Heavy Muscles.

http://keepingupwiththewalkers.com/2011/11/07/sometimes-all-you-need-to-do-is-stop/tired-runner/

Sometimes all you need to do is stop?!?  

So since I started to officially train, things have been going pretty good.  Swimming has gone much better than anticipated and running has been steady. Then I started biking...  Wow. I sure hope it doesn't take my legs to long to work off the winter biking blues. 

So, before this week I was most worried about the sports in this order: swimming, running, biking. Now that has completely reversed to: biking, running, swimming.

Yesterday I ran into an old friend and found out he was training for an Olympic triathlon in July.  He is already biking 30 miles for his long work outs. WHAT!?! I couldn't even admit to him my long bike ride has  only been 10 miles and I'm doing the triathlon in June!

Then, today I had a long run - 7 miles. This was to be the longest run I've ever done. It was the worst run I have ever done (or at least as long as I can remember). I would tell you, that this is why I never liked running, but that wouldn't be entirely true.  I never liked running before because I would run too fast and always feel like I was going to puke at the end. Today it wasn't about feeling like I was going to lose breakfast, I just couldn't move.  I kept thinking, "My muscles just need to warm up,"  "Pretty soon they will loosen up and I'll feel better," "Maybe I need to lengthen my stride. Is my stride messed up?" or "It was because I was going up-hill for so long, this is a new route and I'm just not used to it."

It never got better. By mile 4, I thought with every step I was going to fall into the Earth because every part of my body felt heavy.  By mile 4.5, I had to stop. Now unfortunately, I was on a long new route that was a loop. I didn't have my phone on me, so I had to make it home. For the rest of the 2.5 miles I had left, I did a combination of walk, run, stop and stretch, repeat.

Am, I going to let one bad run stop me. NO. But I would like to know what happened.  Am I tired? Not enough energy because I didn't eat enough before going out? Too much working out too fast? 

On a positive note.  I finished my run today, it wasn't pretty or the way I thought it would go, but I finished.  That should be a good reminder of my goal for this Triathlon. I just want to finish.  It may not go as well as I dream it will, but my goal is to finish and if I keep up with my training, I should be able to accomplish that.    

Sometimes you do just have to stop.

The Long Break

OK. So now I know what it feels like to fall off the bandwagon.


luluscottage.blogspot.com

It is so-o-o stinking hard to start again.  Thank goodness I registered for the Tri last fall because there is no backing out of something I paid for!  But I made a mistake in not figuring out when my true training needed to start.  In the back of my head I thought it was the beginning of March....

Yep.

I so missed my start date by about three weeks.  Darn.

Well, that was the kick in the butt realization and motivation I needed.  I figured out my schedule today and even with a vacation coming up in a week, I'm packing my running shoes, because this girl is now behind and every session is going to count.

Today was a nice solid 3.5 mile run and 2 miles biking at 4 mph with the kids (that counts doesn't it?) and another 3 miles at 11 mph. Tomorrow I start swimming.

In general I'm doing two workouts per sport per week. With the general schedule looking like this:

Monday	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.
Short Swim		Long Swim	Short Run		Strength	Long Run
Short Bike	Zumba			Long Bike

I have a general idea of how much time I should be putting in, but not really what that should translate into distances but since this is my first event I'm training for, I'm just going for endurance not speed.

Goal: Finish.

Thanks for reading... any encouragement, stories, advise... I'm all ears.