Triathlon Training: Week 6 - Sunday Bike and Swim

You can tell by the title of this post that I did not get my bike workout in last night as I had planned. My intentions were good to get the 2 hour ride in last night, but by the evening time my legs were started to become a little sore. Also, my whole family has been hit with the flu. Not only is Ava still battle the flu with a puke here and there and some nasty diapers, but the same has held true now for Amanda, Addy, and Aiden. It was an action packed day and not in a good way. By the time 8:30 rolled around I knew better than to stay up riding until 10:30 and getting to bed after 11. So I called it night early to prepare for the worse.

This morning I knew I had to squeeze in the bike ride.

 

As soon as Ava went down for a morning nap around 8:30 I finished up writing out bills and jumped on the bike at 9:00 to get this ride in while she was asleep. Addy had crashed back to bed after launching her hot chocolate. I watched a really good basketball DVD that caused me to think a little about terminology I use in basketball and during the DVD I actually came up with a new system to the triangle offense to accommodate the type of players I have this year. This DVD finished up and I watched the 2010 Ironman championships to finish the ride. These are such great sources of inspiration. As I started to get sore from the bike seat and my knees started to ache a little I was constantly being reminded about what it takes to reach goals. I had to suck it up, mentally overcome the small aches, and just find a way to get it done. Come race day I will have to dig so much deeper, but it is good to slowly work my way through some of these thoughts.

I kept pace moderate and a low cadence. I pedaled with the big gear up front and middle gear on the back. This is my preferred riding system.

I was able to knock out 34.08 miles in 2 hours which is 3:31 mile pace, 17 mph avg. speed, avg. HR at 98, and avg. cadence at 74.

My legs were a little stiff for riding so long and not necessarily from riding hard. I quickly ate lunch and some water and coffee and then headed to Augustana for my monthly swim class. I don't know how much we swam, but I will say we swam 1000 yds to be conservative.

Swim class was much larger in size. Previous classes we had about 4-5 of us, but today we were at 10 people which is great to see. Stacey Zapolski and Tara Christensen are really doing a great job helping all of us become better swimmers. 

I was really interested to see if I had made any improvements at all from a month ago. I feel better in the pool, but I knew going into class today that some things still need work. I had contact Stacey earlier about my legs being so low in the water.  This was still a problem today.

My swim goals for the next month

-really focus on getting my legs higher in the water(I assume this comes with just swimming more)

-really turning on my strokes to use my core more. I feel I have really improved on this, but I don't think it came through in practice today.

-doing a better job of hand entry into the pool. Last month I extended too far above the water and today I was told I was entering too close to my face. I went from one extreme to the other. I had to use a foam roller to work on hand extension. It was tough, but I will work on that some more.

I am sure there is more to work on, but these three things are enough for me for one month. They mentioned doing a T-30 swim where you swim nonstop for 30 minutes to see how many laps you can get in. I think I am going to do that in my workout tomorrow. I am going to modify my scheduled workout and get this done. If I do it right away I will have it completed. If I wait, then I know I won't do it. 

This was another great week of training. I feel really good about where I am right now. I hope to continue this training and progress and see where it takes me.

189 days until 70.3 Ironman in Racine, WI

21 days until my first triathlon, the Try Melon Tri at Muscatine Y (indoor tri)

GETTING IT DONE! is real and rocking and rolling. I hope your goals are in sight for you as well.