May Training Recap

May 2012 Stats:

• 22 days working out 
• 69 miles running
• 118 miles on the bike
• 44 laps in the pool

Rock & roll!!! I was successful in reaching all of my May goals: to get in the pool and on the bike at least a bit in preparation for my upcoming sprint distance triathlon, and to find the right balance of milage to run the Soldier Field 10 mile comfortably without re-injuring my knee. Check, check and check! 

But the best part of my training this month was the major breakthrough I had in my swimming! See, I've been doing triathlons for the past 7 years, and each and every time I end up doing all my swimming backstroke. The very short video below, of me in the Chicago Triathlon in 2008, exhibits one of the drawbacks: swimming into other athletes that you can't see!  

Other drawbacks include less efficient movement through the water, being able to see stronger/faster swimmers bearing down on you, and going off course towards the middle of the lake instead of towards the finish line because you can't see where you're going. 

There are some positives, though - you can see and hear the people on the shore cheering you on, breathing is a heck of a lot easier, and you can't see the gross seaweed from the bottom of the harbor that is reaching up to drag you down to a watery grave. That being said, I've always wanted to swim front crawl, but can never seem to breathe right. Even in the pool, after maybe one lap of front stroke I feel like I'm gasping for air and I have to stop. Except, somehow, magically and mystically, when I got in the pool 3 days ago, all of a sudden I was able to do it! I did 22 laps (that's a half mile, which is the sprint triathlon distance swim) front crawl with no problems. I have no idea why it worked this year and not any of the past 7 years, but I'm really excited. 

As soon as the Soldier Field 10 mile race was over, I sat down and made my training plan for the next 4 and a half months, and it was a bit overwhelming. I need to get ready for a 112 mile bike ride (July 15th), an international distance triathlon (August 26th) and the marathon (October 7th) and the training for all of those events needs to overlap. So my goal for June is simply to stick as close as possible to my training plan!

My work-in-progress training schedule!