Tri Training Log: 3/23 to 3/29 (Week 2)

Kind of a frustrating week, even though I managed to get what I needed accomplished.  This month has been about trying to get back into the groove of training, and in that respect, I suppose I can't complain.  But I can't say it's been easy, either.

Swim

Got in the water twice this week.  Tuesday was my regular thing, if a bit rushed.  My daughter Hannah has voice lessons Tuesday nights, and my wife Sally teaches a barre class afterwards, and this--along with the routines of life like dinner and homework--tend to make Tuesdays hectic.  I was lucky in that I managed to get to the pool early and get a jump on the night's work, but I only put in 2000 yards.  I knew I needed to get home, so I could feed our kids and get them to bed on some kind of timeline.  I did that, but it wasn't like Tuesday's swim was some glorious exercise.

Saturday was similar.  Sally took the girls to see Cinderella, and I went to the pool.  But by the time I got there, I only had about a half-hour left before they closed.  I wound up getting all of 1700 yards in before being thrown out.  What can you do?  I suppose that this is what happens when you decide to take a Saturday morning off and have pancakes with your kids.

Triathlon training is the enemy of Family Time, unfortunately.

Swimming Total: 2 x swims (2050, 1700); 37.5 pts

Bike

I rode my regular commute three times this week, but I got caught out in a nasty rain storm Wednesday afternoon, and that sucked hard.  Forty-degrees and rainy is no weather for riding, especially given all the mud and salt on the streets of New York.  I was soaked to the bone and half-frozen by the time I got home.

Cycling Total: 3 x commute rides (30.6 miles); 30.6 pts

Run

I ran twice during the week, both times for just under a half-hour.  Neither run was a record-breaker, but I felt like I got what I needed done.  By the time Sunday rolled around, though, I needed to make up a few points because my swim Saturday had been cut short.  This wasn't a problem, exactly, I'd been wanting to run a little further, but my left knee has been sore, and I wasn't sure how well it was going to hold up.  

As it happens, it didn't hold up particularly well.  I'd planned to run a little more than five miles, and for the first half of that, everything was great.  However, once I turned the corner and started for home, my knee started really letting me know that it was there.  I had the wind in my face for the second half of the run, and I think that's what triggered it--it tends to get sore running uphill--but whatever the cause, it hurt.  Eventually I stopped and stretched and then slowed down, and that was better, but it was still frustrating--like pretty  much everything else this week.  Mile four in particular was tough, but I felt better after that and finished reasonably well.  

Honestly, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  As long as I held my pace at around 9:30/mile, I was fine.  It was only when I found myself picking it up that my knee ached, and since this was supposed to be a long, slow run anyway, that wasn't a disaster.  It does make me think, though, that I'm going to have to take some time off, and that stinks.  It seems like everytime I start running comfortably, something goes wrong, and I wind up having to start over.

Run Total: 3 x runs (2.6, 2.6, 5.4); 42.4 pts

Tri Training Total: 110.5 pts

I was averaging about 75 points through the offseason, owing mostly to the difficulties of training in middle of a bunch of continuous snowstorms.  I'm no fan of treadmills, and I don't own a bike trainer, so it's been all but impossible to get any riding done.  That said, I'm not really training for anything, so it's not like I'm on a schedule.  As my kids have gotten older, it's been a little easier to get away to swim or run (it's never easy to get out for a decent bike ride), but our weekends are increasingly scheduled, to the point where I have no clue where we'd fit in more commitments.  With that in mind, I'm not sure I'm racing this year--at all.  

That's okay.  I've done plenty of racing and don't particularly miss it.  As I've said before, however many medals I'm supposed to have, I have at least that many sitting around somewhere.  However, I'm still trying to increase my training regime and get into better shape, and this is Week 2 of that process.  I'm on the schedule I set out, but if the knee keeps bothering me, that'll throw things off.