I somehow had this thought that the off season, or what I call my conditioning period, would be easier than marathon training would be. So after a few weeks of doing conditioning, I’ve found that this certainly is not the case. My body is aching is spots that I never even knew existed, but I can’t complain, it feels pretty good. The most surprising part is that I thought I was in good shape, but now I know that I am not, but I plan to get in better shape as I prep for the spring …

My biggest concern in my training, which is swimming, it only getting better with each workout. I am able to do just about a 100m lap .. and am getting better with 50m laps. In total I can do 700m in about 25 minutes, which I don’t think is too bad for a beginner. I can make this claim because just 6 weeks ago, I could barely do 25m without dying. The triathlon i’m looking at is only 450m total swim .. I just have to get through it (it may not be pretty, but I need to get through). I do find that the hardest part for me right now is keeping my butt up when swimming and using what is called my “buoys” keep my balance in the water (buoys refer to my lungs, according to the Total Immersion book)… this brings me to the first thing i’ve really learned about multi-sport training, they are all about keeping your balance. Swimming, cycling and running require balance in different ways, which ultimately requires a strong core. Yep, i’ve read it over and over again, but never really followed it until now… being a tall, lanky thing, i’ve never been in great balance, but the whole core thing should help..

So thats part of my key is to get my core muscles pumped up and to lose some weight .. and I think by increasing my overall fitness and strength level, it could work. Spin class is great for teaching me balance on the bike. I didn’t realize how badly I was out of balance which cycling until I took my first spin class last Thursday .. gee, when I keep my balance, I can pedal faster and I don’t rock back and forth, which was a big problem when I was out on the road last summer when I was trying to accelerate. Hmm …. it works.

Well, all I can say is that my favorite fitness class right now is the “boot camp”.. I did it once last week and suffered for several days afterward and now that i’m broken it, I intend to do it twice this week. There is something about beating the daylights out of myself and using muscles I didn’t know I had by doing hard training that has somehow peaked my interest… so each Monday morning now at 5:15am, i’ll be there doing it and then if I can, i’ll do it Wednesday evenings at 5:45pm. I did better this week than last week thankfully, i’m not sure if its because the workout was easier or maybe I got used of what to expect, but either way, it was enjoyable.

So here is this weeks plan (so far):
Monday – boot camp, weights
Tuesday – swim, bike and run
Wednesday – boot camp, weights
Thursday – swim, run
Friday – spin class, weights
Saturday – swim, run
Sunday – off

Lastly, I think I decided on my spring schedule for racing … hopefully will get another post in later in the week announcing it…