swimming, biking and running.  I love swimming and enjoy biking.  Two parts,  CHECK, which leaves the one I dread.  Running.

I’ve never been a fan of running.  Way back longer than I like to think about, my friend Kim (from What’s That Smell) and I shared an apartment.  She used to get up really early and RUN.  Now, I’m a morning person, so that’s not what bugged me.  What I didn’t understand was the concept of running. On purpose.  When someone isn’t chasing you.  Really?  *sigh*  Running and I haven’t been friends. I have bad knees, I don’t like being outside  in hot weather. Or even warm weather.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve thought about running  because the idea of running, alone, with music blaring in my ears sounded pretty great.   I just couldn’t get past the fact that I’d actually have to, you know, run.  Outside.  Where people could see me.  (Thank God for treadmills.  I could go on for hours about the love/hate relationship I have with my treadmill.  How I love to hate it.  Really, I would kick it as I walked by if I didn’t think I’d hurt myself.)

So now that 38 is looming (though it’s coming up on Kim much faster!!) I figured I’d set some goals.  I’m saying right now that 38 is how old I’ll be when I finish my first and second triathlon.  That gives me 1.5 years to get ready and participate in 2 of them before I turn 39.  I think that’s a good amount of time, since I’m really looking at spring/summer 2011.

I have a few resources that are helping me with the acclimation to running.  In addition to a runner friend who gives good tips and advice, I’ve been using a modified Couch to 5K plan, as well as training guides from Runners’ World. Who would have thought I would be reading Runners’ World articles?  Kim, are you still conscious?

This is all happy and great, but I actually have to do the running part and well, that’s not nearly as easy as planning it. My current routine is a 2 day on 1 (or 2) day off rotation.  The goal for now is to run for 1 minute at a speed of 4.5mph on the treadmill and then walk for 3 minutes at 2.5mph.  I do 4 rotations of this plus a healthy warm up and cool down.  It’s been going well for the past 10 days or so.  After the first two days, my legs hurt so bad I couldn’t walk up stairs.  Not good. I was very discouraged, but after a 2 day rest, they felt much better and the subsequent rotations were much easier on my legs.  I’ve been heavily warned about potential shin splints and they have hurt a bit the past few days. I’ve also had some aching in my right knee (just above it) but that’s gone away a few hours after running.

Out of the 4 four-minute rotations it’s a struggle to finish the running portion.  I can’t run very long.  I make it though the first 60 seconds just fine, but the remaining  3 rotations are a different story.  I can just about finish the second 60 seconds, but the last two are proving to be difficult. I feel great for the first 30 seconds and really think I can make it the full minute, but then I run out of steam at about 48 seconds. I keep pushing to make it the full minute but I can’t.  I just keep trying and that’s all I can do.  A few more seconds each time will increase my endurance and if it takes me five weeks to be able to do 4 -60 second runs, that’s ok.  It’s more than I was doing a month ago.

The most surprising thing (besides the fact that I’m actually not cursing my treadmill) is that I really like it.  I mean, I am not fond of it while I’m running, but I feel really good afterwards and that’s enough to keep me psyched for the next day.  Actually, I find it to be a good challenge while I’m on the treadmill and that’s not something I thought would happen.  I do want to be able to cross the triathlons off my list, plus the added benefit of getting in shape.

I’ll be adding 30 minutes of biking after the running rotations (immediately if I can, or later that day) and swimming on the off days so that I can still work on the triathlon elements.  One thing I’m not looking forward to?  Having to buy a pair of good running shoes. If you don’t know how much I hate shopping, you don’t know me very well. It’s my least favorite thing in the world.  Well, second least.  Digging in dirt is probably my least favorite.

This is my own workout station.  The TV is directly in front of the treadmill and bike, but I haven’t been watching it at all during my runs. I made a killer playlist on my ipod that has been terrific. Ignore the dust on everything, the treadmill IS getting used. I know it looks like it’s really close to the wall, but there’s plenty of room there. Besides, it’s been there for a few months without an injury or a wall accident!

I’m happy to be writing this…and actually making progress on some of my big goals.  I’ll keep you posted!