Triathlon Training: Weeks 1, 2 and 3 + I Need Your Advice

Howdy friends! I hope you had a great 4th of July and are getting back into the swing of things after the holiday. My weekend in a nutshell was a nice brunch with B before he had to fly out of town, finishing my night stand, painting one of my dressers, lots of sleep and then working on Monday. I was thankful for a nice weekend of rest and relaxation! So was this girl

Triathlon Training

Monday marked the beginning of Week 4 of my triathlon training. Obviously things have not gone as planned since I am now sporting a cast but I’ve tried to keep up with things as much as I can. Here’s an update on how I’m doing!

I was actually in my bike accident before my training plan technically started, so I’ve been dealing with an injury since day 1. I was in so much pain up until I got my cast put on that I didn’t do any workouts for the first 2 weeks. This is obviously disappointing to me, but it was it is. I just modified my workouts at first instead of jumping right into week 3.

Cycling

One major bummer for me is that I’m not going to be able to cycle outside until my cast comes off, whenever that may be. So all of my cycling workouts have had to move indoors. I have 2 cycles on my training plan each week: one is part of a brick workout on Wednesdays and the other is a long ride on Saturdays.

As much as I hate not feeling the breeze in my face, one consolation has been being able to watch TV on the bikes at the gym. I love me some Real Housewives but I don’t have cable at my apartment…. so watching it at the gym is a nice compromise for me.

I tried to pick up my road bike from the shop the other day but made the mistake of going on a Saturday afternoon when the line was practically out the door. I wanted to talk to them about getting a trainer tire so I just decided to come back another day. I’m hoping to pick it up in the next few days. I’m kind of confused about whether I should get a trainer tire or an old wheel/tire. Please let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Run

I’m so happy to write this section because running has always been my weakness.

When I found out I was going to have to get a cast on my hand, I immediately thought my running was going to go right down the shit hole. I absolutely HATE the treadmill and the thought of running in the Carolina heat with sweat collecting in my cast was not appealing at all.

This would have been the perfect opportunity to completely scrap my running and possibly even ditch the triathlon training. But I’ve been trying to stick with this saying: If you want something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. I really dislike the treadmill, but there is nothing on a sprint triathlon training plan that I cannot handle on a treadmill temporarily.

I have 3 runs on my tri plan: a short run as part of my brick workout on Wednesdays, a long run on Fridays, and another short run combined with a swim on Sunday. I can’t even believe I’m saying this but I have actually really enjoyed my runs.

#1- running in air conditioning is way better than running in the heat

#2- I find that I pay a lot less attention to the time/distance on the treadmill when I’m watching TV at the gym. I’m constantly checking my Garmin when I’m running outside.

I’m getting ready to order a new pair of running shoes, also. The best part of running!!!!

Swim

Obviously I cannot swim right now and I’ve just come to terms with that. The swim in my sprint is only a 500m, and I’m hoping I can build up enough endurance before September to not die during the swim.

I had 3 swims on my tri training plan. One was a set of sprint workouts every Tuesday, another was an open water swim every Thursday, and then the brick workout with a run on Sunday (shorter swim). I’ve yet to complete any of that, but I’m hoping to pick up where I can whenever I can swim again.

One silver lining is that I have turned my swimming days into strength-training days. I had always planned to formally incorporate strength-training into my plan, but I like that I have 2 dedicated days to distract me while I can’t get in the pool. I use 1 day to do leg weights in the gym and the second day has been variable. On Tuesday night this week, I just spent an hour doing my leg PT exercises at home.

Wrist

I have an ortho follow-up next week and my doctor said that I may get some follow-up x-rays and come out of the cast. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. My follow-up is actually with his PA, and she is a 3x ironman! I am really looking forward to chatting with her.

I need your help:

I’d really like to start listening to podcasts on my workouts (and my commute to work!). Any recommendations?

Also, I’m going to go ahead and order my tri outfit so that I can start training in it. If you have some favorite attire then I’d love to hear what you like!

What did you do over the 4th??