145 Days and Counting...

In order to stay organized (and keep as many faithful readers as possible, haha) I am going to try and follow my pattern, of posting yesterday's information today. So, for Sunday:


-Swim: 42 minutes continuous, RPE 6 (this comes out to about 2400 meters). Ate 3 Pina Colada Shot Blox before swim, and 3 after (200 calories total).



-Breakfast: Whole wheat bagel with peanut butter, two cups of coffee.
-Lunch: Chips and salsa, and wheat thins with pepper jack cheese.
-Penne Pasta with tomatoe based sauce, and italian sausage, 2 glasses of wine.
-Snacks: 2 bottles of vitamin water, 1 package of fruit snacks, handfull of dried apricots, 12oz. blueberry pomegranate juice.



So in this post, I confess that of the three disciplines, I LOVE the swimming. I think it was because in the beginning, it was the hardest. I was super lucky, and my folks put me in swim lessons as a kid, so I've always been comfortable in the water, but that is different from competition swimming. I was REALLY nervous about it prior to IM CDA in 2007, so spent a ton of time in the pool. It has paid off, and so I continue to enjoy my time in the water the most.


The training plan I use does consist of lots of swimming drills, but you'll see me tweak those workouts a little bit; I prefer what my friend Mike calls LSD: LONG SLOW DISTANCE. Plus, I recently read an article in Triathlete Magazine (shameless trend follower that I am!) about the need for drills becoming significantly less important when you reach a threshold of swimming 100 meeters (4 lenghts of the pool) in 1 minute 50 seconds or less; that is the point of quickly diminishing returns.


Sunday, I measured my first 100, middle 100, and last 100. They were, respectively, 1:36, 1:48, and 1:40. Oddly, I tend to slow down a bit in the middle with "heavy arms." I've found that some calories before I start get me through this "sluggish" phase pretty quick, and I finish strong.


But this workout is my longest continuous swim since IM Lake Placid in July, so it is a huge confidence booster; the race disatance is 2.4 miles, which equates to roughly 3900 meters. So early in the game, I feel good about the fitness level. For some multimedia entertainment, I am including a couple links to youtube videos of the IM Lake Placid's swim start from this past July (I am the one in the blue swim cap and black wetsuit). It gives me chills everytime I see it!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc68ZoD_sfA



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SideIwZFOw