Monday, September 24, 2007

Consistency and Base Building

Now that I am starting to feel comfortable with work, I have started thinking about my training. Once again. Sometimes I feel like that is all I do. I think about it, but I am not consistent with it.

I have been looking over my traithlon books in the past couple days. I am trying to think about what I want to do. Right now I think I am going to focus on my running and cycling with a little bit of swimming here and there. I have a race this saturday, and I don't know if I feel as ready as I would like. My next 5k will be thanksgiving day, unless I find something else between now and then.

After the turkey trot on turkey day, I would like to really buckle down with some triathlon training; something more consistent and base building. Part of me would like to do my first triathlon in late winter/early spring. But, if I want to do that up here, I need to find something indoor, and I don't know if I am too keen on the idea of the indoor triathlon at the U of M because it is based on time not distance. They give you 30 minutes in each discipline.

With that in mind, I will continue to look for other indoor races in the area. I know some have asked what my plans were for races in 2008, and I am still up in the air. This is so new to me. I would love to do a few sprint triathlons next spring/summer and use it as an excuse to travel. So if anyone knows of any good triathlons or any that they plan on doing, let me know and I might be willing to travel!

I was looking at some training schedules in my books as well as online, and I was kind of disappointed with what I saw. Some of them were based on minutes, which is fine with me, but some of the schedules start with 10-15 minute runs. To me that doesn't seem worth it. I really like the idea of bricks and have been doing some brick work already. Any suggestions or advice in regards to training schedules? For those triathlete's out there, what has worked or is working for you?

13 comments:

Scott McMurtrey said...

sorry i don't have any tri-iffic advice. :(

but don't count out that UM indoor tri. it might be a good training event. :)

Jess said...

I don't know much about tris, only what the other bloggers report, so I'm not any help. Sorry.

Wes said...

Stay tuned up by swimming once a week for 20-30 minutes. Find some drills on the internet to spice it up.

When I started my tri training program, I had just finished a half marathon, and it called for 20 minutes of running, LOL. Go ahead and bump the minutes up to where you are comfortable. You'll be fine. Just keep in mind the cross training, but you've been doing a good bit of that too :-)

Neese said...

tri's are not in my loop either....but I certainly admire your efforts to go for it.... neato that we both have a race this weekend!

Steve Stenzel said...

I hate training plans based on minutes. My IM training was like that, and it just drove me nuts.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a tri person but I do know people who do tri. All the women I know love to do the Danskin Sprint Tri in WI. Good luck.

Krista said...

Yeah, I don't know anything about tri's either. But I do know that, usually, I am annoyed when music starts playing when I enter a blog. But yours? I love the music selection!

Danielle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Danielle said...

Sorry, no tri info from myself to pass on, but I might consider doing the Minnemon one I told you about myself this year. I know it fills up almost right away and it does open registration on Jan 1 I think...so I have to decide soon. No matter what, I hope you do it as I will most likely be there even if I'm not doing it, helping my boyfriend out as he'll be there with his massage stuff again this year.

As far as the training, I'm not into minutes much, but I'd say just bump up to what you are currently doing, or find a bit more extensive tri. My guess is beginner programs are meant for beginner everything. Also, bricks are key. That's what everyone says. I know you keep with the spin to run, but you should defintiely do some swim to spin and/or biking on your own to feel it. Also the U one wouldn't be so bad for a warm up. At least consider it.

Kevin said...

I have my final race on Saturday and I am looking mix up the way I train this coming year. I recently purchased Training Plans for Mulit-Sport Athletes (http://www.amazon.com/Training-Plans-Multisport-Athletes-Essential/dp/1931382921/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_k2a_2_txt/102-9357280-9008148?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-2&pf_rd_r=10431YBA57XM0GXB1B6W&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=304485601&pf_rd_i=188473782X) and the 52 week plan looks pretty interesting. I hope this helps.

Kevin

Joe said...

An indoor triathlon? WTF? Never heard of that!

Unknown said...

I used to train based on minutes, but it drove me batty. I now train on distance. And because I'm slow, that means my long runs/bikes take a long time. But I'm more comfortable going into a race with the distance than just some random time.

Does that help?

J~Mom said...

I felt the same way about the training plans I found online. I started out basing it on days of the week...

swim 2x
bike 2x
run 3x

I made sure I did each for 30 minutes and then bumped up from there. Most recently I have tried to make sure I have my sprint distance done and then some. So I need to ride for 12 miles and this last weekend I rode for 20 miles. So making sure something was left in the tank.

I will let you know how it worked in a few weeks. :>)