Halfway there

I started the 12-week 1st Time Tri training program two weeks ago, which leaves me 10 weeks to the race. And, as this blog is subtitled "Going from chain-smoking, beer-drinking couch potato to triathlete in 20 weeks," that would suggest I'd better be halfway to a triathlete.

I'm on or ahead of schedule in all the disciplines in terms of workout, says my app. I am dead on 165 out of 165 minutes cycling, though I've missed two workouts. I tend to bank time on long rides, which I know is not the point. But riding a stationary bike is as boring as watching a very boring thing being bored, so I try to log all my time outside, which usually means the weekend. (Also, the week is the best time for swimming and running for me, thanks to the proximity of the Y to work.) I have 105 minutes to log for next week, which I'll likely put in tomorrow with Rob, weather notwithstanding. (Then I'm taking my trusty steed -- my bike that is, not Rob -- in for tweaking at the shop.)

Well ahead on the swimming, having put in 2,100 metres in the last two weeks, when the program wanted 1,150. I bank these metres not to buy days off, but because I am still concerned I won't be able to finish the swim leg unless I put in more time.

But my proudest accomplishment when it comes to the program is that my running has kept pace. So far over the last two weeks, the program has demanded 75 minutes. I've run 76. I actually banked a minute running. This is a huge deal for me. In high school, they practically had to put a gun to my head to make me do the 12-minute run, a pre-requisite for passing PE in 11th grade. I have always despised distance running. The 13.5 km I've run in the last two weeks is more distance running than I'd done probably between my 18th birthday and March 21, 2010.

After the early gains of the first few weeks, I probably haven't improved much. And the first two weeks of the training program have been reasonably gentle. When I look ahead at next week's sessions, there's a definite step up in the demands for running; rather than 4x5-minute sessions, I'm looking at 2x10-minute sessions. That's a fair hump for me to get over, especially since I took my Saturday rest day on Tuesday because of work issues. (I blame the lawyers. Long story, and one I can't tell anyway.) The swimming increase is moderate (and I usually go over anyway), and I'll have the biking out of the way by tomorrow afternoon.

The week after is a recovery week, so the demands don't go up. They don't go down, either. The week after the week after ... well, it gets a little nastier.