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Monday, January 02, 2012

Triathlon Training: Week 1 Day 1 - First Swim

Today's workout - Swim 1000 yd, 40-45 min + 45 min upper body lifts.

So today officially starts my 2012 training routine and my first official day of triathlon training with my first ever swim workout. I have been off for the last 4 days with zero activity, that is unless stuffing my face, sitting on the couch and watching football yesterday constitutes activity? No, well than we'll go with zero activity. The mini break was nice but I was ready to get back after it and I was excited to see where I was at in the swimming department. I was excited and incredibly nervous about this workout, swimming is the one reservation I have had about making the transition to triathlons. I'm confident in my running ability after 3 solid years of training and racing and my cycling is coming along since picking it up last summer, but I haven't swam, like actual laps, in over 15 years. I will say that I was actually surprised by how well I did, I completed 20 total laps for 1000 yd in about 40-45 min. At first I just went 25 yd at a time, just to get my stroke, kick and breathing down, I was like a fish out of water in the beginning, but once I got everything coordinated I actually felt pretty smooth. I did a few 50 yd repeats with about 30 seconds rest in between once I felt confident I could do a full lap without drowning. Right now I'm not worried about doing any drills or specialty workouts, I'm just concentrating on swimming laps, learning to kick and breathe and once I feel confident in the water I'll start working on drills. This is a lot like 3 years ago when I started running (0r should I say walking) at first I couldn't run at all, I'd jog/walk as much as I could, I remember the first mile I did took me 20 minutes. My mentality back then was to go as hard and as far as I could on that day, then the next time out try to go a little farther, than go a little faster and so on and so forth. I have never been one for following special running workouts, with the exception of Tempo Runs (and even those I don't do conventionally) and Long Runs, I usually either run short and fast or long and slow and that is about as technical as I get. I know with swimming I will have to do some drills eventually, but like I said right now I'm just swimming laps going as far as I can each time building that base endurance. I have 5 1/2 months till the QC Triathlon to learn to swim about 600 yd continuously and still have enough energy to bike 15 miles and run 3.1 after leaving the water so...

Until next time...

Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

1 comment:

  1. Great job! Getting started is the hardest part of any training.

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