Planning and Goal Setting Part 1

My scheduled workout for today was a 6 mile easy run. I completed it on the treadmill with no problems and felt pretty good. I'm not looking forward to my 14 mile long run in the slush tomorrow. I wish I had some waterproof running shoes!

I'm also happy to say that I've finally gotten my website up. It's not done yet, and I still have some formatting issues to resolve, but I'm pretty happy with how's coming together. You can check it out at Custom Coaching.

Starting my own business has been a fun and educational experience. I'm learning to do a lot of things I didn't know how to do before like blogging! My next endeavor will be designing a business card.

Now onto our training discussion for today. Planning and goal setting are, in my opinion, one of the most important parts of training. Every year, I like to start my season by selecting the events I want to participate in. The way I typically go about this is to first select one or two races that will be my "big" races for the year. These will be races that I want to peak for, or in other words will be the key races in which my training plan will be built around and that I want to be in tip top shape for. Triatheletes like to call these their "A" races. So for this year, I have selected two races as my "A" races, the Go! St. Louis Marathon and Ironman Louisville. For me all of my training will be centered around preparing for these two races. It doesn't necessarily have to work like that, but that is how I've chosen to plan my year this year. Next, I decided it might be a good idea to do a half-ironman race as part of my Ironman training, so I selected a half-iron distance race that fits into my training plan nicely, meaning that it would provide me with the right amount of mileage for that particular weekend. I won't peak for this race, instead it will be more like a nice long workout that I can use as a measure of my fitness at that point.

After selecting your races for the year, I would next move toward setting your goals. More on this tomorrow!

A great night

Today's (I guess it was actually yesterday's workout) scheduled workout was a run, 10X20sec. hard at one minute rest. Felt great. Did a 10 minute warm-up and 10 minute cool-down for 3.5 miles. Also did a core workout. Finally, got to spend a lot of time with my husband and son tonight, which made it a great night.

Tomorrow's topic will be planning and goal setting.

Awesome swimming today!

Today was a scheduled day off for me, and I took full advantage of it.

I had a swim practice in the morning and the evening with the JCC training group today. I was excited both times when I left the pool, because everyone's swimming has improved so much in the last 7 weeks. I have no doubts that everyone will be ready for the race next weekend!

For me there is nothing better as a coach than seeing my athletes improve. After working with everyone over the last seven weeks, I think we're starting to establish what everyone needs to work on going forward. Now, the real fun in coaching begins. That is, how to we fix the problems? It's easy to say "Beth, you need to finish your stroke all the way" or "Aron, you need to relax" . . . but how do we actually change these things in our swimming stroke. After tonight's workout, I did a lot of thinking on the way home and started coming up with some solutions to some of these problems. I'm really looking forward to working though some of these things as we progress throughout the season.

Thanks everyone for a great workout today!

Running on the treadmill

Today's workout for me was a progression run (20 minutes easy, 20 minutes medium, 20 minutes hard). The hard pace was just slightly faster than marathon pace. Completed on the treadmill with a cool-down for a total of 7.5 miles. I was nervous going into this run, as the thought of running sub-marathon pace (8:24) after running 4 miles this early in my training was a little scary. I made it through no problems and the workout ended up being easier than I thought it was going to be.

Yes, everyone . . . I do run on the treadmill a lot. No need to feel sorry for me. It's the only way I can get my runs in during the winter, and so I really don't mind it. I actually think it is good, because it forces me to keep my pace. I've been told I'm excellent at keeping an even pace (thanks Jen, Chris, and Ben), and I really think it's because I run on the treadmill so much. It also helps to build mental toughness, which we all know we need for the marathon. Last year while training for my first marathon, I logged 30-40 miles a week on the treadmill.

If you do find running on a treadmill boring and are forced to do it for whatever reason, try doing speedwork. It makes the time go by faster and forces you to hit your splits.

Day 3 of Marathon Training

Today's workout for me was an 8 mile run at an easy pace. I did the 8 at 9:37 pace on the treadmill. Felt good for the whole run! It's going to be a challenge to train for the marathon in April while building my base for the Ironman in September, but my plan is to do my run workouts as scheduled and to get in one swim and one bike per week until after the marathon is over. The bike and swim workouts will be focusing on building endurance and working on technique. Hopefully, that will be enough. We'll see!

Let is snow

I'm happy to say that I'm following a training plan now and am out of my random training mode. Today was a scheduled day off for me.

