Triathlon Training First Quarter Recap

So, three months and change in the books and this is what it looks like. I'm going to use this to give insight into my Oly Tri plan I'm following.

		Swim		Bike		Run
	Month	Meters Swam	Time Swam	Miles Ridden	Time Ridden	Miles Run	Time Run	Total Effort
	January	2,375	1:05:22	29.7	1:33:21	7.69	1:04:42	3:43:25
	February	18,250	7:49:31	178.7	9:54:21	35.71	5:12:01	22:55:53
	March	24,200	10:22:24	214.6	11:56:25	50.87	7:36:43	29:55:32
	April	22,609	9:02:21	166.2	9:53:08	51.67	7:37:58	26:33:27
	Grand Total	68,934	4:55:33	615.1	35:02:43	150.00	22:08:51	62:07:07

Keep in mind I ran the Houston Marathon on 1/17/10 and don't include the mileage from that race in these stats. This mileage and my goals are coming off a Marathon Training which you can read about elsewhere on my blog.

I'm obviously pleased with March. Some nice build base there.

My original 13 week training plan had me building to 4/25 and Lonestar Oly, but after a consultation with the Lead Sherpa K, we reconfigured the plan. "A" race became CapTexTri on 5/31 and I entered Gateway to the Bay Sprint on 4/10 as a warm up (as well as a 1M open swim) to get a feel for the challenge. This meant all my training essentially got reset to a level from 5 weeks previous.

I feel a little like I may have stepped back too much. But I shouldn't complain. It's been complicated to complete the mileage and workouts regardless, so it's probably a wash at this point. I am a little concerned though that May is IT. Frankly, I should be concerned I haven't really improved my form much. Well, having said that, I can point to some real improvements that in my head I'm taking for granted as I expected to improve my splits.

Swim: Beginning 100m pace 2:48 at it's worse, but typically around 2:30. I had no stamina and reverted to breast stroke repeatedly. I'm now swimming at about 2:10-2:15 although I realize the Open Water dimension issues need to be addressed if I'm to improve my 2:30 averages I had in my two OW Swims.

Bike: Beginning at 18.2 mph when eliminating dealing with traffic. Recently, I had a great workout where I pipped 20.4 mph average over 36 miles. The bike has been pretty encouraging.

Run: I thought I could easily keep under 9 minute mile pace and I started with a blistering (for me) 5.5 miler at 8:31 pace. Well, I haven't maintained that and while I have for the most part kept it under 9 minutes (lots of 8:53's in here for 5 to 8 milers) I really haven't seen marked improvement from what you may recall I did my barely under 4 hours marathon averaging 9:10.

My target paces for the race are: swim 2:15min/100m which may be aggressive. Bike, 19mph which seems achievable and 8:45 minute miles for the run which frankly I don't know where this stands.

All in all I'm doing well. I enjoy the bricks and don't see too much of a problem. I'm starting to get back into the distances where I need to practice my race day nutrition too. Nutrition plan is essentially two water bottles on the bike and 2 gels (GU, it's what I'm used to from Marathon training). One gel after about a mile on the bike and one about 3 miles from end of bike segment. Aid stations for the run. I usually don't stop, but may have to rethink that since I lost a lot of fluid on Marathon basically because I couldn't figure out how to run and drink at the same time. Am actually considering running with a camel back or fluid belt.

My learning from my race experiences other than it expends lots of energy to breast stroke in Open Water are that nutrition and pacing will be key. I do have a time goal for this race, but I'll be glad to finish it.

Time is getting short. I've been slipping from my planned workouts more than anything because of illness (bout of something I guess I'd call flu although the Dr doesn't think it was that) and because it's impossible to get good mileage on a bike mid-week if you can't do it after work. Kids get all the daylight hours post work, so I'm squeezing everything else in the mornings and at lunch.

By the way the schedule is essentially 3 swim workouts, 2 runs and 2 rides a week with two-a-days on Tues/Thurs. Personal training 45min overall body strength training as well on Tues/Thurs (yeah, crazy, but you know it's worked). Rest days are Sunday and Wednesday.

We're at T-minus 26 days and counting. Seems like it's a lot, but it's really NOT.

Anybody see any glaring train wrecks about to happen?