Triathlete- May 2011

Hello everyone! We've had a whirlwind few days. Kylie had her last day at her Discovery Preschool. And over Memorial weekend, we went to TN to spend a few days with our families. We took in the Knoxville Zoo, saw Kung Fu Panda 2 and have had time to visit with everyone. I'll be posting pictures of our adventures this weekend when I have time to process the photos. But I wanted to post May's Triathlete post. So here we go:

Swim
Oh my goodness! I'm actually getting stronger.

When I first started swimming with my coach, I could only swim 1 lap (25 yards) and then I would hold on to the side of the pool to catch my breath. Because of this, I would only swim about 4 laps (with rests in between) to warm up and then we would start with the drills for the day. When I started feeling stronger, I would try to swim 2 laps without stopping. But this panic would rise up in me. My belly would feel tight, my legs would feel heavy and sinking and I would feel like I couldn't breathe. A panic attack while swimming is not a pretty thing. I would get frustrated to the point of tears. But I stayed with it. I kept on swimming with fins, with a kickboard, anything to keep me moving.

This May, Gus started having me swim 5 minutes anyway I would like (freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke whatever) to get warmed up. The next week, we did 7 minutes and the week following 10 minutes. And I could actually do it! I would swim my warm-up breaststroke and I would simply touch the wall and go...no flapping up an arm to the side of the pool to catch my breath.

On 5/17 on a solo swim, I pushed myself to swim 17 laps (1/4 mile) without stopping. I did it in about 15 minutes (I didn't have a stopwatch to get the exact time). I swam it all breaststroke. I stayed calm in the water the whole time and wasn't out of breath at the end. Dang! I actually swam 1/4 mile!

And then on 5/18, I had one heck of a swim practice. I swam 8 50's (2 laps) freestyle with only 10 seconds in between. And I did it! I swam a ton of drills before and after, mostly with a swim parachute which slows me down so I can concentrate on swimming properly. It also builds endurance. By the end of practice where I swam around 1500 yards, my shoulders were shaking with fatigue. Karen helped me get iced and took a few pictures.


I'm so proud of these pictures. I actually swam my shoulders to exhaustion.

Then on 5/27, I swam my first 100 (4 laps) freestyle without stopping. I was scared but I didn't panic. I did it! I did little happy dances for the rest of the day.

So overall in May, I had 6 practices with my swim coach and 5 practices by myself.

Bike

With regards to the bike, my strength coach Joy challenged me to get at least 20 miles in a long bike ride. I managed one 21 mile ride and another 25 mile ride. The new bike seat is working out well and I no longer have pain when I'm riding. I'm still gaining confidence and trying to figure out how to gain speed. I still average around 12mph on my rides. Let me tell you, running legs aren't the same as biking legs. I feel on the bike the way I did when I first started running and could only manage a 12 minute mile. My mantra is "It just takes time Wendy. It just takes time."

One treat this month was when Karen and I took a bike ride together. Karen is fantastic on her bike; she zooms around like a kid and looks at least 20 years younger when she's flying around. It was great to ride with her and not feel like a complete idiot. It was awesome to do this healthy fun thing together with her.

So here is the breakout of my bike rides:
12.5 miles in 1 hour 7 minutes
10.36 miles in 51 minutes.
15.63 miles in 1 hour 17 minutes
10.36 miles in 51 minutes
25 miles in 2 hours 5 minutes
21 miles in 1 hour 40 minutes
10.5 miles in 53 minutes.

And here is a picture of me on my bike going by our house. Just ignore my locked elbows; I don't really lock them that bad when I'm not grinning for the camera.


Run

Karen changed her schedule so that she could take Kylie to school one day a week. This allows me to wake up at 5:30 and get in my long run before it gets too hot. There is nothing like watching the sun come up over the ocean and fill the sky with it's pink glory to get you happy for the day. I'm really pleased with my progress on my long runs.

I got the Runner's World Smart Coach app for my iPhone. I like that it suggests interval runs for me. I don't really want to plan out those intervals so I like that it does the thinking for me.

Here are the runs for the month:

Intervals:
1/2mile at 8mph then 1/2 mile at 9mph for three times. Total 4 miles in 35 minutes. 8:75 pace.
1 mile at 8mph then 1/2 mile at 9mph for three miles. Total 5 miles in 43 minutes. 8:60 pace.

Tempo runs:
4.5 miles in 40:46. 9:04 pace.
3.5 miles in 30:30. 8:65 pace.
4.5 miles in 40:50. 9:00 pace.
5.0 miles in 42:46. 8:49 pace.

Easy Runs:
After 21 miles on bike: 3 miles in 28 minutes.
In TN, ran 7.5 miles in a really humid 85 degree temperature in 1:14.

Long Run
14 miles in 2:16. 9:43 pace
15 miles in 2:27. 9:80 pace
15 miles in 2:27. 9:80 pace
16 miles in 2:42. 10:12 pace

Strength and Weight

I did three strength training sessions by myself and 3 with my coach Joy. I feel so much stronger than I did 6 months ago when I started with Joy. She is an awesome resource for triathlete training and manages to kick my but and make me sore for days.

I maintained my weight at 116 all month. I want to post another blog entry about food for the month. Let me get my thoughts together and I'll share that with you later.

I want to end this post with a huge thank you to Karen. Thank you for listening to all this crazy triathlete talk. Thank you for making changes in your schedule to support my training. Thank you for always supporting me so perfectly. You are awesome and I love you more than I can say.

So that's it for another month! Thanks for reading! And if you've made it this far, please leave me a comment. Comments mean the world to me.

April 2011 summary
March 2011 summary
February 2011 summary
January 2011 summary
December 2010 summary


Goal: Triathlon in 2012- initial post from December 2010
One Little Word: Triathlete post