I ran 9.3 miles on Saturday and rode my bike (stationary) for an hour and a half on Sunday. It was truly the first "real" weekend of Ironman training in that I had two long workouts (for me).
As I contently lay in my bed Monday morning, my wife thought it was funny when she heard me say – "thank goodness today's a day off." She couldn't remember me ever saying I was happy to get a day of rest.
I usually have guilt when I don't work out – wasn't a problem today.
After feeling overwhelmed and floating aimlessly through training that I wasn't sure I was helping or hurting me, I finally determined that I needed a coach. Perhaps if I had two year to train for the Ironman, I'd have tried to figure it out myself – but with only six months to get ready – I couldn't experiment with my training. I needed an expert.
I'm 41 years old and the thought of having a coach seemed somewhat frivolous to me. After all, I'm not going to the Olympics or going for any records. Heck, the goal is to simply finish. But with my lack of time and lack of knowledge of the disciplines of biking and swimming, I couldn't afford to go it alone.
There are many triathlon programs that you can purchase on the web – they all looked very promising. You can get anything from a basic 24 week standard plan to a personalized plan that's updated weekly and email or phone interaction with a triathlon coach. That probably would have worked fine for me, but I felt I needed someone from the Louisville area that could personally see my skills (or more honestly – lack of skills) in swimming and on the bike. I needed advice from how to swim correctly to what type of equipment I needed for my bike. I felt a local and accessible person would be best for this.
I've secured Nancy McElwain of Train Smart (the reader may remember that she has already given me some swim lessons) as my coach. As I've mentioned before, she's an exceptional triathlete. We're still working on my training schedule (she's observed me working out a few times and given me a fitness test to see my fitness and skill level). I'm excited to get a schedule and happy to finally feel some solid direction in my training.
As a long time runner – someone who has run daily for most of my adult life – I'd grown accustomed to the pounding that my body took from my daily run. I'd been told that training for the triathlon would be easier on my body and I'm finding that to be true.
I'm currently running around three times a week and I can't remember when I've enjoyed my runs more. I feel strong and my legs aren't stiff and sore – I'm rested when I begin my runs.
Before starting to prepare for Ironman, I was having trouble staying motivated in my running. I still love the thought of running marathons. However, the monotony of running everyday and the toll that it took on my body during training was making me question whether or not I really wanted to continue running marathons.
So far, so good on triathlon training (though I have much much longer to go) – I can see training for and doing more triathlons (probably shorter distances) in my future.
Today, for the first time in over thirty years, I had a swim lesson. Now I can swim, and I think if the casual observer saw me in a pool, he or she would probably think me a decent swimmer – I know I did.
But that illusion came crashing down when I started practicing for the Ironman. In comparing myself to other swimmers at my evening practices, it became apparent that I didn't have the stamina or the stroke to complete 800 meters (remember the event is about 5 times that). I knew that with time, I'd be able to work myself up to the distance – but the speed (or lack of it) and effort that it took to swim did not bode well for completing the Ironman. I needed help.
Help arrived today in the form of a group swim lesson – put on by Nancy McElwain of Train Smart (she is a triathlon coach and a darn good triathlete as well). Nancy instructs using the short version of a technique called "Total Immersion." Basically it's a series of drills that, teaches balance and streamlining. I'll go into the techniques in a later blog, but I will say that I went from doing around 23 strokes to get to the end of a 25 meter pool, to around 18 – all in a two hour swim clinic. Over the course of a 2.4 mile swim, that's going to save me a lot of strokes! Even better, it didn't feel like I was exerting as much effort to get down the length of the pool.
I doubt that I could have figured this out on my own by watching a dvd or reading a book. Yeah it cost some money for the lesson and I felt a little self conscious about getting a swim lesson at my age – but I think I just saved myself about two months of frustration. I can't wait to get to practice what I've learned at the pool tomorrow.
Today I found out that it's hard to find a good swim suit in the middle of February. Being of modest swimming ability, I was looking for a modest pair of swim trunks and I searched all over Louisville.
