Half-Ironman Training

My anxiety level flew off the charts yesterday and I wasn't sure why until realizing that the official fourteen week training plan for the Tupper Lake, NY Tinman Triathlon began. This week's schedule includes the Spring Forward 15k road race on Sunday April 1, so it is a bit light. Three days of biking 20-25 miles, three days swimming 1500-2000 meters and four days of running 4-6 miles.

Twenty miles of biking seemed short, when I have already completed indoor rides up to 56 miles, so yesterday I rode 36. Jan, of course, had to do more than me, so she rode 38. But I ran three miles after biking so I could get used to the Uglies feeling.

Uglies are how your legs feel coming off the bike. There is a noticeable tendency to want to walk, or better yet, lay down on the ground and forget running at all. I managed to complete three miles, including two decent hills (which Tupper provides in the first few miles), at the amazing pace of 9:45! Well, it felt like running to me. There won't be any twelve mile runs the day before Tinman, so hopefully my legs won't feel quite so bad?  I even thought about having a quick turnover and concentrated on being light on my feet, like Coach Troy teaches, but at 9:45 that must not have been happening anyplace but in my mind.

Five Hours +

How do you spend a sick day?

Well, if you aren't too sick, the new preferred method is to ride indoors while watching Coach Troy's Spinerval 100 mile tape. Only 3 dvd's are needed to get through this 5-5:25 hour workout.

Jan insisted for two days this is what I wanted and we would be riding in the basement on Monday. I said, "no, how about 3 hours"? Jan said, "no, you are doing the whole thing with me." "how about 4 hours"? Jan said, "stop whining and get on the bike."

Jan rode 102 miles, I made it less, much less, but then my trainer used to be in the Flintstone's stone age house. Also she is a much better biker. One set of intervals (after 3 1/2 hours of riding) is 12x3 minutes and the second minute of each repetition you stand and pedal in a hard gear. I could do about 15 seconds, Jan did them all.

She is a showoff.

Maniac

"She's a maniac, maniac for triathlons
And she's training like she never trained before
She's a maniac, maniac on the bike
And she's biking like she never biked before"

Jan and I spent the morning after Valentine's Day riding to Coach Troy's three hour excursion of the Lake Placid IM course. I was tired when we were done. But, there was running to do. Of course, why not? We only worked out three hours! Did I mentioned being exhausted?

So we trudged outdoors, Jan bopping along like a rabbit down toward the village, dragging the anchor that was me, along behind. I could not stay up with her and she was not going to slow down. Damn her. It was like running with Frank Q, except instead of one step ahead she was 10-20 yards.

We completed about 5 miles and the remainder of my day was spent lumbering around in my pj's, staying close to the tv and couch. Jan kept moving, but agreed not to workout any more.