It's snowing here in St. Louis! Could possibly be our first decent snow this year, so I thought I'd provide a everyone for a few cold and snowy weather training tips.

1. If it is icy out, do not train outside.
2. When dressing to run outside in the cold weather, dress like it is 20 degrees warmer then it really is.
3. Don't overdue your layers when dressing to training outside. A base layer, a mid layer, and an outer layer if necessary is really all you'll need.
4. When dressing to bike outside in the cold weather, dress warmer then you think you'll need to dress. A layer that blocks the wind is a necessity.
5. Wear a hat when biking or running.
6. Mittens work best to keep your hands warm.
7. Make sure you drink fluids even though it's cold and you may not sweat much.
8. Take an extra dry warm jacket with you to put on for the car ride home.
9. Don't attempt any hard interval work, as the cold weather can make it difficult to get your legs warmed up.
10. Take a warm shower and stretch after your workout.

Big River Training Team Begins

Today was the first workout for the Big River Marathon and Half-Marathon Training Team. I'm happy to be back helping out with this group. I've learned so much about training for the run from Ben, the runners in the group, and the other coaches. I had a great time meeting everyone in the group today and am really looking forward to running with the team every week.

I also got my marathon training plan today. It look pretty challenging, but I'm going to give it my all! Today's run was an easy 6 miles, which was really relaxing after yesterday's freezing 13 miles.

As I mentioned in my first post, I wasn't planning on getting my business started quite as quickly as I did. I wish I would have had more of the infrastructure in place before before I really started taking on clients. However, things now seem to be falling into place.

My husband spent the day making bike stands, so my clients will be able to practice realistic transitions. It took a little figuring out on his part, so that the stands will work for both mountain bikes and road bikes, but I think he has it worked out. My dad also got involved in this project. Both my dad and my husband are engineers, so I just asked that the racks not be too complicated for me to put together, because from the way they were talking about building them, you'd think they were designing an award winning civil engineering project! I have complete faith that the racks will be wonderful.

That's it for tonight. Thanks for reading!

Brrr . . .

It was very cold this morning for the Frostbite Series in Forest Park. I never warmed-up during the half-marathon run. Although I just like to use these runs as training runs, I was happy with my time of 1:50, considering the cold weather and that I have not been running very much lately.

I was also happy to hear that Tara had a great PDR run with her Fleet Feet training group today! Also, kudos to Beth for being out there in the cold today!

I also did a core workout today! Which I hope to start doing 3 times a week until Ironman Louisville.

I've been busy working on the Custom Coaching website, planning upcoming training groups, and formulating some more ideas for my coaching business. I should have a lot of exciting things to talk about over the next few weeks, so please stay tuned!

Functional Strength Training

Zero workouts for me today.

The primary goal of any strength training program for an endurance athlete should be injury reduction. Notice, I did not say injury prevention. Again, just to recap yesterday's blog, if you are using strength training as a part of injury rehabilitation, make sure you are following a program prescribed by your doctor or PT.

What is functional strength training? Functional strength training works to enhance the coordinated working relationship between the nervous and muscular systems. Obviously, having a good working relationship between our nervous and muscular systems will help us to perform our sport of choice better. But how will this help to reduce injuries? There should be five key aspects of every strength training program: 1. develop joint flexibility, 2. develop tendon strength, 3. develop core strength, 4. develop stabilizing muscles, 5. train movements not muscles. It just so happens that functional strength training is the best way to cover these five items. As we look at the five aspects of strength training, we notice that they all also seem to relate to injury reduction. Especially key to injury reduction is developing stabilizing muscles. Functional strength training is a great way to do this.

When designing a functional strength training program, you want to make sure you include controlled amounts of instability so that you must react in order to regain your stability. For example, one great functional stability exercise is the one legged squat. You'll have to concentrate on maintaining your balance while you do this exercise. See the nervous system and muscular system working together? No weights required for this type of training, which also makes it easy to do at home. The next progression on this exercise would be to perform a one legged squat on an Airex mat then on a Bosu ball after that. Now when doing functional strength exercises it is Key to note that we are training the movement, not the muscles! Therefore, we won't necessarily do repetitions of these exercises, but will do them until we achieve "functional mastery." What does that mean? It means that you do it until you can do it perfectly. If you can't get it perfect during one session, then you pick up at that same point during the next session. Taking our one legged squat as an example, you would continue to do the one legged squat on the ground until you could get it perfect, meaning no wobbling, falling over, etc. Once you achieve functional mastery, then you would progress to the one legged squat on the Airex mat and do that until you achieve functional mastery.

