At the beginning of the year, I looked back through my training journal and tried to decide where I could coax a bit more speed out of my soon to be 44 year old body. Two areas jumped out at me immediately. My weaknesses...... swimming and transitions. In most of my races I was generally dead on in predicting my bike and run splits. My swim splits were ALWAYS slower than I would have anticipated. I also noticed, when comparing my times to those around me, my transitions were generally slower. Last year I made a small step in the right direction to lower my transition time by investing in speed laces. Still, I realized there was definitely some room for improvement. I plan to actually PRACTICE transitions this year. I may also invest in a pair of triathlon cycling shoes to speed up the lengthy, but necessary, process of tightening of my road shoes.
With the goal in mind of knocking a few more minutes of my times, it became evident I could really get some bang for my training time buck in the pool. I began a diligent training plan by reviewing my training for last year's St. Anthony's triathlon. I had projected a swim time of around 38 minutes for the 1500 meter swim, I actually finished in about 41 1/2 minutes. While the current was a factor, a bigger factor was lack of significant preparation with longer swims. I had only done 3 continuous swims longer than 1000 meters. This left me with less confidence for the distance than I would have liked. So this year after six weeks of short, hard interval work I plan on doing, at the MINIMUM, 1 longer swim every week up until race week when I will taper.
I am also engaging in an early swim focused training plan. Meaning more swimming early in my preparation when the weather is colder and less amenable to running / riding outside. So far the plan appears to be paying dividends. I swam a 200 yard PR this week smashing my best swim time for the distance by a whopping 19 seconds! My 100 repeats have also been consistently faster. Right now I am keeping the workouts to around 1200 yards, but I plan on increasing them in the coming weeks.
One of the things I like least about winter is running on the treadmill, ughhhhh. As luck would have it, I am always engaged in a search for a better gym and I happened to find one close to my job that has, *GASP*, an indoor track (it actually has 2). Now at least once a week I take my lunch break by running in circles for 30 minutes or so. This has proved to be a great incentive to get out there and run!
Other stuff.....
About a year ago I purchased an Elite Real Axiom trainer for the bike. I have been using it diligently since it got cold and next blog will feature a full review.....
I hope the new (and cold, BRRRRR) year finds everyone happy and in shape.
Peace and keep training.....
Rob
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
How is it going with the RealAxiom so far? I'm considering a purchase but most of the reviews are older.
It's working out well, I am planning a full review in my next blog. I would give it a B. The software may require updates from Elite's website and you also need a fairly powerful computer. The video courses are very good, small glitches at worst. The "regular" axiom courses can be boring since there is no video component. But they can be useful for short time trial/power workouts. Watch for the full review soon...
Thanks for the info Robert, glad to hear it's working out well. I did purchase one and it should arrive later this weak. I found a site that allows you to put together courses using Google Maps and export them in RealAxiom format. I put together some local races and routes that I like. If you'd like to discuss and possibly trade them, contact me at jboothiv (at) gmail (dot) com.
Post a Comment