I found plenty of the skimpy Speedo models. But I think everyone can agree that, unless you have the body of a Greek god (just to clarify, I do not) – these should not be worn. I found jammers (basically a short version of tights) – I can see wearing those but only when I lose the tire made of Doritos around my waste.
The only pair of trunks I found looked like they'd go down below my knees. I wasn't sure if those would help me float or make me sink.
Looks like I'm stuck with my old trunks till spring.
Someone once told me that – no matter how bad you feel – you should never give up on a run until you've gone at least 2 miles or 15 minutes. For me, this has been one of the best pieces of advice I've been given about running.
I don't know how many times I've drug myself out of the house and started to run; feeling haggard and sore and thinking I needed to take a day off. However, nearly every time I've "found my groove" by the second mile. In fact, some of my best runs have come after heading out the door feeling like crud.
It seems the same way with swimming and cycling. In the past two weeks I've had workouts in which I wanted to pack it in after 10 minutes of agony. Yet I've stuck with it, worked through it and ended up completing the workout without being in too much pain.
Today I spent an hour spinning on my bike downstairs. I don't know how hard I went or how long I went. I do know that I was pretty tired by the end though. I had hoped that I'd feel o.k. enough to run a few miles after cycling but I was toast.
I realize I badly need to buy a bike or at least a computer, but I don't want to run out and buy a bike that won't be a good fit. These triathlon bikes aren't bikes you can pick up at the local Target – they are expensive. Some of these things cost more than a good used car, and that doesn't include all the add-ons that I'm sure I'll need. So, I'm researching as quickly as I can for the best bike for me – hopefully I'll have one within a few weeks. The weather outside is still too cold to permit any riding, so there isn't that pressure. But because my current bike doesn't have a computer on it (and because I don't want to buy a computer until I have my new bike) – I'm clueless about how fast, hard or long I'm going. It's very frustrating.
The one piece of good news – my rear end seems to be getting acclimated to the bike – no soreness or numbness - and that's a very good thing.
After a relatively slow first day start to my Ironman training, I vowed to "kick it into gear" today. I kinda did.
It's Super Bowl Sunday and the home state Colts are playing…it was important to get the training out of the way so the family could watch the game together.
I decided I'd try to bike 45 minutes and then run for 5 miles. Because I had a recent knee surgery, I had been taking it easy and either running or doing some easy spinning. Today is the first time I put both together, one right after the other. Like yesterday, I received a stark reminder about how difficult it was going to be to attain this goal.
It took a while to get comfortable on the bike and minutes felt like hours as I peddled and watched the Super Bowl hype build. Eventually, my 45 minutes of biking were up. I was relieved and eager to get to the running aspect of the workout.
Not so fast.
The transition from bike to run was a shock to my body. My stride was off – I felt out of alignment. My knee started to ache. I limped on the treadmill. I started to worry that maybe I couldn't finish the five miles. I began to think that maybe I had taken on too much with the Ironman dream.
But I hung on and eventually, the ache went away and my stride became comfortable. It was never easy and I can't comprehend and don't want to even think about how I'll do a full Ironman.
Day two of my Ironman training is complete and I'll have to be satisfied with that.
For the last few weeks, I've been tinkering around with my nearly decade old bike, putting it up on what they call a bike trainer. I bought the bike trainer a few years ago after watching Lance Armstrong win yet another Tour. I wanted to jump into some triathlons at that time and wanted a new bike. My wife wasn't convinced that I'd stick with it. We settled on a compromise – the bike trainer. If I used the trainer for a while, then we'd look into buying a fancy new bike.
Turns out my wife was right, I went back to just running and the bike trainer just gathered dust.
Well it finally came in handy when I wanted to get some quasi bike training or my version of spinning.
To be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing – I spend about 30 minutes to 45 minutes just pushing pedals. I think I'm pushing pretty hard at a decent turnover…but since I have no computer on the bike – I really don't know.
What I do know is that when you begin biking for the first time in a long time – stuff gets numb that you really don't want to get numb.