Bottom line - If you're looking to incorporate some strength training into your training plan, functional strength training gives you the most bang for your buck!

Cross Training

Today, I did a 2700 yard swim workout. I wanted to get a run in too, but got home from the pool too late. I'm really happy with how my swimming has been going. I've been getting in 2 swims a week for the past couple of weeks, which is really good for me at this point in the season.

Now, on to cross training and injury prevention. First of all, I'd like to make a distinction between cross training and weight training. To me, cross training means doing an activity outside of the sport you normally train for. Weight training is a type of cross training for anyone who is not a weight lifter. Cross training does not necessarily mean weight training.

Next, if you have an injury that prevents you from training for a couple of weeks, I would advise you to go to the doctor. Hopefully, he can provide you with some exercises or stretching to do that will improve your condition or help to prevent the injury from happening again.

The best type of cross-training in my opinion are core exercises. Having a strong core does wonders to prevent a lot of different types of injuries. I have all of my athletes do core exercises, whether they've ever been injured or not. I would start by doing them 2X times a week and gradually build up to doing them everyday if you have time. Remember, don't do the same exercises everyday, week after week after week. You need continually mix it up.

Now obviously core exercises won't prevent all injuries, so what about preventing other injuries? To my knowledge the latest rage for this sort of training are functional strength exercises. I will blog about these tomorrow, as it's too much to get into tonight.

Next, let's move on to the situation where you're injured and you need to use cross training to maintain fitness, because you can't participate in your usual sport. Well, if you participate in running, cycling, or swimming, you know that the bulk of your training is to build, improve, and maintain endurance. So you'll want to choose cross training activities that do the same. (I would again caution you to have your doctor help you with this, as some types of cross training might do more harm than good for your injury.) So, let's say you have a running injury and are unable to run, but you get the okay to use an eliptical machine and exercise bike from your doctor. I would follow much the same plan with those two pieces of equipment as you were planning to do if you were able to run. For example, if you were suppose to do a 5 mile run at an easy pace, I would do an equivalent workout on the bike and or eliptical. So let's say your scheduled run would have taken you 45 minutes, so that might be equivalent to 1.5 hours on the exercise bike in heart rate zones 1 and 2. Aerobically, you would get a similar workout. Now, obviously, the exercise bike is not going to build strength for running, so as Katie hinted, you'll want to do some strength training to maintain and build your strength. Here again, is where I would prescribe functional strength exercises and maybe some weight training of the appropriate muscle groups.

We'll continue this discussion tomorrow!

Not planning should be part of the plan

No training for me today. Just too busy.

Tonight, I went to the St. Louis Triathlon Club meeting. The topic at the meeting was periodization, which basically means organizing your training. Right now, I'm training without any real planning, which is actually part of my plan. I like to have a very unstructured "off-season," to prevent burnout from intense and more structured training during the rest of the year. I think it is important to have this time at some point, weather it's taking a couple of weeks off after a big race, or training without structure during the winter. Your body and your mind will thank you for not planning every once and awhile.

Katie - sorry I got sidetracked on this tonight. I'll be back on your topic of cross training tomorrow.

The Pull Buoy

Kristi - Great question! Very related to yesterday's post too. The TYR floaty that you see between people's legs at the pool is called a pull buoy. Basically, you put it between your legs and it keeps your legs afloat while you swim using only your arms. This is referred to as "pulling" see yesterday's post.

Katie - First of all, congratulations on running your first marathon! Second, I like the interview you did with Workout Mommy. You bring up a great point about cross training and injury prevention. I'll discuss this topic tomorrow.

I rode the Computrainer today for the 2nd time. Did the CP30 test again, as my HR monitor didn't work on the test I did last week, and I was curious to see it. Later this week. I'll start the Computrainer PIG (Performance Improvement Guarentee) program, and we'll see if it actually works.

My First Comment!

Hey! I received my first comment! Very exciting! Please comment and ask questions. I would love to hear from you. The question was, what am I going to do to improve my upper body strength? Let me preface this by saying that I believe the best way to build strength for swimming is to swim. Likewise, the best way to build strength for running is to run and the best way to build strength for biking is to bike. Seems like a lot of people look for some sort of short-cut to improvement, but the bottom line is there isn't one.

