I also need to keep in mind my race and travel schedule. My next sprint tri is on the 31st just three weeks away and I'll be in Denver for a week of that. That one is only an 1/8 mile swim and I'm damn well going to do it without a wetsuit on no matter what. So my focus needs to be on being able to do 1/2 mile repeats eventually with no wetsuit on. Then I'll ace the 1/8th mile without any trouble, and if for some reason wetsuits aren't allowed in Barrington I'll ace that swim too. But first I need to figure out how to get there. I think its really just going to be a matter of logging lots of time without the wetsuit on. I've had moments of proper balance without the wetsuit on, and I've done lengths of the pool that felt great and easy. So I just need to focus on finding and lengthening those moments in the next two weeks.
This morning I met up with CJ at GVP for an OWS. (hows that for abbreviations in one scentence!) My plan going into the swim was that I was going to wear my wetsuit and do the mile out and back to warm up and build my confidence up and then take it off and try and see if I could make it to the buoy (.2 miles) rest, and then swim back without it on. However in the end when CJ and I finished the mile swim he had to rush to work and there was nobody else there so I wasn't able to do the swim without the wetsuit as I didn't want to attempt that for the first time by myself. I was considering going to the pool at the Y when I got an email from a client of mine requesting a phone conference in 30 minutes. So there went that idea. So new plan for this week....
Tues AM - Pool at YMCA (I hate to swim 3 days in a row, but I think with the wednesday swim being at 6pm thats plenty of swim rest between sessions and I need to get my ass in the pool)
Tues PM - Providence Bicycle Time Trial. Plan is to do one warmup lap, race the course, do a quick transition and do two loops of the run course at an easy pace. (my legs are beat up from the run on Sunday and that course is just too hard on the body to go too hard on. Theres just too much recovery time involved for me when I race up and down that hill regularly. So I'll play it by ear. I'd rather run it slower if I have company than race it and beat myself up.
Wed PM - OWS in Barrington (with a wetsuit). Maybe try a little bit after the initial swim without it?
Thursday - Short, High Intensity Bike with easy recovery run afterwards.
Friday - GVP OWS with Luis - no wetsuits allowed. Were going to do repeats out the buoy thats .2 miles from shore.
Saturday - 13 mile run (swim?)
Sunday - Long ride in New Jersey somewhere (I'm visiting my folks fri-sunday)
So thats this week's plan. I have three weeks to build my confidence in the swim and be sure I can do the Deary tri without it on. Which I know I can as its such a short swim. But in three weeks I want to know I can do it, and do it with way more confidence than I have about it now.
In other news....
today my legs feel like crap. I really beat them up on the run yesterday. I'm not sure why. I guess I just ran too fast in the heat maybe with not enough hydration? Not sure why that would make my legs feel so sore though. I'm hoping they loosen up today before the the TT tomorrow or thats gonna hurt! Or the warmup lap of the TT course may help loosen them up. We'll see.
I had a long conversation with Michelle the other day about my longterm career goals and how I sometimes think about leaving the business I'm in now. I've often thought that a career somehow related to my newfound love of fitness would make a lot of sense. Ideally I'd find a way to go back to school and potentially work towards becoming a personal trainer perhaps. Its something I need to put more thought into though. But anyway, Chel and I were talking about this the other day and she asked me if I would be willing to act as her trainer in exchange for her becoming my "race mom". To which I said of course. So were going to meet up today to go for a walk today to talk about it further and put together a plan for her. Chel has pretty much no fitness base so I'm more than qualified to help her put a plan together. If she were a more advanced athlete I'd be in over my head. I think really were just going to work on a mix of a run/walk program and some very very light weights and yoga routines. So that should be fun.
And in even more random news... I added the tagline "Read my Triathlon Training Blog at www.nickwisdom.blogspot.com" to the end of my email signature a few days ago. I completely forgot all about it. A regular client of mine (actualy David is a lot more than that... we have worked together for years and David put his trust in me and threw me in over my head on some giant shows in the past and he's really responsible for where my career is today. David is also a close friend and part of my "road family") Anyway, David and I had a phone conference this morning. We spent the first 15 minutes of it talking about how he had read my blog and that he had no idea how seriously I took my training and congratulated me on my efforts. It was a very genuine complement and it really made my day. If only every day could start that way.
Today I also agreed to get more involved in helping with my tri club. For now we've started by adding me as an admin on our facebook page to help corral photos and stay on top of it and I supsect I'll get involved more with the website in the offseason as well when I'll have more time to dig into it. So I'm looking forward to helping out there. Its nice that were all starting to get to know each other a little bit. I was looking at the photos on facebook that Cass had posted. Particularly this one...
It may be hard to tell... but I can clearly see I'm smiling. In fact I'm smiling after one of the worst mornings I've had in a very long time. And thats all due the fact that I'm surrounded by new friends and I was able to put the emotions of my own day behind me and celebrate in their amazing accomplishments of finshing the half ironman. Its nice to be in such good company of other people that get it. Feeding off their energy just inspires me to train harder every day.
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