A lot of the people I meet at the pool seem to be there for a specific purpose: training for a triathlon. They usually tell me that I should do a triathlon. According to them, I would be good. What they don’t know is that I may swim like an animal, but I can’t run worth crap, and I don’t have a road bike. Despite all that, I’ve decided that I am going to do a triathlon next year… not because I think I’ll do well, but because I think it will be fun.
I’m relatively sure that my running skills are my weakest link in getting ready for a triathlon, so I’ve started running on a treadmill once a week. Well, I’ve just barely started, so we’ll see how long I hold out. The first day I ran 2.0 miles at 6.5 miles per hour. That’s right, I was only “running” for about 20 minutes before I was dead. Interestingly enough, it was only my muscles that were dead. Cardiovascularly (is that a word?), I was fine. I couldn’t walk for the next 4 days and was still quite sore on days 5 and 6. But the next week came and I ran 3.2 miles in 31 minutes. I was pretty happy with that result. And the best part was that I only felt sore for about a day. After that I skipped a week, then ran 2 miles the week after that. I tried to run at 8.0 miles per hour for the first mile, but I only made it to about 0.75 mile marker before I had to walk. Since then I’ve skipped another week.
But today is Wednesday again, and that’s the day I’m supposed to run. So I’ll be heading out to run in about 15 minutes. I just wanted to get that in there in case I forget to post about it after lunch.
I guess I’m in a different boat than you… I also recently started running again, but my problem didn’t seem to be my legs. It was ‘Cardiovascularly.” I think that my heart may have shrunk in the 7 months it’s been since I was hitting it hard. Although my first day back wasn’t as stellar as yours, (0.8 miles), I’m hoping to once again run longer distances as I once did (Feb. 27th I ran 9.0 miles). For now, I’m just hoping that I can get my heart back in good enough shape that I can run 5. I’m also not as fast as you. I set my limit at 6.0, but then towards the end of the run (so I get that good ‘burn’ feel), I always increase my speed…
My wife keeps saying she is going to do a Tri. The problem is, she can’t swim – and I mean that in the kindest way possible, but she really can’t. I would agree that I think the greatest advantage to be had in a triathlon is in the swimming. I watched an episode of ‘The Biggest Loser” wherein the winner of the triathlon was a terrible runner, a terrible biker, but a strong swimmer, and she kicked everyone else’s butts!
Now get back to the swimming, as I thought this was a ‘swim’ blog. I like to see what your workouts are, since I have no idea what to do when I get in the pool for exercise. I can’t believe how quickly I have forgotten all those seemingly endless hours in the pool in Jr. High.