Now, let's specifically talk about swimming. First, you need to gradually build your base, which will also start to gradually strengthen your muscles. We don't want to do this too quickly, as we need to be cautious of shoulder injuries. As every person is different, the amount and exact method of base building would vary from person to person. As you increase your yardage, I would recommend to start adding some pulling sets in gradually (no paddles at this point, too hard on the shoulders). After you have a significant level of strength built from basic base training, I like to add pull sets with paddles. Magically after several months, your strength will improve!

Let's talk about one upper body exercise that I do like and would recommend that everyone include in their program. That is none other than push-ups! Why push-ups? Because they require no equipment, very little time, and there are no excuses not to do them. Also, you get a lot of bang for the buck. Most people think of the push-up as an exercise for the chest, but the push-up actually works much more . . . the core, the triceps, the shoulders, the back.

Bottom line, as most of us are short on time, I generally do not advocate a lot of "weight" training for most people (again depends on each individual athlete though). Swimming, biking, running, and a few other basic strength exercises, like push-ups, will go along way to helping you build the strength you need to enjoy the sport of triathlon!

Today's training - took a rest day. Worked on the custom coaching website. Hope to have something online soon!

Building upper body strength

Made it to the pool today for a 2500 yard workout. I did an 1800 yard pull set, as I've been able to tell my upper body is very weak. Going to focus on building my strength in the pool for the next month or so.

Thanks everyone who's been reading my blog!

What a great day to be outside! This warmer weather (40s) makes training outside much more enjoyable.

Today, I ran 10 miles at Queeny Park. Got to the park a little early to meet Laura and Tara, so I got 2 miles in before they got there. Felt great. Wish I would have had time for a couple more miles.

Endurance athletes should be more like dancers.

Unfortunately, I don't have any workouts to report on today. Looking forward to some good training session this weekend.

I just got home from the Dancing with the Stars show. Yes, dancers are athletes. One of the most remarkable things about dancers is their flexibility. I think flexibility can benefit athletes in all sports. Unfortunately, flexibility training is one of the most overlooked aspects of endurance sport athletes. How many of us go out for a run and then immediately hop in our cars and go home without stretching? By the time we get home, our muscles are cold and stretching at that point is likely to do more harm than good. Stretching is great to prevent injury and to reduce soreness, but it can also improve performance, by increasing range of motion. One of the easiest ways to improve your splits is by getting in the habit of a regular stretching routine.

The JCC training group is doing great!

Had a great practice with the training team at the pool tonight. They had a tough workout, but everyone did a great job! Beth asked if I thought they were getting better. Yes! Everyone's swimming has improved a lot.

I got in 2600 yards tonight in the pool which was a decent workout. We'll call it my second Ironman swim workout.

I'll be running the Go! St. Louis Marathon in April. Marathon training "officially" starts for me in about 1 week. I'm looking forward to training and the race. I'm in much better shape this year than I was at this time last year. I've been getting a long run and a few other runs in every week, for the last couple of months. From now until the marathon, I'll be focusing primarily on running and will try to get at least one swim and one bike in each week, to have a little bit of a base to start Ironman training right after the marathon.

Final words on the eating log

There is a lot more to racing than racing. The "a lot more" is of course training. I was not able to get any training in today, but had a much more enjoyable day spending time with my mom on her birthday.

Tomorrow's plan is to make a training plan to follow until my official 20 week Ironman training plan starts. I haven't really been doing any structured training for the last four months, but I know I train better when I have a plan. I'm also working on getting into a routine with my training, which proves to be very difficult with a 2.5 year old sometimes.

Went to the running store today to try to get some shoes to run the marathon in. I was looking for something a little lighter with firmer cushioning, as I train in Nike Vomeros, which are pretty hefty and have very soft cushioning. I tried on the new Nike Lunar Trainers. I really liked , but as they are a totally new technology, the guy at the running store said he didn't know if they'd make a good marathon shoe. I ended up leaving empty handed. I'm thinking about trying some Asics Speedstar 3s.

