Ok.  It was a little foolish taking so much time off last week due to the weather.  I swam 44 laps in preparation for the swim leg today. I tried to not stop and put my feet down once.  This did not work.  I also tried to pick my head up and look forward from time to time to get used to maintaining my position in the river.  That was tough as well.  All in all, it was a sluggish swimming session.

I then changed and ran on the treadmill.  I started out strong, but began to tire after about 3/4 of a mile.  Missing so many days really put a dent in my endurance.  Wish I had 2 more weeks. Oh well.  He’s to hoping I finish in under 2 hours at least.

Swim: 44 laps, 28 min

Run: 2.25 miles 20 min

Been too busy these past 3 days…

Since Saturday my schedule has been devoid of training discipline:

Sunday: took the day off to cathc up on some work.

Monday: wen to the gym and swam 64 laps - longest distance yet.  6 sets of 10 laps each with 30-120 seconds rest in between each.

Tuesday: had to take off to get some work done

Tonight (Wednesday): Did not get home until 830pm.  It was raining and a bit cold, but I forced myself to run.  I set my gol to do 3 miles as fast as I could. I was pretty tired since I’ve been getting 4-5 hours of sleep per night this week due to some other responsibilities.  I made it 1.3 miles and turned around.  I barely made it home without stopping.

Run: 2.6 miles in 20.25 min.  (not too good, but had very little energy)

Gonna go to bed early to try to prepare for a better end to this week of training.

T-minus 2 weeks.  Yesterday was a great training day!

As I drove to the gym, I thought about my workout and set my goals for the day as I often do.  I decided that today was going to be my first Sprint Triathlon simulation. I had planned to be ready for this the week of the Triathlon (June 21), but I felt really good today, having had a great night’s sleep.  So I decided to make a go for it.

I didn’t want to focus on time and how long each leg took.  My main goal was to complete all required distances without stopping.  Unfortunately, I got to the gym at 1:15 and I had to be out of there by 3:30pm in order to get home, dressed, and to work on time.  So time was a little bit of a concern.

Nonetheless, I started at 1:18pm and finished at 3:01pm.  Not only was I successful, but I think I made pretty good time for my first try.

1:15pm: Arrive at LA Fitness gym

1:16pm: in the pool stretching and getting myself mentally prepared.

1:18pm: Start swimming. My main focus here was two-fold: maintain a slow, consistent pace and set “mini-goals” within my total distance in order to stay mentally alert and positive.  The first 20 or so laps were tough, but then I started to fall into a nice groove and probably could have swam for another 50 laps by the end. I lost count at some point, so I may have did an additional 2 or 4 laps…not sure.

1:43pm: 44 laps complete.  I then literally ran out of the pool and quickly toweled off, nearly giving some guy next to me a heart attack.  As everyone stared at me as if I had lost my mind, I ran into the locker room to change.

1:46pm: Changed, I ran out of the locker room and upstairs to the bikes.  I jumped on and started pedaling.  This was a challenge.  I made it to 10 miles in 30 minutes, but I had struggled the whole way.

2:15pm (aka 3:15pm): After 10 miles or so, I started to again find my groove and this started to become easier.  At this point during the bike leg, as I pondered how differently riding a real bike would be, I lost track of time and mistakenly thought it was 3:15, even though it was really 2:15.  I was pushing to finish the bike leg in 40 minutes, but was also watching the the clock to 1) keep track of my total time since I forgot my watch and 2) To make sure I wasn’t late for work.  So time suddenly became a factor as I pushed to 15 miles.  I guess I should have given it more thought, but at the time I was so focused, that I was only looking at the clock’s minute hand.

2:31pm: 15 miles complete. I cooled down for about 15 seconds.  I thought about taking my shoes off and putting them back on, but now I was potentially going to be late for work, so I opted to just start running.  I jumped off the bike and my legs nearly buckled.  I was definitely fatigued.  I really pushed to complete the bike in 40 minutes, but ended up finishing in 45 minutes flat.  This was still an improvement from my last time of 48 minutes.

2:32pm: Start running on the treadmill.  Started out at a pace of 5.  Then increased by 0.2 each quarter mile until miles 2.  I started to get really exhausted at a half mile into my run, so by 2 miles I was so tired!  I had to finish though.  And if I was going to see it through and reach my goal, I wanted to push myself as much as I could.  At mile 2, I bumped the pace to 6.8 and ran for a quarter mile.  At 2.25 miles, I decided to run for the finish line and pushed my pace all the way up to 8 (besides, it was now almost 4pm, so I thought).  I really tried to stay as focused and relaxed as possible, making sure not to fall.  I made it to 3 miles without pulling my pace back.

3:01pm: FINISHED!

Swim: 44 laps in 25 minutes

Bike: 15 miles in 45 minutes

Run: 3 miles in 28.75 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 44 minutes

Transitions: 5.25 minutes (not sure how realistic that is)

* mental note: It wasn’t until I got into my car that I realized that it was only 3PM, so I made it to work in plenty of time.  Losing track of time probably helped to push me a bit.

Looking at these times and thinking about how different the conditions will be in the real race (waves, wind, navigating around other people, transitions, etc.), I definitely going to have to improve on these times.  More to come on this.

Bike: 15 miles at 45 minutes - improvement of 4 minutes from last 15 mile workout

Swim: 25 laps at 18 minutes, non-stop

Today was a great day!

