Triathlon Training Week 3 - Blummin Heck

Well week 3 should actually be my week 4, however my traing for last week pretty much amounted to zero.  It was largely due to the weather and the fact that I had 2 children hanging off my anckles that I was able to get out.  The snow also killed my poor car which meant I wasn't able to get to the gym.  I am going to count snow ball fights as excercise as both Steve and Holly had my running around a fair bit trying to dogdge their throws as they chose to gang up on me.


So this week is my first week back in the gym after doing not a lot and to be honest it feels good...

Tuesday 29th Jan

I decided to throw myself right back into it and put up with whatever pain came my way.  Surprisingly enough it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would and I was secretly smug at thought that I am actually starting to get fit.  I was so smug in fact that I even upped the level on the bike to force me to put in a bit more effort.  So this session I did my 13.5k on the bike as a start.  Previously I'd done this on level 1 and my time was 28m 25s.  This time I went up to level 2 and completed a time of 29m 56s.  I can honestly say I was well chuffed as I aim to keep my time less than 30mins each session and even upping a level I was able to do it , big yey for me.

I then finished with a 20 min walk.  I tried to go straight into a run, as I would have to in the Triathlon, but my legs gave me a virtual middle finger so I had to opt for the walk.  It felt good and I was sweating like you wouldn't believe but I was happy that I was able to do so much after having a week off.  It is true what they say that once you get the blood pumping it becomes addictive and I've soon gotten back into the feeling of "need to go to the gym"  Not a bad start me thinks!!

Thursday 31st Jan

My aim today was to get to the Gym before work but my little monsters had other ideas and i didn't get out of the door in time so I went after instead.  I got in there about 5ish and it was rammed.  It was so busy that was only able to get on the bike so I thought I'd have another go at level 2 and see what time I could get if I worked my ass off.  So I did and with the help of Slash on the iPod I managed 26m 59s.  Needless to say i walked out of that Gym with a very big smile on my face.  it bloody hurt like hell but that was a great time for me.

What I have discovered is that the first 1.5k is really bloody tough.  My calves tighten as soon as I start peddling and they feel like lead for the first 1.5k.  After that they start to loosen up and I found it helps if I take a drink of water at around 5k.  I'm ok to keep going then but for some reason then I seem to hit another wall at about 7k and this last a bit longer to about 9.5k.  All I can do is peddle through as I've not found a way yet of stopping this wall from hitting me like a speed train.  

After this bout of "stuff this i'm stopping here" my legs seems to suddenly loosed up and then I can go like the clappers.  I get to 10k and I get this burst of energy and I find that my rpm's have gone from 80 to 101.  When it comes to actually doing the triathlon and I'm down on time in the bike section, I feel pretty confident that I can nail it in the last 3k.  What I am mindful of is that I don't want to push myself too hard as I have to dismount and then do a 3k run!  Still I'm still pretty smug about my time!!


Friday 1st Feb

Today I decided that I was going to do my usual 13.5k on the bike and then go straight into the 3k run that i would have to do in the competition.  I wasn't going to push the bike and just stayed on level 2 rather than upping it.  even at a fairy steady pace I did t in a time of 28m dead on.  I then went onto my run and this was not fun.  My legs took a while to register the difference between peddling and running and I think I looked like a drunken soak running to catch the last bus!  I did manage to do it although my run was not in a good time.  

However, I am sat writing this with a hot water bottle on my thigh as I am in complete agony.  It feels like i've pulled the muscle at the very top of my thigh and it's not pleasant.  Looking back I probably took the run a bit fast and maybe I should have cooled down a bit longer.  I did do a 20m cool down but it could be that's not long enough.

I'm still planning to be back at the gym on Monday after a weekend of resting it, as I think I need tokeep it going.  I finally feel like i'm starting to make progress in my training and that I might not look like a total fool after all!