IRON TRAINING: Some Perspective Three Days In

I wanted to title this post something dramatic, like... "It Has Begun," or "250 Days to 140.6," but I decided that would make the author sound a bit like a megalomanic. Admittedly, I did scour the internet  trying to find a James Earl Jones voice emulator and have it read back my post. That would have been cool. A close second would have been  to hire that guy who use to do all the old NFL films with that epic music playing in the background that sounded like it was right out some Greek or Roman epic with swords abound. It would be even cooler if I had Adam take video clips of me in the first few days of training and I could play them back in slow motion, watching the sweat drip off my brow as it were being read. I guess that is kind of how I am feeling as I start out my training this week—like an indestructible, pain-free, injury-free athlete. You know.. like some sort of gladiator.

Adam and I are officially on day three of training for the Rev3 iron distance triathlon at Cedar Point on 12 September, 2010—my birthday. Already, this plan has been much more intense than the half-iron training last summer—duh!  Day two already had us doing a 50 minute bike workout followed by a half hour run. I know, pretty low volume compared to what we are going to be doing, but way more than we did by the third week of training for our half. My legs felt pretty decent during that  initial workout, and I got to try out my new Timex Race Trainer watch and heart rate monitor. I am digging the watch big time, but I will share my thoughts on that in a separate post.

Our swim workouts Monday and today were pretty fun, if you consider a lot of one arm crawl fun. I had not swam with one arm since the months following my shoulder dislocation last March, even then it was mostly breast stroke. Pulling with just my left arm on the first full day of training was brutal. When I was not stopping half way through the pool because I was drowning, and my heart rate had exceeded my threshold limit, I would hit the hall sucking in air as quickly as possible.  Luckily, Adam and I have been swimming with Vanessa's father, Doug, a one-time—and not too shabby now—competitive swimmer. In case you need any reminding, Vanessa is my running buddy who trained a group of us triathletes for our half-iron run. Doug has shown up to our workouts and has given us some pretty knowledgeable feedback on how to make those pulls more efficient. Today was much easier. I was much more relaxed in the pool and let those left armed pulls happen. Although, apparently I did acquire the nickname "Lucky Fin" from the guards on duty this morning as I was later told. Apparently the similarities are striking.

The hardest part of training thus far has been remembering to go to bed early enough to wake up at 4:45 and get my butt to the gym by 6:00 a.m. to start training. It is difficult at first, but necessary, and after just a couple of weeks it becomes a pretty welcome routine. It is necessary because if I would like to stay married, I really need to get all my training done before 8:00 a.m. The wifey is great though, I have to admit. As the summer creeps up, she allows/tolerates the occasional mid-morning/afternoon bike ride.

Much more soon. Happy Training!