1st week of the training schedule

This is what a triathlete's bathroom looks like.  All the time.  I cleaned the
whole bathroom 2 days ago and it looked like this again within a few hours.

Well, week 1 is done.  This is what it looked like:

MON:  40 MILE RIDE
            2 MILE TRANSITION RUN
TUE:   REST DAY
WED:  6 MILE TEMPO RUN* (2 miles easy, 2 miles "comfortably hard", 2 miles easy)
            30 MIN. OPEN WATER SWIM
THU:   8 MILE RUN**
FRI:    40 MIN. SWIM (combination of drills and speed intervals)
            55 MIN. TEMPO RIDE ON TRAINER (20 minutes "comfortably hard")
SAT:   30 MIN. SWIM ("descending ladder" intervals--200 yds, 100 yds, 50 yds, 25 yds.)
SUN:   45 MIN. TRAINER RIDE (including 10 x 1 min. FAST intervals)
            10 MIN. TRANSITION RUN

*This is the run where I spontaneously developed the mantra "You can work harder."  It's a good mantra.  I may use it again.

**This is the run where I stopped 2 miles in to hunt for a turtle to enter in the turtle race at the 4th of July festival we were going to.  I did not find a turtle.

I hit all my key workouts!  I did not get any strength workouts in, but I don't feel too bad about that, since this is my first week of full-on structured training, and I was traveling.  Yesterday I worked a 13 hour day at the airport then came home and did my ride/run.  I mean, not that I am bragging.  I mean, it's not like I have a blog dedicated to my training exploits.

During tonight's swim I discovered something.  My feet!  I need to kick them!

Let's back up.  I have been kicking my feet, but because I am a triathlete as opposed to just a swimmer, my kick is deliberately conservative because I need to save my legs for 138 miles of biking and running.  A few months ago a guy at the pool asked me how I swim so quietly.  I didn't even have to think about it.  I knew the answer immediately.  I swim quietly because I swim slowly.  I barely break the surface; there is minimal splashing; because there is minimal speed of movement.  When I come out of the locker room into the pool area I can hear if there are people swimming before I get there.  But if it was just me swimming, no one would even know I was there until they were practically in my lane.  Mainly this is because other people's legs break the surface while they kick, like little foot-shaped jack hammers.  My legs, meanwhile, tend to drag.  This is a very bad thing for a swimmer.  It is ideal to keep your legs horizontal so your body is streamlined, reducing drag in the water.  I try to focus on it and do the tricks that are supposed to lift my legs so I am more streamlined, but it is hard for me.  Today I decided to try being a LOUD swimmer, and make an effort to break the surface with my kicks.  Well, that was exhausting!  It was a lot more work, and it was only a few seconds faster.  Most importantly, there is absolutely no possible way that I could kick like that and then go bike and run afterward!  So I went back to the conservative kick.

But rest assured, it was not a total loss.  (Because I know you are thinking--oh great, another blog about failed attempts at improvement...)  What it taught me is that if I think about breaking the surface with my kick, even while keeping my kick conservative, it helps me keep my legs high in the water.  So it is a useful technique.  Since it is a new position for my body it is taking some getting used to; and it is just one more thing to try to pay attention to while I swim.  There are so many pieces to an efficient swim stroke!  It is hard for me like everything involving technique and coordination is hard for me.  That is why the 2 sports I did in school were track and cross country!  One foot in front of the other.  Repeat.  That I can handle.

The good news is I will be wearing a wetsuit for IMAZ, which helps significantly with buoyancy, thus helping to keep my legs up.  So it is very likely that on the day of the Ironman I will magically transform from a back-of-the-pack swimmer to a wetsuit-clad torpedo.  Though I do wonder how buoyant wetsuits really make you; they can't be keeping people too much on top of the water, because I have heard from numerous sources that, with the simultaneous start of 2000 swimmers, people actually swim right over you!  Also they kick you in the face.  I may kick some faces; but if I do, I will do it without breaking the surface.