It’s Monday, the 31st of August. Yesterday was my 1st year wedding anniversary. Today is the first day of my sprint triathlon training. And of course, Mother Nature has decided not to cooperate.
I fully expected to spend the month of September training in the heat. This part of California is usually pretty warm most days – 80-90+ degree is typical. But in addition, we’ve got major fires in several areas that have made the news stations declare the air quality as ‘very poor’ and they are telling everyone that they should stay indoors as much as possible.
Figures. Oh, well. I still went to my apartment complex’s small pool (about 15-18 yards long) and did several laps just get my gills wet. Nothing fancy; some long, slow strokes to move across the pool, remembering to follow the instructions from Total Immersion DVD on “triathlon swimming made easy.”
Lead with the top of the head, keep the body long, roll as much as possible to each side, practice front-quadrant swimming. Put in approximately 100 yards. Decided I should probably review the DVD again this evening. Swam in a pair of standard boxer-style swim trunks; think I’ll save the tri-racing shorts for later (much later; like after dropping 6 inches from the waistline and losing 15-20 pounds.
After the swim, performed a few basic body weight exercises, including push-ups (25 reps), squats (25 rpes), body rows (15 reps), and 10 reps of rollouts with the LifelineUSA Power Wheel. Again, nothing fancy yet; just some basic moves to get me going.
The training program for September is going to be fairly simple:
Monday – SWIM – focusing on drills; Body Conditioning Exercises
Tuesday – BIKE – focusing on intervals and sprints; Basic Yoga Moves
Wednesday – RUN – and walk a lot in the beginning as I rehab the right knee – here we are also doing intervals and drills; more Yoga Moves
Thursday – SWIM – more continuous, less drills; Body Conditioning Exercises
Friday – Active Rest Day (date night with wife)
Saturday – BIKE – continuous ride, some hill work; Basic Yoga Moves
Sunday – RUN – continuous running, no drills (will more than likely consist of lots of walking as I rehab the right knee – but we’ll get there)
Nothing special here as I build an endurance base for the upcoming event. Two days of swimming, two days of bicycling, and two days of running (or walking, as the case may be); supplemented with two days of Body Weight Exercises for conditioning, and four days of Yoga movements (the asanas that make up the Sun Salutatuion series performed for three sets).
The diet plan is fairly simple. A combination of ‘Break Free Life’ (see http://8vTUQ) and Jay Robb’s 6-week Abs Diet – two meals a day with no snacking. Meal one is between 11AM & 1PM and meal two is between 5PM & 7PM – at least six hours apart. Eliminate flour and flour products (breads, pastries, pasta, bagels, tortillas, etc.) and any sugars (table sugar, artificial sweeteners, foods with HFCS or corn syrup, sodas – diet or regular). The sole sweetener is going to be Stevia. Filtered water is my beverage of choice, with some tea and limited amounts of milk (usually for mixing a protein drink).
Adjustments to the training schedule and planned routines will be made as time goes by and I see where improvements or changes would help my training. The goal is to complete the sprint triathlon in mid-December with a decent showing for my age-group, not to win the event. It is short mini-triathlon with the events reversed from the standard order – it will be a 5Km run, 12-mile bike, and a 150 meter swim in a heated pool at the local high school.
Training over the next three months will be a ramp-up to the distances required to be competitive (1.5 X the event distance), with the S/B/R done to achieve a building base with more focus on the body conditioning and yoga movements the first month. As strength and flexibility improves the training distances for the different events will increase.
Got to go now; I have to pump up my bicycle tires.
Faith, Chuck
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