Now back to the discussion on nutrition. Time to pull out your eating log that tells you what you and and why. Hopefully, this exercise was pretty self-explanatory, but I do just want to talk about a few things. First, you need to eat when your hungry or about every 3-4 hours, so when you look at your log, we want to try to eliminate most of those times that we eat "just because." YES, it is okay to occasionally eat things that are not nutritious, because we like them or because we just feel like it. The key is to not make this a regular occurrence. We want most of the reasons that we eat to be "because I was hungry," "it was mealtime or snack time," or "I needed some extra protein for the day." All of these reasons are good reasons and we should eat for good reasons. Remember we need to eat to be able to train and to reach our full potential. I encourage everyone to do this log every few months to help stay on track with their eating plan.

My son may be a lefty, but I'm not!

Today, I finally got to try out our new Computrainer by doing a 30 minute critical power test, so I'll have a basis to start some power based cycling training. One thing became apparent during the test, which I had never noticed on my few other times on a Computrainer . . . my left leg is less efficient than my right leg. I always thought I had a pretty even 50/50 split, but after today's test, it looks like that is no longer the case. Every time my concentration dropped just a little bit, I would find that my left leg was at 46%. My pedal stroke was also rather choppy, but I guess I have to expect that after being off of the bike for over 4 months. Looks like I have a lot of work to do on the bike! Total miles on the bike today was 16.

Computrainer - better than Wii Fit!

I did get on the bike today, but did not really get a workout in. I worked on setting up our new Computrainer. Who said video games aren't good for your health! Took a day off from running after my 18 miles over the weekend.

Ran the 6 mile loop with Maria and Steph at Forest Park this morning. I need to start biking, as that is probably going to be my weakest portion of the Ironman race. I hope to get on the bike tomorrow!

I planned my races for 2009 the other day. This years plan looks very different than my plan from 2008. Last year, I did a triathlon every month from April through September. In 2009, I will only be doing two triathlons. I'm going to do the Spirit of Racine Half on July 19th in addition to Ironman Louisville on August 30th. I thought my time would be better spent training than traveling to races. I'm going to miss all of the races, but am looking forward to Louisville.

Back on Track!

After two days of not training, I was back on track with my training today. This morning, I ran 6 miles with Tara. Then while I was waiting for the Frostbite Series to start, I ran another 3. I decided just to run the 5K at the Frostbite Series this morning. My total running miles for the day ended up at 12.

Later this afternoon, I headed to the pool. I hadn't done a swimming workout since August, so I'm pretty out of shape for swimming. I did some easy sets and ended with a total of 2550 yards.

I felt like today was my first respectable day of Ironman training!

Let me also get back on track with my discussion of the eating plan. Just as a refresher, here's what I've gone over so far:

1. When you feel like you're training to eat, rather eating to train, try to take a week and write down everything you eat and WHY you ate each item. We'll talk more about this log in a few days.

2. Schedule a weekly trip to the grocery store.

3. Plan your meals and snacks for the week before you head to the grocery store.

4. Remember to graze (eat small portions frequently).

What to eat - I could get really technical about how much protein, carbs, and fat an athlete should consume each day, but I prefer to keep it simple. Athletes, like non-athletes, need to eat a well-rounded diet. Just take a look at your plate each meal and make sure you have nutritious foods that contain protein, carbs, and fat at each meal, and you'll be well on your way to meeting your dietary requirements. Generally, you don't have to make much of an effort to intake enough carbs or fat, as they are found in almost everything that we eat. Getting enough protein, however, can be a problem. One easy way to get a little extra protein in your diet is to dump a scoop of protein powder (I like Muscle Milk) or a bowl of cereal or oatmeal.

After a training session or a race, it's a good idea to eat a snack within a half-hour if you don't have time for a meal. Make sure to get that meal in within 2-3 hours of a training session. Finally, it's very important that after a race or a hard workout that you include protein in your meal, in addition to carbs and fat.

Today was another day!

Today was another day. Another day of missed workouts. It's very early in the season for my Ironman training; however, it's starting to get into my marathon training. I'll be doing the GO! St. Louis Marathon in April. I should get a good day of training in tomorrow.

One Is Better Than None

Well, today's workout plan did not go as scheduled. I was planning on doing a run and a swim. I managed to get a one mile run in, due to time constraints. I'm going to be positive and say that one mile is better than no run at all. Tomorrow's another day!

On a different note, I had a great workout with my training team at the pool tonight. They did a fairly challenging workout, and they all finished it very strong. It's exciting to see everyone improving!

