Long rambling of thoughts regarding training and me

Okay, so I've read a couple of really great books for beginner triathletes, books I can not recommend enough. The Slow, Fat, Triathlete by Jayne Williams (who is now my personal hero and I wish I could shake her hand) and Triathlon 101 by John Mora. Two excellent books but they missed a couple of things the average person (Jayne totally writes for the average person, totally and completely average, slightly insane person. You have to be kinda off your nut to want to do a triathlon, never mind more than one) might need to know while preparing themselves to finish their first triathlon.

Two things to think about:

1. If you have started eating a proper diet, one geared towards endurance sports, one that is HIGH in carbohydrates like it should be (none of that Atkins crap, you don't want to fuck your muscles up by starving them of their glycogen supply) your dietary fibre intake will have increased, unless you're some sort of freak of nature that adores fibre and you've already been chowing down on the yummy goodness of cardboard flavoured cereal.

2. Caffeine acts as a mild laxative.

You do the math.

It's not advised to consume caffeine before any sort of workout, especially long ones away from civilization.

For the record, I haven't had this problem since I have switched to decaf (and boy is my body happy I did. I sleep better than ever, my tummy isn't as fucked up, and general health seems to have improved)

Just a thought.


Second thought for the day, well more a note actually. I haven't articulated my race plan for my first triathlon. If anybody is wondering, no, I do not plan on being all competitive and slick on my first race. I'm only interested in finishing the damn thing. There are a number of reasons why I will not be giving it my all for my first race.

I will not be in top training form in time for my first race. I haven't given myself enough time to train properly for it.

Why am I being such an idiot and entering an event I will not have trained properly for you ask? Well, the answer is quite simple.

First, I really wanted my first triathlon to be part of the My First Triathlon series. It's the event that first put the seed into my mind that I might actually be able to live this crazy dream.

Secondly, it's a test run. This gives me the opportunity to train and then enter an event with zero pressure (yeah, I know, any event can be zero pressure, except I do not have that kind of mentality, so there. Neener neener neener.) since all the people entering this event are first time triathletes, no exceptions. This is the event where I can screw up, flail around, and generally make a fool of myself and it won't matter because everybody will be in the same boat.

Thirdly I have a race plan that takes into account the fact I will be about 4 weeks shy of my training goal.

And you thought I was a silly girl. For shame.

So my race plan is like this:

1. The swim. Use it was a warm up. I'm comfortable with swimming and that's rare for a lot of triathletes. Most triathletes come from a running or cycling background, I'm also super comfortable with open water swimming, even more rare in triathletes. I'm the weirdo that used to think it was fun to go out and swim a lake, the WHOLE lake, just because I could. The number one issue people have with open water swimming is not being able to see the bottom, that is my number one love of open water swimming. I know, I'm a freak, which is probably a good thing given the number of whack-jobs in the triathlon community.

I digress. (I can just here you say "no shit". Shut it.)

I'm going to use the swim to warm my muscles up, get them used to moving. If I'm feeling strong enough I might pour on a little speed, but I just want to get used to swimming with a large group like that. I want to focus on not tiring my legs out, keeping my breathing nice an easy. Just before getting out of the water, focus and visualize the transition.

2. The bike. I plan on focusing on keeping a nice, steady pace, I won't pour on the speed, just enjoy being out on the road. In the last few km I want to work on stretching my legs out, getting them ready to start the run (ha!). Last km focus and visualize the transition.

3. The run (ha!). I plan on walking the run portion. I am not going to try and be a hero. I know I can't run, my knees are not ready for that yet. If, and it's a big if, I am feeling strong enough and I think my knees can handle it I might do some interval jogging and walking. If, and again this is a big if, I am feeling strong, I would love nothing better than to jog the last 500 meters.

And because of that race plan, I believe I can finish my first triathlon while being 4 weeks shy of my training goal.

For the record I am still planning on walking my second triathlon too. I may never be able to run, and I might have to walk every triathlon I ever enter but I will not allow that to stop me from participating in this excellent sport. So far I have seen nothing in the rules that prevent me from doing so, and so until it's on the books that I can't walk the course, that's what I will do (of course all time limits being within my reach). Of course this means I will never finish an Ironman (I don't think i can finish in the 17 hours allotted) but who knows. I think maybe that will be a goal for my 50th birthday, finish a long course (iron distance/Ironman, crazy person length. Call it what you will) triathlon. I have 20 years to train for that. Maybe I can learn to speedwalk...

So yeah, that's what I've set out for myself. That's why I am not too worried about being a slug and slacking on the "run" training. As long as I get some good long walks in (which I guess I really should be documenting as part of my training) I'm not worried. Next season is when I really hope to step up. I am looking into joining a triathlon club, working with a coach and getting serious about this insanity. This year is just about deciding whether or not I'm actually going to like doing this crazy sport (which so far, I do). Next year is when the bling steps in and I go crazy with cool equipment. Heh.

Okay, back to my regularly scheduled, and very dull, account of my training.