Amazon's Group - CLOSED (Page 4)

dangremond - 2011-01-18 5:00 PM I think a theme that most will constantly encounter is that life gets in the way.  For my first few seasons of "real" training I consistently tried to put a square peg in a round hole as it came to training on Mondays.  My plans always had Monday workouts.  Generally my time available to train is early AM so I was always fighting my ability to get up early after a long weekend of family, etc.  So this year I am recognizing reality and making Mondays a rest day.  The impact is that Sundays are no longer a rest day but it is more likely I will squeeze in a long run or ride on Sunday morning than a run or swim on Monday morning.  Moral is to recognize the reality of our day to day lives as we plan our training.  Be realistic when setting goals so that our hobby/sport of triathlon doesn't put undue pressure on our relationships and careers. 

...just my two cents.

mramazon0822 - 2011-01-24 12:53 PM COLD WEATHER BLOWS! I am so ready for Spring. Did a 35 mile ride sat in sub-freezing temps...27 to be exact. Was well dressed for ride but still was miserable after about 45 minutes. I think I had some mild frost bite on the feet and hands...mental toughness ride. Rode with a friend and shared the misery with him.

On to week seven of 20...

Had an ephiphany after a strong swim last week. Typically I swim alone in the gym I work out at - the pool is usually my private olympic sized lap pool, in fact one morning I swam in my underwear because I forgot my suit! Anyway, I noticed another guy swimming in one of the lanes. I also noticed that I was smoking him. Although we all train different on different days, but regardless I felt like I was in better shape than him. I ended up talking to the guy after our swim was over. Come to find out, he has been doing triathlons for 10 years. We talked about some events that we had both done so I looked up his times. Guy smokes me! Not even close...this guy was a freak on the bike. I compared our times and he was an hour overall faster than me in the half that both of us had competed in. I beat him out of the water by about 4 minures, so I probably was a better swimmer. But here's what I started thinking...why in the workd put so much time and energy into becoming a stronger swimmer when you are only going to pick up a few minutes overall on your weaker swimmers. Maybe i need to focus more on the bike and run...longer distances and on the bike the ability to go much faster. I am going to stay the course and continue to cross train equally in all three, but it just made me think.

cardenas1 - 2011-01-24 3:10 PM

That said, I can tell you that there are other benefits to a strong swim.   This is especially true for beginners.  There is nothing like mentally preparing for a race (especially on race day) knowing that you have the ability to not only survive the swim, but kick it's butt.   I know that my (over)concentration on the swim my first few years racing really made a difference and was big mental edge when toeing the starting line.

trinamuous - 2011-01-24 9:10 PM

I had just decided yesterday to up my swimming from 3x to 5x a week, with the idea of accomplishing what you describe!