Tri training

Since Momma Bear asked for further information about my tri training, I thought I would go ahead and write a post on it. Momma Bear is one of my good blogger friends and she writes comments on my posts, which makes her a good friend indeed. Click on over and see her (and look at her AMAZING header photo. I hope she never, ever changes it even when the pictured foot is a size 13)

TRI TRAINING 2009

This year I am following the same 20 week training program that I used last year. It is designed for "back of the packers" for an olympic distance tri. I would like to try a more intense program at some point, but honestly, at this stage in my life this is all that I can do. The program consists of 6 workouts a week spread over 5-6 days. There is a long swim, bike and run and a short swim, bike and run. The times go up by 10% every week with every 4th week being a 40% reduction for a "rest" week. I think the 1st week total time is a little over 4 hour time commitment and by the end it is 8 + hours a week.

I wish that I had done this before I had kids. Or when I just had 1 or 2. I don't find it that "hard" persay to do the workouts, what is hard is finding the time. Balancing Noah and my exercise times, each of us with a job, kids, volunteer work, home projects, family stuff, friends stuff...it is hard to fit it in. But it is possible.

I choose to work and I choose to exercise. Both of those things are arguably selfish, so I refuse to let anything else slide in my pursuit of them. If I did either too much so that I was actually unable to volunteer at church or homeschool my kids, I would have to let something go.

But I digress:

THE SWIM:
I actually am finding that I like to swim. I have gotten to the point that I swim all front crawl and don't really take breaks. I swim at the Y while the kids are in the Kids Stuff there. Swimming is my favorite discipline because it is the one where I have seen the most improvement. It also has really helped my cardiovascular help and has improved my run because of it. The chlorine destroys my hair, however.

THE BIKE:
The bike is the most discouraging, but in other ways it is the easiest. It doesn't take a lot of work to ride a bike, but it takes a lot of work to go fast. And in the races everyone goes really fast and has super expensive really fast bikes. I have a decent bike but realistically it is never going to go as fast as most of the other racers bikes. Also, the bike workouts are the ones I miss the most. We have trainers in our basement, but it is really more beneficial to be out in the elements. Which means I can't do it while the kids are at the YMCA. The bikes are also so LONG that it is hard to find time for them, especially if we don't have a babysitter and so we can't do them at the same time.

THE RUN:
I do most of my runs at the YMCA around the track, but I try to add some outdoor runs in as well. My run times are gradually improving, but I really don't like to run. The problem is, the faster I get the further I have to go. Not that much motivation to go faster. Not much to say about running. It stinks, but it is cheap, you can do it anywhere it probably gets you fit the fastest. So I bite the bullet and do it. I usually listen to Mark Driscoll sermons while I run.

So that is about it. I find I need to competition and the program to push myself to exercise. Otherwise I just go to the Y, run 3 miles and go home. And unfortunately, that is not enough.