Training this Week

Monday I swam 1,850 yards (or meters - I still haven't measured the pool) - either way over a mile - and felt great! Tuesday was a 22 mile bike ride from home to Balboa Park and back.

It's exciting to me and I get nods of disbelief from friends when I tell them that my average/minimum workouts consist of either a 20+ mile bike ride, a 5+ mile run, or a 1+ mile swim, and sometimes a combination of the above. I am definitely in the best shape of my life - now I just need to get back to some resistance training and all will be golden.

Tonight is our coached swim - I'm expecting the usual few hundred yards of warmup, some drills, a cooldown, and some relay games. Then it's off for Thai food for a late dinner to ensure that nobody loses any weight (haha)!

Mock Tri

The Mock Tri on Saturday went VERY well!

The swim was in the form of a short loop, where we had to get out of the water, run back to the entry point, and swim the loop again (twice total) for a total of about 700 yards (a little shy of the actual Malibu Tri amount). The first lap was tough, I didn't warm-up for it. The second lap was much better. I used the wetsuit and while it was much better than before, it still felt constrictive. I'm now thinking that wearing the tri-top under the suit is part of the problem. I have two suits en-route to try out that are sized a bit differently, so we'll see if those help.

My practice on the bike mount and dismount paid-off handsomely as my T1 time went from over 3 minutes to just 27 seconds! It was no problem riding without socks and with sand in my shoes. I did put on socks for the run though. My T2 time was very short as well (I'm guessing under a minute). My Timex Ironman Triathlon watch didn't survive the day though - it got some water in it and died a very slow, painful death (it's now on the way to Timex for warranty repairs).

The run was difficult in the sense that after the first mile my blister, sore calf, and sore right hip started hurting, so I was hobbling along (smiling all the way though). I managed to run the entire 4 miles without stopping. Made a new friend: guy named Brian from the Westside team - we ran together for a couple of miles before one of the women started getting close so he took off - me, well, she passed me, but only because I just couldn't go any faster at that point.

I completed the whole thing in 1 hour 58 minutes - much better than my goal of 2.5 hours! I felt great afterward and the TnT coaches and mentors had medals for each of us and a carb spread that was like a holiday dessert (which I'm starting to figure out is why nobody seems to lose weight in this program).

All in all a great time and a great experience - I am so looking forward to the "big day!"

Blog Twiddling

I was about to put on my swimsuit and head over to the pool when I found that it was still wet from Wednesday night! Apparently swimsuits don't dry out very quickly in humid bathrooms. While it's in the dryer for a few minutes and I'm waiting, I thought I would write.

Last night after dinner I got some serious practice time in with my bike mount. I've decided that for tomorrow's mock tri I'm not going to do a "flying cowboy" mount (as it still scares me a bit) but instead to a "skateboard" mount, where you put your left foot on the left pedal, kick with the right foot, then swing your right leg over.

However, the problem usually is that you can't do this with clipless pedals/shoes as you can't run in them. So, I'm going to do a hybrid: clip the shoes in the pedals, then do the skateboard mount barefoot. Worked fine last night!

One hitch I had was getting my feet into the shoes while riding. After practicing about 20 times and working out a pre-buckling strategy for two out of the three straps on each shoe, I think I've got it down. I'll do a few run-through's tonight to make sure I'm ok with it and then we'll see how it works out tomorrow.

The other problem I have is that I get a blister if I run without socks. So I'm going to "hybridize" that too - I'll ride without socks, which should allow the sand and everything to wash off my feet while I ride (so I'm told), saving me "cleaning" time when I get to T1, and put socks on in T2 prior to the run.

Yesterday I rode 15 miles at Balboa (flat). I was supposed to do 18 but I was getting pretty tired and I didn't want to go overboard before the tri. When I got home I found that my front tire was partially flat: #2!

Ah - that's the dryer beeping - time for swim practice...

Triathlons are Tame

If you think training for and competing in a tri is crazy then you haven't attemped to kite-surf in a hurricane.

The Flying Cowboy

There are 5 major parts to a triathlon: swimming, biking and running, of course, but also transitions (between swimming and biking, called "T1" and between biking and running, called "T2") and nutrition.

T1 usually takes longer than T2 as you have to get out of your wetsuit, get your bike gear on, get your bike, and go. Anything one can do to speed up their T1 time is a great way to effortlessly remove seconds, or even minutes, from their race time, as transition time counts!

A couple of weeks ago I took a clinic from LA Tri Club on transitions where they taught us the "flying cowboy" bike mount. Basically, you pre-click-in your shoes to the pedals, use rubber-bands to keep them top-up (and not dragging), and then when you are ready to ride, you run with the bike, plant your foot, jump in the air, land on the seat, and start pedaling on top of the shoes. When you are settled and able to breath, you reach down and slip your feet into the shoes. Voila: tons of time saved, and if you don't kill yourself in the process you look mucho cool.

So this morning, after doing some core exercises and a bit of resistance training, I got the bike and some rubber bands out and practiced flying cowboy mounts in the street. I did it about 20 times and I think I've got the hang of it. I still need to work on getting in (and out) of the shoes while riding, but I've got 2 more days to get that down (our mock tri is on Saturday).

If you have any tips on this let me know!

Gelrilla Deal

I have made a deal with Lyramid, the company that makes the GelRilla Grip. Use the coupon code "TNTSM" (no quotes) when you order and you'll receive $1.50 off AND they will donate $1.50 to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. What a deal!

5 Miles......YEAH!!!!!!!!

Today's training update is brought to you by.....my left calf. Ouch!

Grabbed the kids, a couple of bikes, a lot of water, and off we went to Balboa Park for today's run.

Goal: flat run, 4 miles, with two 1-minute sprints.
Outcome: flat run, 5 miles, with two 1-minute sprints and 1 30 second sprint

If that weren't good enough, I ran the whole thing - no stopping, no walking!

And as a bonus, my daughter, age 8, completed the whole 5 miles on her bike, no (literally, none) sweat!