New Training Partner

I have a new training partner for the bike, Phil! He bought a rode bike earlier this week and we have already rode three or four times on the Cady Way Trail. It is nice to have someone to ride with on a consistent basis. The only draw back is that he wants to ride all the time, but some days I have to run or swim or most importantly, REST! I think that I’m beginning to find a balance with this by doing more brick workouts.

When I first started training to do a triathlon, I had to do a lot of foundation work and build-up my endurance in my new sports. But now that I’m training for my second triathlon, I have started doing more complex and longer workouts.

For example, today I joined the TriManiacs for a coached swim at the Cady Way Pool. The coach sets up the workout and gives you feed back while you swim. Well, the workout that was scheduled today is much more technical and longer than any other swimming workout I have ever done. Overall I believe I swam about 1300 meters in an hour and did about six different drills. I think the most I have ever swam before this was like 1000 meters (maybe). But these longer and more complex workouts already seem to be benefiting me.

Yesterday I did a brick workout where I rode 10 miles with Phil and then ran 3 miles afterwards. I didn’t run the 3 miles at any personal record or anything, but I felt pretty good. I just have to keep up with it.

Only one month to go!

Great Workout, But Missing Consistancy

I know I haven’t been writing updates nearly as much as I was when I was training for my first triathlon, but that is kind of the same way my training has been going. I have definitely gotten some good training in, but it hasn’t been consistent.

Some of the good things that have happened is that I have joined the Winter Park YMCA. The Y is really great here because with my membership I have access to three different pools (2 outdoors and 1 outdoors). One of the pools is right next to a great trail, which will be great for a brick workout or mock-tri. In addition to all of this, there is also a group called the TriManiacs that is part of the Y.

The TriManiacs organizes practices and even has coached swim sessions. It took me awhile to get hooked up with them, but finally on Sunday I was able to join them for a workout.

For the workout the group met at Wekiwa Springs State Park. It started with a swim around the beautiful spring (see picture above), which is crystal clear but is also 70-75 degrees year-round. I wore an old wetsuit I had and was perfectly fine. All in all I did 3 laps of the spring, which is about 600 meters. Mark Casey, the coach of the TriManiacs, gave me some great tips while I was swimming, such as remembering to keep my head down so that my body will be more vertical in the water and using my whole arm as a paddle instead of just my hand.

After the swim we got on our bikes and rode on the West Orange Trail that is only a short 3-miles from Wekiwa Springs. The total ride was about 50 miles round-trip.

After the workout I was exhausted and HUNGRY! So I went to Wendy’s and gorged. It was great!

Only 40 more days!