My triathlon training seems to be going ok at the moment ... but it wasn’t the case with the first two sessions. I had a brand new coach and a brand new training plan and I was DETERMINED to do everything properly.
Doing things properly NEVER works for me. It seems to go even worse if I’m concentrating. Avoid me if I’m concentrating. It’s like a disaster magnet.
Note: DEFINITELY avoid me if I’m concentrating in open water ...
The frustrating part was that the sessions sounded SO easy on the plan.
Session one:
Tempo run, 15 minute w/u, 5x2mins at your 5k pace with 1 minute jog recovery, 10m cool down
Really easy right? No. Actually no. Not when you have a stomach that HATES you. And which waits until you’re halfway through your speed session before giving you a Code Brown warning. Thanks then. Luckily I’d wimped out of doing this session in the ice and was at the gym. So toilets and warm loo seats rather than a hedge and big leaves. Winning while NOT winning.
Session two:
400m warm up, 400m TT RECORD TIME, 4X25Mm kick only record fastest time, 600m steady think good technique, smooth swimming, count strokes
I was looking forward to this one. A short session with a focus on technique with a sneaky fast bit in the middle. Perfect. Unless you do it at 6:30am. I can’t run in the morning. My legs get confused. It appears the same thing happens with swimming but with my arms as well. All fours limbs moving independently and in different directions. It was like I was trying to do a dance off with different parts of my body. My legs were doing tap dancing & cha-cha-cha and my arms were going for The Robot and YMCA. All at the same time.
It was an actual miracle I was moving forwards. Can only assume it was the rush of people leaving the pool in fear that was dragging me to the other end.
I did 50m of the time trial and discovered I was actually moving slower than ANY of the 400m reps I did last Friday. Not ideal for a timed session. It would make my improvement next time look good but it wasn’t really in the spirit of time trials. It was more slo-mo than go-go. I gave it up as a bad job with the idea of adding it onto the next session. I did the kick, forgetting to record each individual time but I did remember the 600m. But forgot to count the strokes. At least I tried. I’d failed. But at least I’d tried.
I’d come 2nd in a race of 1.
Must tri harder.