Ah, triathlon

I kind of forgot what being a triathlete was all about. Since the last race of my 2010 season, I've been anything but a triathlete. Heck, there were MANY days that you wouldn't have wanted to call me an athlete (okay, maybe you would have called me an athlete, but I felt like a poser). I sat last night with the hubby, the race schedule and my monthly calendar. I laid out my January workouts. It took time. A little negotiation (with myself really) and I think I have it all laid out.

And it's going to kick my hiney.

It's fairly straight forward though -

• Monday - kickboxing and 100 intervals at the pool with a WU and CD
• Tuesday - .5 mile run intervals with a WU and CD and .5 "rests" in between
• Wednesday - kickboxing and bike intervals (courtesy of Coach Tom)
• Thursday - Off
• Friday - kickboxing and long swim (no less than 2000)
• Saturday - 40k bike
• Sunday - long run

Each week, the swim and run intervals increase, as does the long run. No bricks yet... just want to build my endurance and speed a little first. I'll check myself at the end of the month and plan from there.

I don't use a coach and to be quite honest, I'd love one but just don't have the money to spend on monthly coaching. I know that self coaching has its downfalls, mainly being the ability to know how hard to push yourself without someone telling you to hit a certain interval, but I'm confident I'll kick my own ass. I know when I'm pushing myself and I'm keeping track of everything so I can constantly test where I'm at and adjust.

For instance, I did 10x100's at the pool today and nearly died. Okay, I'm lying, but I looked back at the same workout last March and I was about :05 slower on average today.

With a plan in place, I feel like a triathlete again. That and the countdown on my desk that says 132 days until my first race. Oye ve!

I'm on a freaking roll

First, thank you all so much for your input about time off. Seems I'm not the only one in a funk! :)

I've done 1 hour workouts the last three days and am feeling great. I feel like December 1st hit and my motivation instantly came back. It's all mental I'm sure, but I'm finally feeling better after finally going on an antibiotic (I've been on and off sick for nearly a month) so I'm not complaining.

Wednesday, I hopped on the indoor trainer. I know I've said it before, but that thing is evil. While I feel like it's 9 bazillion times harder than riding outside (and infinitely more boring), I pushed my way through an hour and felt great. It's amazing what snow outside and a People magazine on the book stand in front me can do to get me through a sweaty trainer ride! I'm anxious to start my real workouts on the trainer (which will include a lot of intervals with coach Tom telling me when to go and stop and me probably cursing him in my head and probably out loud a little), but for the time being, I need to be able to get through an hour without wanting to die. I'm almost there. Baby steps...

Yesterday I had to sit around all day while the drywaller got finished. By the time I was freed from being a prisoner in my home able to leave, it was nearly 7pm. I didn't want to run outside in the dark and cold alone (who am I kidding... it wouldn't have happened had Tom been here either - sorry sweetie) so I went to my mother-in-law's and jumped on the dreadmill.

I have mad respect for Emz and any other crazy dreadmill lover. How do you do it???

I started out slow, mentally pumping myself up for a great hour. Eh, maybe like 45 minutes. Oooh... I'll get 5 miles and see how long that takes me. Before I know it, I've done a mile. Nice. But after that 8:47 of running in place and watching the Hallmark movie that my mother in law was watching upstairs (her gym TV can only watch what's on upstairs... crazy country living), I needed to do something to get my mind off the monotony!

Intervals. Yeah, that sounds good.

I did quarter mile segments and increased the pace 0.1 on the treadmill each time for a mile working up to an 8:27 . Then I came back down. Okay, three miles down and literally want to be poking my eyes out with hot fire pokers.

I then did 1 minute at 8:34, 1 minute at 7:30, 1 minute at 8:34, 2 minutes at 7:30, 1 minute at 8:34, 3 minutes at 7:30, 1 minute at 8:34.

I've gotta be getting close to 5 miles right?

No!

Only one mile left. It wasn't as horrible as I make it sound, but it was pretty bad. I ended up finishing 5 miles in 41:45 which is fairly slow considering I could have get the treadmill to 7.2 and just ran for 5 miles and done it in the same time, but mentally, I would have been putting the pokers in the fire upstairs. Not a pretty site. Anyway, I finished up and hopped on the elliptical to get my hour.

Today I got my butt kicked at kickboxing for an hour. I wanted to swim too, but I needed to get some things done around here. Tomorrow I'm doing a brick - look out world... I'm acting all triathlete-like! :)