Preface: I had to play last night at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Downtown Philadelphia last night and did not get home until about 1:30am.  I then had to get up early to teach this morning at Temple University, so I didn’t think my training would be very productive today.  Well, I took a nice long nap this afternoon (very rare) and hit the pool first.

I started out with a warm-up.  My goal was to repeat my routine from last swim training session and bang out 12 sets of 4 laps, taking necessary breaks between each set. I got to the gym at 7:10, so I had 50 minutes to achieve my goal before the gym closed.  I was lucky enough to get an open lane immediately upon getting to the pool, so I jumped in and stretched a bit and started my warm-up.

Now, initially my warm-up was intended to be 4 laps, but after reaching lap 4, I felt pretty good and decided to make it 10 laps.  At around lap #8, I started thinking about my last milestone of 9 laps straight and decided to try to beat it by 3 laps for a total of 12 laps without stopping.  I thought that that would be a nice improvement.

So I swam 12 laps.  It was on this last lap that I started to become very focused mentally and started daydreaming about making 20 laps non-stop.  I felt good and I was starting to find a rhythm, so I just kept swimming.  I figured that I had made it this far so why not try to push myself to make 20 laps without any rests.  That would be half the distance of what I need to accomplish for the race.

I remained relaxed and focused on my form.

Now somewhere between laps 12 and 20 I starting think about how I barely make 9 laps non-stop (last week) and swimming 20 laps non-stop comfortably was such a huge improvement.  I starting to find this rhythm in my swim that I had not experienced as of yet.  I was relaxed in my breathing and not only was I really focused on maintaining my stroke and technique, but I had fallen into a really deep state of thought. Today I felt really strong for some reason.

So I swam 20 laps, but around lap #16, I started to daydream about making 24 laps.  And so that’s how it went.  I really focused on making small strides in my swim.  I knew if I had started out with the intention of doing 40 laps without stopping, I would never make it, essentially psyching myself out before ever giving myself a chance.  My accomplishments were 90% mental today.

For every mini-goal I set for myself on the fly as I was swimming my “warm-up”, I pushed myself further. At lap #24, I felt strong and focused, so I pushed my goal to 30 laps non-stop.  At lap #28, I pushed my goal to 32 laps.  Then 36 laps.  At this point I almost faultered as I was finally starting to get tired, feeling the effects in my technique which started to get sloppy.  I began to tell myself “2 more laps and I’m done”, but I regained my composure, maintained mental focus on my technique and set my new goal to 40 laps. At lap #40, I had a little bit left in me but had reached my distance goal I had anticipated reaching 3 weeks from now.

And so I stopped swimming at 40 laps.  40 LAPS!  NONSTOP!  SUCCESS!  Success 3 weeks ahead of schedule.  This completely changes everything.  I was a little worried about being able to make the swim distance.  That is such an amazing improvement - about 350% since May 28th.  I am so surprised.

My new goal: 70 laps, non-stop by June 25.  That will be 1 mile of swimming.  Wish me luck!

I then drove home (30 minutes) and ran 5 miles, beating my most recent distance of 4 miles from 4 days ago and my last time of 4 miles in 41 minutes.  My new running goal is 3 miles in 20 minutes.

Swim: 40 laps, non-stop in 26.75 min.

Run: 5 miles in 48.5 min.

I started my workout today with the intention of hitting 40 laps swimming tonight.  I tried waking up early again, but I had to play (music) last night and didn’t get home until 12:30am, so waking up to swim, run, and/or bike at 6am and then work 8 and 1/2 hours was out of the question.  I was a little worried that I wouldn’t hit my goal since working out after work hasn’t been as productive as I’d hoped.

So I did what I could to pace myself.  I started out with 4x25m (or yards?) sets and eventually found my rhythm at 3x25 sets, with 1-2 minutes rest between each set.  I set my goal at 40 laps and actually surpassed to 46 laps!  Nice!

Swim: 46 x 25m/y at 48.5 minutes = a little over 1 min/lap.

Not great, but I’m not putting too much emphasis on time at this point - just distance and endurance.

I then banged out 10 miles on the bike at a pace that was a little slower than I’d hoped.

Bike: 10 miles at 35 minutes.

The issue here is pool length at LA fitness.  I’ve asked numerous employees at the gym about the official length of the pool and I get 25 meters half of the time and 25 yards the other half of the time… This makes it difficult to prepare for the correct distance:

Philadelphia Sprint Triathlon has a swim distance of 0.9K, which is a little longer than most swims for a sprint triathlon.

0.9 K = 900 meters = 984.25 yards

900 meters / 25 meters (possible length of pool) = 36 laps

985 yards / 25 yards (other possible length of pool) = ~40 laps

So regardless of what length the pool is, I’m shooting for 50 laps, non-stop by June 22.  That should be enough preparation to get through the swim portion of the race easily without using all of my energy.  Another thought is to shoot a little higher (60-70 laps), as half of the swim leg of the race needs to be swum up-stream.  We’ll see how rapidy I progress at this swimming thing.

Good day at the gym:

30 minutes on the bike (11.5 miles)

10 min. solid spinning warm-up, 5 min. stretch, 20 minute ride

16 laps in the pool (400 yards)

4 laps warm-up, 3 minutes gasping for air, 6 sets of 2 laps and 2 minutes of breathing really heavy…)