Friday, January 20, 2012

Here We Go!

It's official - I have signed up for two try-a-tris for 2012!

400m swim, 10K bike, 2.5m run.

Seems like a reasonable way to try this sport out, but I should *probably* work on my swimming technique, and actually learn to run, right?

I should mention that one of my tris will be on totally flat ground (it's on the Toronto Island!), but the other will be in hilly country. Which fortunately is in my hometown, and I spent a lot of years riding those hills and open water swimming in the same lake. My parents still live there, so we may be able to make a weekend out of it, and perhaps check the course out in advance.  

My master plan? If I get bitten hard by the tri bug, I fully expect to try longer distances in 2013.

Don't even ask about my dreams for 2014. Let's get through this season first!

So -

Swim - I've started hitting the lane swim time at my local pool. Lessons are at a really inconvenient time, so for now I'm working on this on my own. For now.

Bike - When the nicer weather (i.e. dry pavement) hits, I'll be back on my bike a few times a week. There is a nicely evil hilly ride between my house and my gym that I used to help in training for last year's 25K Becel ride, looking forward to hitting it again.

I've started the Couch to 5K program to learn to run. You'd think I would have done this before now but nope. Remember, I started off as a power walker and am just getting into running now-ish.

All of this is to help me build up to the 10-week tri training plan that I found on the tri sports website, which I'll start at the end of the 9-week C25K.

Of course, I'll continue to go to Curves 3x a week faithfully for workouts, boot camp and Zumba. You'd better believe that my trainer is making it her personal mission to kick things up a notch so that I cross the finish lines strong and smiling.

I also have a few other races on the calendar that I'm cross-training for - a couple of 5Ks this spring, the 50K Becel ride and the Spartan Race in June, then the tris in July & August.

Annnnnnndddd...I'm slowly working on weight loss. I do have those last 33lbs to shift. Amazing how all of this training doesn't make much of a dent, but a week of eating salad for lunch shows itself on the scale pretty quickly.

So - that's my schemes and plans for the next few months. What are you working on?

Here's this week's recap -

Saturday - Brrrrr. 1K dog walk, Curves + 25 pushups + 60 crunches + 35s plank.

Sunday - lazy, lazy sloth day.

Had to take this on the sly. Can't wait to get back in the pool - it's been toooooo long!

Monday - Curves + boot camp #5 (7 mins on stairstepper + 290 assorted crunches + 1 min plank + 25 pushups. Followed by  250m swim. I'm trying not to cut too much into my family time, so find that doing this right after the gym is preferable to trying to add in a 4th workout day.

Tuesday - Rest day. Went for a short walk at lunch.

Wednesday - Curves + boot camp #6 (7 mins stairstepper + 400 assorted crunches + 180 assorted arm curls with 10lb weights). Followed by Couch to 5K week 1, day 1 (walk 5 min, then alternate 60 secs running / 90 sec walking for 20 minutes).

Thursday - Zumba + 10 mins stairstepper + 30 pushups + 2x40s plank

Friday - Couch to 5K week 1, day 2. Did I mention that Stella is doing this with me? She generally knows to run when I say "let's run", and save the stopping and sniffing for our walk breaks. For example -

What's that smell?
This has been a really great week. Fingers crossed that next week is just as positive.

And special thanks to Deb and Julie for the inspiration and encouragement!

2 comments:

  1. Yay! I can't wait to hear about your tris.

    For the record, I can't budge my weight with just training either. I was training as much as 15 hours a week over the summer and weighed exactly the same. It's the food that does it.

    The C25K is a great program. It's what I used to start running. You already run some, so you'll do great with it!

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  2. I too am way excited to watch you go for it!

    I also used the C25K it is awesome and you will do well

    Oh and there is a good chance you have already been tagged for the random 11 but add me to the list. :P

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