New Year, New Training, New Goals

New year, new training, new goals.

I need to get serious about improving my time in the water and running. I've put together a new running training schedule thanks to runnersworld.com - it lets you enter in a previous timed event (5k, 10k, etc), a training duration, and it "automagically" creates a running schedule that (if followed) should improve speed. My schedule is 3 days a week: 1 easy day (2 miles @ 10m/mile), 1 training day (speed training or tempo), and a day with a long tempo run (~10m/mile or so), increasing mileage weekly. I'm hoping it will shave a few minutes from my 5k time; I did 5 miles tempo tonight in about 47:30 (@ 9:30m/miles) which wasn't too bad.

In the water I've improved steadily. Our Masters group has finished all of the checkoff challenges through the breast stroke (which I'm pretty much horrible at), with only the freestyle swims left. I put in an awesome time (for me) in the 100 Fly @ 1:33, and a pretty decent 100 IM @ 1:34. I wanna re-time my 200 IM - last time I swam it I was well over the 4-minute mark. I'm consistently hitting the 1:45 to 1:50 mark on my workout 100y lengths, and I can easily do 400y now in under 7 minutes. Would love to get that down under 6, but considering it took me almost 12 minutes less than 5 months ago, I'm doing OK.

Buttefly sucks...

.. but I tamed it. I think. I did the Master's checkoff challenge 100y butterfly in about 1:33. Considering how much I struggled with it over the last few months, this was a pretty significant personal accomplishment. It felt great to finish and do it right, even though I was pretty much exhausted.

Training is still going good. I haven't been running more than once a week because of my pool workouts 3 and 4 days a week. This isn't really a bad thing but as I get closer to May (SGTri @ Sand Hollow) I'll be picking it up to 2 days a week for each discipline. My weight is steadily decreasing - teetering between 196 and 199 now. My size 36 pants that used to fit comfortably are falling off my ass. I'm in-between sizes right now because 34's fit a little snug but they fit.

Looking forward to May 9th!

Sore!

Been a few weeks since my last update.

Davis meet was great - I finished pretty much dead last in my age group in all 3 events, but I put a good showing all things considered. My 50Y Free was 0:33, 50Y Back was 0:42, and my 100Y Free came in around 1:24 (I swallowed a gallon of water at 75 yards and had to sidestroke.) The only heat I finished last in was the 100Y Free. Considering that 3 months ago I could barely pull out a 50Y in ~60 seconds, I'd say I'm improving well.

This morning my shoulders have been mega-sore, either from lack of stretching or over-reaching on my free crawl. We did 9 X 100 sets, I finished about 850Y on 2:10 per.

More good news is that I continue to lose weight. I'm wobbling between 198 and 202 now, but my diet isn't letting me lose weight in big chunks. Slow and steady so it stays off. Friends have commented that I look slimmer, and my size 36 pants (that were big before) are downright drowning me now. I could easily get in a 34 or 33 now without too much trouble.

Starting to look at my options for next spring's Tri meets as the registration / calendars are opening up. Can't wait to get it going!

2100!

Swam a full 2100 this morning, including a so-so 400 in 8:45. It's an improvement on my time by about a minute from 2 weeks ago. Water stamina is great. Spent part of the morning working on my backstroke entry and turns. I haven't been running in almost a week but plan on hitting it tomorrow morning, we'll see how that turns out.