Triathlon - Days 7 & 8 SWIMCYCLE...

Oh, i know, you're all DYING to know how the last two sessions of my triathlon training went. Let's see.

Swimming on Sunday
God, i love the pool. I could do with out smelling like chlorine after, but then i remember the sheer volume of people who routinely spit, snot, and fart in the pool on a daily basis and i suddenly don't mind the smell of chemicals.

We had a different swim coach, and as last Sunday was fEaster there wasn't a swim session... so it felt like it had been a while since i was in the pool. I joined my Kick Ass group and we did 4 lenths (100m) to 'warm up' before the coach kicked into full drill gear... she worked our legs like crazy. I lost count of how many lengths we swam that day, although i think it may have been 10 or 12... (25m per length). My hips and butt were killing me. It's funny, i've been swimming for years and never really thought of what's happening in my leg area, and as soon as you isolate one body part, it's like you forget what your body does naturally and suddenly you're gasping for air and sinking to the bottom of the pool cuz you completely forget how to swim... But when i'm NOT concentrating on my legs i stay afloat. Turns out, you need to have a nice little bum wiggle while you swim, that means you're moving from your hips and your knees aren't too bent. As soon as the thought "What are my ankles doing?" popped into my head, they immediately tensed up and i had to adjust again.

We did 4 lengths wearing flippers so really isolate the ankle movement, and boy oh boy - it was like night and day! so much speed and power with little output on my part... do you think anyone will notice on race day if i wear them? probably not. they're fairly inconspicuous..... *wink wink*

Coach said i had good form, so maybe i should just try to not over analyze things too much. I have been having some trouble with my right shoulder, though, and i think its from a combination of the swimming and the tension from the cycling. By the end, as my legs began to turn to lead get tired i started relying on my arms more and on my last 25 m i'm pretty sure i was swallowing as much pool water as i was swimming on.

Cycling on Monday
The bike session was, uhm, well... it sucked. I mean, i was fine! Totally fine, not panicked at all...there were a few instances of elevated heart rate when i picked up too much speed going down hill, but other than that i was good. i even felt confident enough to keep a high cadence (that's RPM in cycle-speak) and kept a relatively intense (for me) speed. So, what sucked? We spent the night drilling gears. You know what that means? riding up and down some fucking god awful slightly elevated hills.

Let it be known: I SUCK AT GEARING!!! Every time i change gears i get a glorious grinding noise... and half the time i shift the wrong way... either i change to too hard and suddenly my legs don't work, or i go the other way and i have absolutely no resistance at all and have spaghetti legs. Luckily, the Triathlon course we'll be doing on May 10th is flat and there won't be any hills. Gearing takes a bit more finessing than i think i have time to learn. Essentially, i'm happy as long as i keep moving forward and don't die in a fiery ball of death.

and also, my lady bits hurt. Everyone was all being polite and talking about the 'bum' being sore, but Dang... it's not the bum my friends...it's not the bum... although my sit bones are pretty sore, it's the lady bits that are feeling the pressure. perhaps a new seat is in order. Meh, i can suck it up for a few more weeks.

I hope to get in a run tomorrow sometime, before my running session on Thursday. We're up to Run five/walk one this week. Hopefully i won't blow my knee out, it's still pretty sore from last weeks jaunt on the treadmill.