Valentine's Day Workout

Swim: 200 yds of drills: fisting, push the buoy. No r-side breathing: I was sharing a lane with a guy who seemed serious and was a pretty fast swimmer—r-side makes me swerve. This also kind of screwed me up—I was self-conscious about my swimming.

Main set: 4 X 200 yds. Took around 4 minutes each time. Pushed a little too hard in the first couple and wore myself out. Form was good throughout, but slower as the workout went on. Not the greatest workout after last week. I think my “sprints” should be shorter: 100 yds maximum. 200 yds is too long for a sprint. Was SLOWER than my “trial time” at Triathlon Training Camp! Argh. Unless their timing was wrong, which is possible. Anyway, overall, not a great swim after last Friday’s triumphant 1000 yards with ease. Watched a couple of good swimmers out there: little splashing.

Still, there were times when I felt strong. Next time I do sprints I should DEFINITELY go back to 50 yards. Maybe the Men's Health swim drill.

THEN: Stationary bike, 22 minutes. HR at 130 starting at 2 minutes. Max 137 or so, min 125 or so. Kept spinning rate around 95, peaking at 110, so pretty good clip. A good range breath-wise for me, but this bike—maybe the adjustment on it?—made my legs get sore and lactic-acidy. I kept up the pace at level 4-5 for the full 22 minutes, but it was VERY uncomfortable. Legs burning. Do I not like biking? Haven’t had that problem in Spinning class, but maybe b/c my heart rate wasn’t in the zone. I want to wear the HRM in Spinning class from now on and make sure my heart rate is up sufficiently. Because if my legs are going to be burning when I’m in my training zone I DEFINITELY need work on biking, and lots of it. Didn’t much like the bike I was using—big, wide seat, uncomfortable…small cranks.

Finally have a bike (mountain anyway) to use for training! I have to get it seriously tuned up, however. It’s Johnny’s. I don’t know where I’m going to bike, legitimately…maybe TO the gym and back on swim days? But it will be good to do some training in the elements for a start, and get away from this gym nonsense. Hopefully they can tune up the bike at the shop by later this week and I can use it for a longer ride this weekend.

Not sure my training this week: long run tomorrow? Got to look into the distances I’ll be biking and running here.