Less tight

Next week technically starts the 12-week training to the sprint-distance tri, but I time-shifted some of the workouts into this week because I have work travel late next week and over the weekend. So, last night was another 3-mile run, followed by swimming and weights today (swim is done, weights at lunch), a bike ride tomorrow, swim/weights Thursday, another run Friday, rest Saturday and a bike/run brick on Sunday. Eventually, the typical week will be rest days on Sundays.

The run last night wasn't quick, but I did a little over 3 miles with a couple steep hills. I used a new running app from Jeff Galloway that helps me track my distance and keep on pace. Right now I'm working on the 2 minutes run/1 minute walk pace, which is about a 12-minute mile. I hope to be up to 5/1 pace by race day.

I did an extra swim day last week Friday in preparation for two straight days of 9-plus hours in the car. It went well. I did a 450-yard (race distance) warmup of free and breast in about 12 minutes, then 500 yards of kickboard with fins, then a 450-yard cool down of just breast also in about 12 minutes.

Today's swim also was pretty good. Warmup was 300-yard free and breast, then we did 2 laps of scuttling, which was any partial arm stroke, no kicking, up and full swim back. We followed that with a ladder that was supposed to be 8 lengths, 4 lengths, 2 lengths, 4, 8, with a minute in between each ladder. I thought she said laps, so I started with 8 laps and then 4 laps before we realized I was overdoing it. So instead of doing 200 yards, 100, 50, 100, 200, I did 400 yards, 200 yards, 50 yds, 100 yds, 200 yds. And I did OK. All told, today was 1,350 yards in about 40 minutes, just a few hundred yards short of a mile.

I think in a year's time I'll definitely feel comfortable doing a 1.2-mile swim (or more) in under an hour, and 56 miles on the bike doesn't scare me. Even adding 10 miles to last night's run seems quite doable, at the right pace. ... I think I just talked myself into doing a Half Ironman tri next year! 70.3

I rock.