Triathlon Training Begins!

On schedule for yesterday:

35 minute run, 25 minute swim, easy.

I opted to run before I swam. The idea of running with wet hair sounded less and less appealing as the day cooled down.



I'm sure I'll quit posting these Garmin stats at some point, but for now I find them pretty interesting. Deal with it.

I decided that "easy" for the run was going to mean trying to keep my heart rate around 175. I'm mostly making that up. Kat, at Pedal Faster gave me awesome instructions to figure out my target heart rate and stuff, but I haven't done it yet. So, 175 it was. And that worked out pretty well. Sometimes I felt like I was running too slow, and sometimes I felt like I was running too fast, but I ignored my speed and just focused on my heart rate, and it seemed to turn out fine.







After the run I was all set to head to my pool, which is only 2 miles away. But, it dawned on me that it was winter break at the school where the pool is. So, in my bathing suit, I sat on my lap top, suspicion confirmed. Fuck. So I started emailing my tri coach, explaining why I wouldn't be swimming last night. And, man, I felt like a wussy shit heel for writing that email. I mean, I was already in my fucking bathing suit, and I couldn't be bothered to try to find another pool? So, I looked. All the city pools in the Valley were seasonal except my pool. So, that was out. But, what about private pools? So, I found a Swim Club in Calabasas. And I started to email my trainer that while I wasn't going to swim tonight, I'd be able to swim there tomorrow. But I still felt like a pussy. I mean, it was only 9 miles away. Traffic was totally clear. What was my problem?

So, I discarded the email, threw on my shoes, and went to swim.



These are my swimjamas. I can slip into them soaking wet without a problem. They're warm. They're shitty, so I don't care if I get chlorine all over them. And, damn I look sexy.



But not as sexy as I look after 25 minutes of wearing the worst fucking goggles ever. So, I have a box of "workout crap" in our guest room. And for some reason I have like 5 pairs of goggles. So I grabbed a pair from the box. Huh. Never seen this pair before. I'll wear them anyway. My fucking face hurt the whole goddamn swim, and those pieces of shit leaked half the time anyway. My hopes of picking up 12 year old lifeguards post-swim were shattered. Life is hard. Never wearing those stupid goggles again. I mean, all goggles make me look like I'm 60, but this was bad.

Beyond the superficial, the swim was fine. I haven't swam since my tri in September, but I didn't forget how. For a few laps I futzed with trying to breathe on my left side. For a few laps I futzed with trying to breathe every four strokes. I focused on my head position. But, mostly I spaced out and enjoyed the warm water. The pool was huge, but there were only two other people there. Everything was super nice. The only downside was the pool was outdoors, which meant a short COLD walk from the pool back to the locker room. The upside is, it's pretty near where I train, so heading over there for a short swim tonight after working out will be awesome.

I'm glad I was able to nut up and get my scheduled training done last night. Otherwise it would have been a terrible way to kick off this training stretch.