T minus 128 days
I am sad to say that the Yasso 800′s didn’t happen yesterday. I could blame the weather, I could blame work, I could blame my crappy shoes that I need to replace, but in the end it was me. I could have run but I didn’t.
I’ve always had issues running. I can run, and I am getting better — but it seems that I get injured running far more often than any other sport. First it was my IT band. Then it was my ankles. Then it was my feet after the Portland Marathon. I’m constantly pushing the edge of injury and I have made a rule for myself that has helped — NEVER run 2 days in a row. Sometimes I really want to — but I know that my odds of getting injured are dramatically increased if I don’t take a day to heal.
So yesterday I lifted and that was it.
Today I made up for it. I woke this morning at 6:00 am to swim. That’s right — this season I’m actually practicing swimming! The past two seasons I’ve relied solely on my natural ability to swim well and I’ve spent 95% of my time focusing on running and biking. The difference this year is purely distance. Turns out that I, with little training, can swim a 1.2 miles without even thinking — and I can do it in a decent time. Unfortunately, natural talent will not get me a solid time in an Ironman — 2.4 miles.
I have two types of swim workouts — distance focus and technique focus. Ideally I would combine the two — but as I’m still in my “baseline” training, I’m working on trying to nail the fundamentals — something that even the pros constantly focus on. My distance workouts are currently at 34 laps — increasing by 2 laps per session. My focused technique workouts are just as intense, but only about half the distance.
It seem the key to triathlon swimming is a technique called Total Immersion. This is the technique I’m attempting to master.
This afternoon I also took a break from work and did an 80% effort 5K around the HP campus — trying to keep my heart rate below 160.
Total workouts:
Swim:
10 laps @ 10:31
10 laps @ 11:02
Run:
3.38 miles @ 27.34
Weight: 177.8 lbs
Body fat: 22.7%
