Swim Lesson + Run Practice 11/20

Things to Improve: Swim more often, ideally 3 times a week. Work on left arm.
Things I did well: Kept pushing hard on our trail run and ended up going faster than I did on Wednesday
Nutrition: Banana + Vanilla Gu = perfect, I think I'll be sticking to this.

I had my first swim lesson on Friday with Alice. Turns out I'm not that bad of a swimmer, I just need to learn how to swim for efficiency rather than self-preservation. I'm also a very right arm dominant swimmer, I'm trying to fix that but my left arm isn't a good listener. Alice is no nonsense and pushes me pretty hard, I like her a lot and will probably stick to her for a few more sessions. Swim is definitely my favorite part of training right now, then running, then biking. I wonder if that order will change as the season goes on.

The trail run on Saturday was tons of fun. I think I'm a faster runner on road and trail than I am on track, I felt quicker since I was able to keep up with the group which was a lot faster than me on the track last Wednesday. I also out ran my track running partner by quite a bit. Maybe there's hope yet.

Today is supposed to be another TNT swim but not sure if we'll have practice due to the start of the snowpocalypse. We'll be in TX the rest of the week, but are running the 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thursday so that should make for a good mid-week workout...if I don't counteract it by stuffing my little face with all things holiday delicious.

First Week of Lavaman

Saturday Bike 11/13

Things to improve on: Make sure I'm in the right gear. Buy warm gloves, shoe covers and a hat.

Things I did well: Tried to be a team player and cheered everyone even though I was really tired at some points during the ride.
Nutrition: Coffee and a Cliff fruit bar. 130 calories = not enough.

My time trial was at 40 mins, I think it could have been a lot less if I wasn't riding in the wrong gear. I kept pedaling so hard but went nowhere. I've never stayed in the wrong gear for so long before, not sure why I didn't check my gears or realize I was in the wrong gear for 8 miles. I'm curious to repeat the same time trial and see how I do.

I also need to learn how to stay entertained on the bike, don't have this problem with running but biking seems to be a really big mental game for me. I think maybe a bike computer will help, gives me something to look at and compete against. I don't really know what my baseline is either, so it would be fun to find out my average speed and work to improve it.

Monday Swim 11/15

Things to improve: Breathing to the side, stop taking gulps of pool water

Things I did well: Started to breathe calmy after Coach Cathy made us do the breathing drills. I was surprised how quickly I was able to change this up.
Nutrition: Apple. Worked well. Wasn't that taxing of a practice.

I decided to get some extra lessons at my gym because I really enjoyed the practice session and want to work on getting better. However I don't have the tools to do that right now, I don't know what I'm doing wrong, what I'm doing right and how to make myself a better swimmer. I want a jump start because I think it's going to take me a while to get to where I want to be. I also have this fear of deep water and big fish (maybe also of lots of small fish) which I think will be helped if I'm a stronger swimmer come March. I'm just going to do a couple of lessons and see how it goes. I really like being able to learn a specific new skill and work on improving it on my own, probably left over from my days of individual sports as a kid.

Wednesday Run 11/17

Things to improve: Pacing and using my arms to propel myself

Things I did well: Didn't need to do intervals
Nutrition: Kind Bar and Coffee and 1/2 Gu. The kind bar is high fat and takes a while to digest. Not a good pre-run bar. Probably will revert back to my cookie dough bar.

Tri run practices are really different from marathon practices. We did a ton of drills with Coach Cathy and Coach Fred. I really really like Cathy, I hope to be like her when I grow up! She's all business yet has this wonderfully warm personality, not to mention a great story of perseverance. I was running with Louisa's cousin when Coach Cathy came up to her to talk about using her arms more effectively. She said to think about doing a push motion backwards instead of forwards, I had never heard that before in all my days of marathon training. It worked wonders, looking forward to going on a run today and applying the technique again. I'm also contemplating using my inhaler again, my lungs just don't deal with the cold air very well. It might be worth buying a balaclava to see if that does the trick before I fall off the albuterol wagon (haven't taken a hit in over 8 months!). It would be nice to build up my lungs, the albuterol will inhibit that. It's a tradeoff between being faster in the short-term and having a bit stronger lungs in the long-term.