Triathlon Training

Trent and I have officially registered for the triathlon in August in honor of Trent's cousin.  I'll do the race on my own (500m swim, 10 mile bike, 5K run), and Trent's doing the relay with Andy swimming and our aunt's partner John doing the bike portion.  John is 68 and has never done a cycling race or triathlon of any kind, but he's game to take on the hills of Missouri, which KICKS ASS, in my opinion.  Trent's just happy because he knows his teammates.  Stranger danger.

And I'm happy because I have something to train for again.  Weehaw!

And with that in mind, I'm going to share my training plan.  I've dropped weight lifting completely from my routine, but I'm still doing strength exercises.  I'm also increasing the amount of biking/running I'm doing since they're the most heavily weighted (in terms of time/exertion) in triathlon.

Sundays:  45-50 min. bike followed immediately by 15-30 minute run outdoors

• I'm increasing the run time by about 2.5 minutes each week until the race; it will take me about 30 minutes to do the 5K at the end of the race

Mondays:  45-50 min. CrossFit/Bootcamp

• This is essentially a .25 mile run followed by an upper body, core, or lower body strength set, repeated 9 times (3 of each strength set). 
• The idea is to do the strength sets when you're winded from running and to do the runs even when your muscles are tired from the strength set, particularly the leg exercises.  It's more about mental toughness, which I need to work on to keep going on the run during the race.
• I am happy to say that I'm now able to do 2-3 pull-ups unassisted, followed immediately by 15 push-ups without too much difficulty. 

Tuesdays:  2500-3000m swim workout with masters team

Wednesdays:  Rest

Thursdays:  45-50 min. CrossFit/Bootcamp

Fridays: 2000m swim (focusing on free and breast, both of which I use during lake swims), followed immediately by 20-45 minutes on stationary bike, then 15-30 min. run.

• Like my bike-runs on Sundays, I'm increasing the bike/run times on Fridays (adding .5 mile on bike, and .25 mile run each week).

Saturdays:  2800-3200m swim with masters team

I probably don't need to do this much swimming, but I like it so much.  I'm trying to convince some of my peeps here to enter a local triathlon in July.  The starting line is within biking distance of my house, so I'm tempted to register even if my buddies don't.  We shall see ...

That's all for now.  Looking forward to my rest day tomorrow.  Happy first week of June!!