Changing Up the Training Plan...again

I came up with my Half-Iron training plan back in October since I figured I read so many articles and website about triathlons it shouldn't be a problem. Basically I studied a bunch of training plans and came up with what I thought would be best for me and what would fit my schedule based on when I liked to do certain workouts. I also thought that Biking on Saturday and Running on Sunday made senseThen at the end of February, I found the Simple 70.3 Training Plan on Triathlete's website and made a couple relatively big changes. Maybe not the smartest thing to do but, I feel more confident about it and it's been going well.

The big changes were:

-Adding one more 60 mile ride at the end of April so I wouldn't peak too soon.

-Changing the days I swim.

-Switching my Bike and Run days...mainly my track workout.

-Running on Friday and making Monday a rest day/
(I was just swimming on Monday but it makes sense to swim once over the weekend and rest on Monday after a big weekend)

My schedule for the remainder of training looked like this...I didn't change the swim workouts since I have a different list for those. Also, the minutes for the long rides and runs are estimates and the total times are off.

 Then I bought the Triathlete's Training Bible. I knew about the Triathlete's Training Bible at the time I made my plan but I never bought it. I hit the part about structuring your workouts and it said something that I never considered...You shouldn't do your long runs on tired legs especially if you're prone to running injuries. Running on Sunday with tired legs won't necessarily simulate running in a tri. Brick workouts will. Running on Saturday and Biking on Sunday shouldn't effect your race. All along I figured it would be best to run the day after biking but, I never considered I could be setting myself up for an injury. I suppose since I've been running for a little over 4 years and I've had 3 running injuries (none that were serious) I could be prone to getting them.

Running on fresher legs seems like a much better idea even though I'll have to switch my Bike and Run days. Therefore, long runs will now be on Saturday and long rides will be on Sunday. I should have known this would happen since it's my first attempt at a HIM.

On the plus side, I have been vigilant about recovery on Saturday so THIS doesn't happen again.

Tanline Pics

I found the pictures from the Tri Club meeting and decided to share...I doubt they'll mind.

Here I am showing them off to everyone and looking like a giant compared to everyone else.

(Granted the guy next to me can't be more than 5'2)

See, still mostly visible

I decided to send Tri Tats an email with a link to the post about this to see what they would say but, I haven't heard back yet. Maybe they can add a "How NOT to use our product" webpage to their site.

First Tri Club Meeting and Injuries

You know how people say, "I never win anything!" :-(

As of last Wednesday I can't really say that as much, unless it pertains to my age group in an outdoor tri. I went to my first meeting for the St. Louis Tri Club. They're a pretty cool bunch and much smaller than the DC Tri club. Although which club isn't? The first order of business was having all the new members introduce themselves and having a t-shirt thrown at them. Then the VP said it's getting to be warm and sunny out and I have tan lines. She proceeded to pull out a bottle of suntan lotion and whoever has the best tan lines wins the bottle of suntan lotion...

Remember this?

FROM LAST MAY! It's still mostly visible (not really in the mood to take a picture) 10 months later. A whole summer of tanning couldn't cover it up for some strange reason.

I walked up to compare with the two other measly farmers tans and it was unanimous...I WON! I explained how I left my Tri Tats on too long at a race at the beach, everyone laughed and I made a wonderful first impression...Maybe I'll be known as the race number tan guy...better than Fruit Loops like Howard on the Big Bang Theory.

I'll be nice and skin cancer free for at least 2 weeks depending on how long this thing lasts. Who would have thought my stupidity would pay off...even if it's only $7 Cherish the little things.

I've also noticed that almost every blogger I read seems to be injured right now...and training through it...what a surprise. Did you also notice that I like to use ellipses? I guess it's that time of year when training ramps up but not everyone trained enough over the winter to be ready for it. Luckily my 55 mile ride went well this weekend...almost 20 mph average.

Here's to a speedy recovery for everyone:

Oops, wrong type of toast...

Kanpai!

DC Tri Cancelled :-(

It was announced today that the DC Triathlon on June 19th is cancelled. Sad news...from dctri.com : "The event, which is held on National Parks Service property, was recently denied the required Parks Service permit for the 2012 race." I found out on Slowtwitch, where posters were quick to blame WTC due to blatant hatred for the company. Since the race isn't run by WTC there is no reason to blame them since they only license the  race for their 5i50 series.

It was later stated:
"According to Carol Johnson, a spokesperson for Washington's National
Mall and Memorial Parks.
The permit was denied because it was in violation of the park's policy not
to hold any foot races between the Memorial Day and Fourth of July
holidays. The parks had made an exception the past two years.
"Because of a number of things going on in the parks this year, it was necessary to enforce the policy. It had nothing to do with who applied for it." 



I can't say I'm entirely upset because:
A. I don't live in DC anymore
B. I was considering racing since some of my friends are doing it but, I hate the bike course since it's so crowded.
C. Logistics were a P in the A.

I do feel bad mainly because the race was a big "first-timer" race and DC is the fittest city with possibly the largest tri community in the US.

Pool Length Differences

Today I dropped the g/f off the airport so she can head to a conference in the Keystone State...I'm surprised at how many state nicknames I know. That involved driving across the city, as is usually the case in every city I've lived in, to get to the airport and back. The worst was probably Pittsburgh, just a job interview, but the airport is like 45 minutes away from the city. They rented a car for me and said it was cheaper than having me take a cab.

Since I have a Metro YMCA membership (a YMCA membership that has good fashion sense and would probably use hair gel if it had hair...Considering my YMCA is right near "The Hill" or the Italian part of St. Louis, I think the YMCA needs a Guido membership where they do your laundry while you work out but you're only allowed to lift weights and walk on the treadmill...no pool or group classes. They would have to charge extra due to extra hair gel clean up and you're on your own for tanning), I decided to check out the pool at another YMCA. This one has either a 25 meter or 27 meter configuration...27 meters is an odd length...25 is also odd...ha...ha...27 meters is a weird length unless there is pool standard out there for which I might look for later.

Another unusual thing about this pool is that one of the swim lanes, when configured for 27 meters, is taken away when one of the instructors decides to have the little kids jump off the diving board. Luckily it wasn't busy and no one was in the middle lane when they wanted to use the diving board. 

Up until today, I thought the pool I normally swim at was 25 meters since the sign said 64 lengths is a mile...1600m /  25m = 64. After this morning I am certain it is 25 yards since my times were way off even when I tried to account for the extra 2 meters. One thing that sucked even more is that the pace clock is fast...verified by two watches and a wall clock...unless the pool happens to be in a time warp and time slows down at the pool. I'm going with the pace clock being fast even though I did take modern physics in college and believe that stuff like time warps, black holes and string theory are real. 

The pool I normally swim in...and yes I go down the water slide when it's open.

If you prefer an underwater view here is a view from my new GoPro Hero2 

Anyway, I decided not to pay attention to my time and just swim my sets at the effort I normally do. It's amazing how much of a difference the extra 4.5 yards each length makes. 

My swim workout for today was a total of 2200. I stuck to the same number of laps even though a 400m set would only require 15 lengths of the 27 meter pool. I guess it's a good way to trick yourself into swimming a little bit more. I ended up swimming 2376 meters or just a hair under 2600 yds. I'll definitely be back at this pool again with a waterproof watch. 

Seriously, who steals your towel?