I've mentioned a couple of times here, I have somehow gotten the crazy
idea of doing a triathlon. Well, actually, I've been thinking about this
for the past three years or so, just sort of a daydream thing. There always
seemed to be some stumbling block. Back in 2010 it was my Achilles tendon
surgery followed by hernia repair surgery. And then just doing a 5k became
a problem because getting into shape to actually run a 5k seemed to be a major challenge. I mean run as opposed to alternating
jogging and walking. Finally, as we got into this past September, I did
make it through a couple of 5K races without walking (okay, so my "running"
was not all that fast, but at least I was running the whole distance).
But my bunion problems were becoming too painful to keep up with the amount
of training to remain able to run.
So.. December surgery, steel plate and screws in left foot, hobble around
on crutches and then a moonboot and then a surgical shoe... and finally
(a few days ago) my podiatrist has officially released me to full use of
my left foot. (He had told me a month ago that it was okay to do some easy
jogging, but only for short distances, etc.) And, as I mentioned recently,
I have been working with Greg, a personal trainer at the Y, a guy who is
not only certified as a trainer in running and biking and swimming, he
also personally competes in triathlons.
On Friday we went for a bike ride on the pair of Expresso bikes the local YMCA has. It is interesting to ride these bikes, where you are on a course with a bunch of computer generated riders. With the other riders plus the fact that the amount of effort required to pedal varies with the hills on the course (you need to constantly shift gears up or down), this is much more realistic than a typical exercise bike. However, it was really wild having one of those riders on the video screen actually be a real person on a bike just three feet to my left.
Then we went to the pool for swim training. I would swim down and back
(25 meter pool so that was 50 meters) and Greg would give me tips and then
I would do it again... until, when the session was over, he pointed out
to me that I had covered a total of 650 meters. That is about 710 yards...
and the quarter mile swim for the Crabman is 440 yards. So all I had to
do now was to practice to the point where I could swim down the pool and
back nine times without stopping. (Yes, I know, swimming in the ocean is
not just like swimming in a pool.)
And he also gave me a written 16 week training plan for swimming and biking
and running. I now have a plan... and if my feet will let me get back into
running... I think I can do this.
There is a 5k coming up in a month that I would like to try (again, assuming
my feet will let me three miles by then), the Narrow River Road Race. It's
a 10k and a 5k. I've wanted to run it but for some reason there always
seemed to be scheduling conflicts, but now I really want to build my schedule
around it because it would be my first 5k following my move into the 70
age group.
(The Crabman Sprint Triathlon will be July 28th: 1/4 mile swim, 11 mile
bike race, 5k run.)
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