I’m on week 5 of Half Ironman training. It is a lot of working out, but I really am enjoying it. While I sometimes really want to get off the bike, because 25 miles at the gym gets super boring… I am glad for the break from running 6 days a week.
To me, the biking and swimming takes some pressure off training. Not that I should feel pressure when just training for a running race, (but I do!). While I don’t always feel pressure when running, I definitely feel more running than either of the other two disciplines. It’s because I know what I can do when I run- I know what a good day feels like, I know if I’m wimping out and I know if I’m putting good effort in. I am familiar with everything that encompasses the run. Biking and swimming are new to me. Especially swimming. (I did go on a bike trip in 2010 and rode 450-500 miles in just 6 days… or something like that. Not too crazy, but a lot for me… too bad this was before my regular blogging days. I definitely should have wrote about that experience along the way. We rode and raised funds and awareness for the organization Love146… if you’ve never looked into what they do, it’s worth your time to check it out. Love146 works toward the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through
Anyway, on the bike and in the pool, I haven’t really trained myself to work hard for a sustained period of time. My body doesn’t know how to respond to biking hard or swimming hard for more than a few minutes really. I can force myself to run pretty hard for say, 45 minutes, but I would need breaks in that amount of time if I were going that hard biking and certainly swimming. (and obviously you swim for a much shorter duration of time)
One of my favorite parts about biking and swimming is I have zero intestinal issues with those two. With running, if I’m running a relatively long distance or have a hard workout, it’s a toss up if I’m going to have bathroom issues or not. It’s not fun, but I deal with it and move on because I like how running makes me feel and you do what you do.
I have definitely made some baby improvements in biking and swimming. I know I haven’t spent near enough time on the bike. It’s hard to get bike time in because it takes so long and most days, I’m just not willing to get up at 5am to do some of the workout. I find myself at the gym twice a day a lot because I simply can’t get both swim and bike or bike and run in in the 2 hours of allotted time at the kids club without being a crazy woman frantic from one thing to the next. What I really need to do is get out on the bike for a REAL ride and get out in open water for a REAL swim. We are going to Crown Point this weekend for Mother’s Day and Glenn’s parents are going to watch Marshall so we can ride together. I’ve got 40 miles on the bike and a 4 mile easy run lined up.
Here’s what my week looks like this week:
| Run Pace: Easy Pace – 7:36 – 8:09 |
| Repeat Race – 6:15 – 6:30 |
| Steady State – 7:00 – 7:30 |
I need to get signed up for a couple of shorter distance triathlons before Muncie... which is slowly creeping up on us. Today when I was running after the bike, I was picturing the race and thinking about how happy I would be once I get the run. It will hurt, but I’ll be happy to be in familiar territory.
I wouldn’t say I’m 100% looking forward to my swim tomorrow- but sometimes it’s really nice to just swim. It is so easy on the body compared to running. It’s probably going to take me awhile to swim 40 laps, but I’ll get there.
Also- I think I’ve decided to drop Giest half next weekend. I’m hungry for a half PR and could squeeze one in, but not the monster one that I REALLY want because my body is tired in a way it’s not used to with all the biking and swimming.
If you want to be a faster runner, you need to run more and run faster in your training. My speed in training has been fine, but I’ve been running a lot less miles. I think I’ll race a half while I’m in training for my fall marathon (whatever that may be.) I need to remind myself how badly I wanted to focus on something other than running toward the end of my Shamrock training. And as Glenn says- it’s important not to have too many goals at once. The chances of excelling how you want to in both is less likely than if you just focus on one. So, I’m choosing the 70.3. I know I won’t place in my age group and I might be one of the last people out of the water, but I’m doing it because it’s new territory for me and I want to do something different. And, because I can.