Monday, May 17, 2010

Training with an experienced Triathlete


Today I trained with my friend Trudy, who is an experienced Triathlete. She is doing the race on June 20th also, but the one that is twice the length of mine (Olympic distance). We have committed to training HARD for the next 4 weeks and taking it light in the week prior to the race. Now, I knew that this chic was experienced and expected the workout to be hard, but dang.... training with her kicked my butt today!

We met up at the Wilson pool because they have 50 meters lanes. The benefit of training there is that you have to swim for a longer time before stopping to turn around. I was a little nervous as the lanes looked so.... long and the depth is like 13 feet or something. I worked on some drills and focused on some things that I received feedback on. I swam 800 meters (with many breaks) in total. We left the pool and headed to her gym, Results, for a ride on the stationary bike. Trudy shared with me how she trains on the stationary bike and how it corresponds to riding her road bike. I set my bike up similar to what she did and baaaby, it was HARD! In total, I rode 1 hour = 15 miles on the stationary bike, with the resistance set at 8 and I maintained a speed of 15 miles per hour. Trudy increases the resistance to 11 and rides 20 miles per hour = hard core! I have never sweat so much in the gym before! After we were done, she insisted that we get on the treadmill for at least a mile. I lasted 1/2 mile at a 2.5% incline.

Whew... I was so tired and hungry! I ate a turkey burger and salad faster than I have ever eaten in life after we were done! So, now I know how an experienced  Triathlete trains. I now know that I need to push myself harder for the next 4 weeks. I'm committed. The train of thought is, if you train hard, then the race won't be so foreign to your body on race day. Embrace the pain is my new mantra!

5 comments:

  1. Whew! I'm tired just reading that! You are going to be skin-ty when this is all said and done! Cheering you on!

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  2. That's right Rebecca, its hard. It it were easy, everybody would do it. You, however are more than capable. I can't wait to see you at the finish line!

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  3. I have been considering the Sprint coming up in June. I say considering because I am not a swimmer either. Your story is compelling. Because of you, I have moved from considering to "I'm going to do it". Thankks for blogging your story. It is inspirational.

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  4. I started like you as a non-swimmer. Instructor says I need to swim 3 times a week. Is that what you did? Did you practice in a non-triathlon wetsuit?

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  5. Prof: I am glad that I could be an inspiration!! I was in the pool 3-5 days a week while learning to swim and eventually got down to 2-3 days. The only time I donned a wetsuit is when I went for open water swims in the lake or the Bay.

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