My poor neglected blog was gradually heading to the place where blogs go to die but I have returned and as usual it is all change. As you all know I'm constantly up for a new challenge and challenges are what I do best.
So after a fantastic year of running (just under a 1,000 miles) I wanted to start the year with a bang. With big plans to run a marathon in Spring and a handful of half marathons the first half of the year and a triathlon in Summer I set about training. Then a few weeks into the new year i had a fabulous 9 miler on a new route and felt great but my run a few days later was agony, my shin splints were coming back. Having learnt from past lessons I knew I had to stop running completely for a few weeks and focus on cross training.
Over the past 3 weeks I have focussed my attention on working on triathlon training and it has now become apparent that triathlon training is not going to be a part time training challenge. The marathon I was going to do booked up so that was possibly a blessing in diguise and although half marathons are an option, I'm not going to dedicate my training to them. So what am I doing?
Well I joined a gym to start working on my swimming and cycling, after a few initial test runs it became apparent I have an awful lot to do to to get my swimming and cycling up to triathlon standard. I have been doing alot of tough workouts on the bike and building up a high average cadence as well as upping the resistance to build up strength and stamina. I've also been doing a fair amount of weights and generally using the rower and crosstrainer to get my body stronger and started to build up the distances slowly on the treadmill.
In the pool i'm trying to reteach myself to swim, swimming with poor breathing and your head above water is ok to get by but in a race it will probably finish me off so I am swimming between 300 and 500m but purely focussing on bilateral breathing so I can get my breathing accomplished before really focussing on technique. That is going well but I have a long way to go but I'm already excited about my improvement.
So my race is in early July and it is a sprint triathlon 400m swim/23km ride/5km run and I have a feeling it will just be the beginning. I am loving the new challenge of a triathlon and teaching myself things I had resigned myself to being rubbish at, for me the triathlon challenge is not about distance but about proving to myself what I can do with a bit of focus. I have always been a poor swimmer and not the fastest or most confident cyclist so I have a lot to be working on. The best part is that I'm training and racing with my husband and he too is starting to see the addictive...ness of a triathlon! Running will always be my favorite and my strength but trying to perfect 3 disciplines is so exciting. We are also racing in the Lincoln 10k in April which will keep me running between all the other workouts.
I had my first brick session yesterday and although it was a killer, it has made me blissfully excited about getting better at all the disciplines and proving myself and others wrong (yes PE teachers I refer to you)! I'm doing a better job of making myself a better athlete than all my PE teachers put together...
As usual my fellow athletes on Daily mile are brilliant with their motivation and advice! And now more than ever I want to get my instructors qualification and start bringing the excited that sport can bring to others... one day :)
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