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.