John's Triathlon Journey Follow my journey to becoming a triathlete!

Ready for race week?  Thats what I’ve been asking myself lately.  For the past two weeks I’ve  been building up and am now in taper mode as I prepare for this weekend.  Here are a couple of highlights of the past 2 weeks of training.

Race minus 3 weeks – started to build on the bike and run. I was not swimming at all, mainly due to time constraints and my need to get my bike time in.  However, they always say “work your weakness” and I realized that I was not adhering to that valuable advice.  I hit almost 90 miles for the week in a series of bike sessions as well as bike & run bricks.  Still, the swim part is what has been nagging me for the past six months and I needed to do something about it (even though I swam in the pool all winter).  That wednesday night I went for a good long swim (cold!) but failed to time it and was still feeling that nervous energy during the balance of the week.  By the end of the week I had started running at lunch, just a quick 3 mile run, but it sure beats sitting on my butt in the office.  Plus it allows me to come home and relax after work (although Karen had me running with her in the evenings!).  That last bit may have contributed to my downfall starting in the next training week….

Race minus 2 weeks – Started out training on Monday with a good run at lunch.  While running, somehow my foot caught the edge of the path and to avoid twisting the ankle I just went with it and ran off the side for a couple of steps.  I remember telling myself “that could have been a bad injury”, however I felt fine.  Run times were still hovering just over a 9 minute mile, which is disappointing since I averaged a flat 9 min mile for the 10k run two weeks earlier.  It wasn’t until tuesday that I noticed that I had a little knee pain.  To describe it accurately, the pain is on the inside of the knee just to the left of the knee cap.  I need to look it up, but I think there might be a tendon there.  Its not a sharp pain and actually it feels like a bruise rather than a torn muscle/ligament etc.  Still, I felt like I should not run for a few days just to make sure I can still race.

Moving into Wednesday I had my sights set on doing the complete swim and seeing where my pace and time was at.  In the PIT there is a cut off at 60 minutes and then its over for you!  Last year I swam, floated, back stroked, porposed etc etc just to finish the 500 meter swim in 17 minutes.  Not a stellar performance but, given the fact that when I started I could not even swim 25 meters without the need for oxygen, I felt accomplished.  So, I arrived at Drake field (where the Tri club meets) and promptly put on my wetsuit and went down to the water.  I told several club members to tell my wife I’m not coming back until I swam all the way over to the “boat ramp” and back.  That total swim is just over 1 mile, which is roughly 3x further than I have ever swam in my life.  Keep in mind, there are no currents to assist and nothing but trees to sight from.  Coming back I really started to feel my stroke and understand all of what I read about the “glide” which results in going faster with less effort.  When I reached the finish I popped up out of the water and searched out a watch…. 42 minutes for 1.05 miles!  Now, thats not screaming fast but I’ll tell you that it was much faster than I thought.  No time to waste now, I ran to the van and changed just in time to start the bike phase of the evening.  I was determined to do the full bike course as well.  25.5 miles later I pulled into the parking lot in good shape and with a little left in the tank for a run.  However, I saved the knee and passed on the run for the evening.

I took a few days off after that training night, but felt like I should have done something on Sunday.  The wife was out of town so I was stuck with the kids for most of the day.  If I were truely motivated I would have gone when she came home in the afternoon.  However, since i had about 3 hours of sleep from the night before (and the night before that), the fact that I had not seen my wife in 3.5 days and the fact that it was mothers day I decided to pass on riding Sunday night.

Race week minus 1 – Started the work week with a run during lunch.  The knee was a little sore during the first couple hundred feet but felt fine for most of the run.  I was surprised how fresh I felt during the run, those extra days off really make a difference.  I pushed the run, averaging around an 8:20 mile for the 3 mile course.  To top it off, my heart rate recovered much quicker than normal.  After getting back to the office, and much to my fear, my knee started to feel sore again.  So, this week is going to be light in terms of distance running.  I’m confident that I’ll be ok on Saturday but I want to make sure that I don’t over stress the joint just before the race.  My plan now is to do the swim on Wednesday night (1.05 mile course) and then stick with the 13 mile sprint course for the bike.  Provided that my knee feels good I’m going to do a short 2 mile transition run just to get the legs used to the transition.  Then I’ll take Thursday and Friday off (yoga on Thursday) and then I should be fresh for the tri on Saturday.

So now, the race planning stress begins.  What do I eat race morning… did I pack all of my gear, what time do I need to be there?  I need to stop, think about the experience and have fun.  My wife is running her first ever event that day and I look forward to seeing her at the finish line.  In the short term I don’t have any other events planned for June or July but am looking for a couple of sprint races (and possibly one or two olympic distance races).  Karen and I are planning on doing 2 century rides (100 mile bike rides) and I will probably do 1 extra as she is pretty adamant about not doing the Roswell ride due to the extreme hills ( I bet I can get her to ride it!).  See you on the other side!