Let the Training Begin

Yesterday marked the official start of training for Steelhead 70.3.  Jennifer and I took last week off (excluding a couple rides on the bikes), and we started training for our next events.  We're both doing an Olympic triathlon on June 26, but that will work into my training for my half-ironman.  Jenn created her training schedule on beginnertriathlete.com, but they only allow you to do free ones for sprints and olympics.  So, I'm too cheap to drop $30 to get the "Bronze" membership, and I decided to look around on the internet to find a free one.  There are a bunch out there if you look hard enough.  They all are pretty similar, so it's a matter of what you really want.  I ended up with this one if you care to check it out, or you can see the first week's right here:

I liked how it was laid out and the different workouts it incorporates.  Those parentheses by the swims represent different workouts for the pool.  The only thing that I am frustrated about, and it was this way on all the training plans, is that the run workouts are by time and not distance.  It makes a big difference to me how hard I'm going to run depending on how far I have to go.  Any wisdom on figuring out how to do these runs better?

I'm sticking with the workouts but not with those days.  I plan on moving them around a bit to work with the weather, and taking Saturday off.  Yesterday's workouts were pretty awesome.  Josh and I decided to brave the INSANE wind and go for a 20 mile ride.  Both of us are decent riders, but we struggled on the way out.  We more or less did an out and back that went straight into the wind and then right back out of it.  We were cranking pretty hard and only averaging 11mph.  The wind was crazy!  Then, once we made the turn, it was amazing to hardly even pedal but be flying down the road at 23-24mph.  It was so much fun.

After the ride, I decided to go for a run.  I ran my favorite 6 mile out and back, and I felt pretty good.  That was the first run since I busted last weekend on the half-marathon.  Again, the wind was a factor, but it was just opposite than on the bike.  At the turn, I was running just under 8 min/miles.  Then, after plugging away for the next three with a major headwind, I ended with a 8:18 pace.  I thought that was pretty decent considering I was just going for anything under 9 min/miles.  I couldn't let the wind beat me, because Mary @ trilikemary.blogspot.com did a the Southern Footprints Half-marathon in the wind this weekend and smoked my time from last week.  She was a big encouragement on this run!  Check out her race report...

Today, my legs are pretty tired.  They're not sore, but they are just "used."  It's a good feeling.  Tomorrow will be the first swim that I've done in a long time.  It's time though, because Steelhead is in 17 weeks!  We got snow this morning, so hopefully the weather will be decent for outdoor runs and rides in the upcoming weeks.

I have enjoyed reading all your race reports from your races this weekend.  It looks like you all have had a lot of fun!  Maybe one day we'll race together.