Base 1 started this week. This means it's actual training. Up until now it's been general fitness and form. Base is a 3 month period of increasing endurance. By February 20 I'll be up to 20 hours of training a week. I'm shifting my thinking to this being my part time job this year.
I am finally all healthy again, there's snow on the ground, and I got throttled sledding last weekend. All happy, bruised and sore I met with my coach on Tuesday night for burger/beer. I got my training plan for the next 4 weeks and it included going to Masters swim here in Hood River a few times a week. I don't know if I mentioned that prior to starting this training I didn't know how to swim freestyle/breathe to the side. I did know how to get tossed around in moving water and not drown, which is a skill that will be handy in the first part of the swim, but won't get me 2.4 miles. At Masters you swim with the champs, you swim 60 to 90 minutes, you have a coach and you swim multiple strokes. For example the fly (which I actually had to google haha... It's short for butterfly btw)
So it's been a nuts journey, and I know I will look back on now and laugh about what a huge deal I made about this.
So last night, white knuckles on the steering wheel, I drove down to town sweating. I sat on the pool deck with hard bodied All Americans just trying to breathe. Turns out the coach is super nice, I finished the workout, liked swimming with other folks, and am going again tonight. Phew!
The best part was when the coach explained the next set was 75s freestyle and 25s "other stroke sprint," I started laughing because freestyle is the only stroke I got. So I learned back stroke.
We also talked about doing some races before Ironman. I have the May 1 Eugene Marathon on the docket. Cassie said I should do Blue Lake Triathlon in June which has Sprint (S:.5m/B:12m/R:3m) and Olympic (S:1/B:24/R:6.2) Distance races. I asked which one I ought to do, she said. Both.
Right.
Woah.
So that's that, chugging along, baking bread right now, on an Etta James binge, watching the snow melt outside, riding the trainer, and getting er done.
The Epic Continues... This is the blog I started when I signed up and began training for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, my first Ironman triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). I trained for 10 months. On June 26 20011 I went to Idaho to do it, something went wrong in the cold water, I didn't make the swim cut off and was pulled from the race. Huge bummer. In a fog of disappointment I signed up for Ironman Canada on Aug 28 to get er done.
you know what else begins this week?
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