Beginners: Week 3

August 2, 2009

In the first two weeks we've covered a lot of ground. You've gotten yourself going, and you're sort-of-kind-of sputtering along in two of triathlon's three events: the swim and the run.

MISSION
We'll talk about the bike in a little while (like next week). But first, let's go over a little ground on the swim and run. You've got to keep those first two balls—the swim and the run—in the air. You've got to find a stasis point: a way in which you can swim and run without finding yourself running out of time and/or energy. I can't help you with that. No doubt, being a triathlete takes some reordering of one's schedule and priorities. You might find that you've got to bite the bullet and get up early for the 6AM swim sessions (I've had to resort to this and I'm NOT a morning person). Inconvenient, maybe, but that's the life of a triathlete.

Triathletes are the most organized people in the world. They have to be. If you're not organized, then I've got a simple solution: Become organized. It's like something I heard a minister say once: "You want to stop being a sinner? Stop sinning." Pretty harsh. But it's a harsh world. You want to stop feeling so out of control? Then organize your life.

Last week you did four sessions running. We're going to keep it at four and not increase it, for two reasons. First, we're going to raise the time duration to an average of 25 minutes per session. Don't be anal about this. If it's 18 minutes one day and 32 minutes the next, don't be freaky. What I want is for your running session to be running (versus walking) about 20% or 25% longer in time duration than it has been. That probably means you're running 20% further in distance. But I'm less worried about distance right now. Also, remember that I don't really care how fast you go, or even if your runs are runs. They can be walks. Or run/walks. Whatever you can muster.

Don't project six months out. Don't say, "Shoot, I can't even get up and down my driveway, how am I supposed to do a triathlon?!" Don't think about that. Let me worry about that. Think about the workouts I'm asking you to do. Just do those. Everything will work out fine.

The other reason I'm keeping your run workouts at four is that I'm sifting in swim workouts. You did find yourself a master's swim team, right? Or, in one way or another you got yourself swim-situated, so that once I start giving you swim workouts, you're ready to proceed? Good. (If you didn't do that yet, clear your desk and do it today).

EXECUTION
You've got two swim workouts to do this week, three if you're gung-ho. We don't measure these in miles, but in yards or meters. Nobody asks, "How many miles did you swim today?" If your tri-buddy says, "I swam 3000 today," what he or she is saying is that 3000 yards or meters was the distance traveled in the pool.

I'm asking you to do anywhere between 300 yards and 1000 yards per swim session, depending on how you feel and your current level of competence.

Next week we're going to start investigating the bike. I've got homework assignments for you with regard to bike paraphernalia, and if you want to look ahead to next week's workout schedule to see them, that's okay.

Somewhere along the line you're going to hit that 10-workout threshold I spoke of in the first segment of this series. Have you hit that yet? I'd be interested to know whether anybody's gotten that far and still isn't in the groove.

SWIMMING : 2 OR 3 SESSIONS X 300 to 1000 YARDS PER SESSION
CYCLING: NONE
RUNNING: 4 SESSIONS X 25 MINUTES PER SESSION