Can an Average Runner Become an IRONMAN?

Had my third (I think!) swimming lesson on Friday.

I’m improving!! My instructor, Kirsten, can see progress!! Yay! Had a “good feeling” experience in the pool. This is reason to celebrate people!

Now to the details…

Breathing – Kirsten says my technique of exhaling a little bit on each arm stroke, although unique, should work just fine. As long as it has me fully exhaling underwater so that I’m not exhaling out of the water, she feels it can work.

I’m still all awkward with my breathing during drills. Yet, I’ve had the thought since my lesson of exhaling on the same rhythm, even though drills are sometimes not involving an arm stroke. I can exhale on that rhythm and come up every third exhale. We’ll see if this can help!

Kicks – Better, I’m no longer fully riding a bicycle underwater. Do need to go faster and lessen the back and forth motion. I think I can feel how this should go, although I worry it’ll get my upper body rhythm all off.

Also need to loosen up my ankles. Not sure how to do this. I’m going to be doing some 10-minute kick board drills, so we’ll see if I can feel or figure anything during these.

Arms – Better!! I’m bending at the elbow like I should for most arm strokes. Often gets off when I’m breathing. (One thing at a time, I guess!!)

I was bending too early. I want to make sure to get my whole stroke done under water, then just bend out of the water. Okay, I felt how that works.

And…we did a “catch up” drill. This is terrific! So much easier. It’s amazing how leaving that arm out front a little longer really helps you. (Evidently, I was moving my arms way to balanced out like a sprinter… ha! not what we’re going for…)

Okay…swimmers out there can feel free to chuckle about and comment on my elementary descriptions. Also straighten me out if I’ve written anything misleading. (I know there’s a good chance of this!!)

Going forward – My instructor created a sequential set of drills for me to go through. Here it is…

50 side kick, one length on each side

50 side kick with shark fin, one length on each side

50 8/3/8 drill with normal side kick (remember you can breathe during the kicking)

50 8/3/8 drill with shark fins

50 catch up

2 x 50 freestyle- focusing on bilateral breathing, good technique, and not stopping to rest or catch your breath

4 x 25 freestyle breathing patterns, alternate 3 and 5

2 x 50 freestyle “build”- as you swim the 50, increase the pace and effort of your kick (this will be hard, but it will make you think about your kicking and build some endurance since you’ll be engaging the large leg muscles) 

100 kick on your back in streamline

100 kick with a board 

This totals 750 meters. If you think this is too much to start with, we can try 500 meters for the first month, and work on increasing from there.

I really like having a swim session plan all outlined like that. Otherwise I get in there, scatter things around, and question whether I’m doing what I should.

Although, I did just re-read that, and I’m a little overwhelmed since I’m going to go get in the pool in about an hour!! That freestyle to kick part might not be anywhere close to possible right now. Yet this is what Kirsten said, it’s time to get uncomfortable and build up my endurance. So…here we go!!

I love this girl!

2 weeks ago my daughter – who is training for her first 5k with Girls on the Run – and I did a 5k training run together. It was great fun! We talked, ran side by side, took a few walking breaks, took our gloves on and off, and smiled at one another.

Last weekend we had talked about doing a run together, but she wasn’t feeling it. Okay, no worries.

This weekend, she wanted to get back out there. We started our run and about a mile in, she decided we should go longer and try to get it done in the same time. (I swear I’m not prompting for these things!!)

She decided to add on 0.1 miles. Last time we ran 3.11 miles in 38 minutes. She wanted to complete 3.2 in that same 38 minutes and kept asking me, “How long have we been out here?” I kept her up-to-date and let her know that we had this! And we did – 3.22 miles in 37 minutes (and some odd seconds). She met her goal!

Also, (and most importantly), she looked at me during the run and told me, “I like running with you.” Ahhhh, nothing is better for my heart than that!!

 

This week I joined the Chicago Tri Club and went to my first meeting.

One of my cycling instructors at my gym let us know that he’d be speaking about metabolic efficiency – a way to burn fat (instead of carbs) – at the next Chicago Tri Club event. I was interested and wanted to attend.

I took care of membership, the RSVP, and sitter (hubby was out of town).

I focused on taking in as much as I could about metabolic efficiency. More on that here.

I also grilled a girl.

A very gracious gal named Karen – who has done Ironman Wisconsin – had the great fortune of sitting next to me… Ha!

She kept responding, so I kept asking!

I learned:

• You don’t have a “space” in transition, you don’t rack your own bike. You go into transition and they get the bag matching your bib number, you go into a changing room, unpack and repack your bag, turn in your bag, and then they get you your bike. Wow, immediately that sounds stressful and chaotic to me. I’m going to have to take that in and mentally prepare.
• After the swim you run up the “heli,” the round and round ramp up 6 stories into transition. Then you need to bike down that and bike back up that at the end of your 112 mile bike ride. You do, then, get to run out and down a regular non-heli ramp to start the run leg of the race. (The run is when I could probably handle the heli best!!)
• You get your “special needs” bag, that you’ll pack, half way through the bike leg.
• You want to start off with the 2 water bottles that’ll fit on your bike. The suggestion is that these be water bottles you’re willing to toss. Then you can grab water and Gatorade bottles from the aid stations and put them in your water bottle holders.
• There are hockey-type nets prior to the bike aid stations into which you toss your used bottles. Then you grab new ones from the volunteers at the aid station.
• The swim is no longer 2 loops, it is one big loop. (That sounds better!)

I learned a lot! This meeting alone was so worth my Chicago Tri membership fee!