The Eating Plan

Today I ran 5 miles on the treadmill. I felt sluggish, probably from doing speed work yesterday. Also decided to start practicing what I preach, so I did a short core workout and 50 push-ups. The 50 push-ups were hard and have given me some real motivation to get serious about my training.

Now back to “The Eating Plan” . . . The next step is to establish an eating schedule that we follow every day. The best way to eat is to graze, meaning eat small portions frequently throughout the day. Most of us know this, but do we do it? As athletes, we need to scheduling our eating around or training or vice versa. It’s a good idea to eat 3 meals (yes, this includes breakfast) and 2-3 snacks throughout the day. I use the term “schedule” very loosely here. When you are hungry you should eat, don’t wait till the next “scheduled” eating time to eat. It also works the other way, when you feel completely stuffed, don’t eat.

Now, let’s go back to our weekly grocery store trip. If you really want to get serious about your eating plan, it would be an excellent idea to plan all of your meals and snacks for the next week before you head out to the grocery store. This allows you to plan healthy meals and snacks and to go to the grocery store and come home with everything you’ll need to eat nutritious meals the following week.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about what to eat!

"Eat to train. Don't train to eat."

As part of my USAT coaching training, I was fortunate to hear Coach Bob Seebohar speak on nutrition. In addition to being a USAT Level III Elite Coach, he is a Registered Dietitian. As I'm from St. Louis, his biggest claim to fame for me is being the coach of Olympic triathlete, Sarah Haskins (originally from St. Louis). Anyway, I took many things away from Coach Bob's nutrition talk, but one of the simplest things was this quote: "Eat to train. Don't train to eat." Sounds easy enough, but let's face it. It's hard to do.

One of my clients emailed me yesterday stating that she was having some trouble with eating to train and not training to eat and wanted to know if I had any helpful hints on how to eat to train. My first piece of advice is let's develop an eating plan. You have a training plan, so shouldn't you also have an eating plan? In my opinion, no endurance athlete should ever go on a "diet." In fact, I'd take it so far to say that a diet is a bad idea for anyone. I think a lifestyle change is a much healthier and longer lasting alternative. An eating plan will help guide you to better nutrition, while a training plan guides you to better fitness.

So what should be in this eating plan? Let's start with the basics. In order for your eating plan to be successful, you need to have healthy nutritious foods available to eat. In order to have these foods, you need to go to the grocery store. This may sound extreme, but many people should actually consider scheduling a regular weekly trip to the grocery store into their busy schedule. We all know what happens when the pantry gets bare, and we're hungry. We eat whatever we have . . . chips, cookies, crackers, candy, soda, Powerbars, etc. These things are okay in moderation, but too much is not a good thing. So start your eating plan out by scheduling that weekly grocery store trip.

What do we buy at the grocery store? Buy healthy nutritious foods that you like. Please notice the word "NUTRITIOUS." Please don't run out the door and stock up on rice cakes. If you're an athlete you need foods with substance. Here are some ideas, fresh or frozen fruits and vegatables; coldcuts; whole grain breads, cereals, and pastas; milk; yougurt; eggs; chicken breasts; and ground beef, turkey, and chicken. Avoid buying those less nutritious foods like cookies, chips, and other "snack" foods. Afterall, if you don't have them you can't eat them. So some of you may be thinking: "Okay, but I have kids or a spouse at home. What are they going to eat?" Simple answer, the same healthy nutritious foods you will be eating. Get the whole family involved. Your family is a great support network, so get them involved too.

I'll continue blogging about "The Eating Plan" tomorrow, but before I'm done for today, I want to pass on another bit of advice from Coach Bob. I would encourage anyone who wants to improve their eating habits to try the following: keep an eating log for one week. In this log, write down everything that you eat and WHY you ate it. For example, you might eat a bowl of Cheerios with milk and a glass of orange juice, because it's breakfast time and you're hungry. Later on that morning, you might eat a Krispy Cream donut at work, because someone brought them in and you like them. See where I'm going with this??? Tune in tomorrow to learn more.

Today's workout for me was running speedwork: a Ladder - 1600 (10K pace), 1200 (5K pace), 800 (2 mile pace), 400 (mile pace)

It's only January 5th, and I'm already behind . . .

I wanted to start my training blog on January 1st, but as usual, I'm running behind. I invite you to follow me as I begin my triathlon coaching career and train for my first Ironman distance triathlon.

Let me quickly get you up to speed. I love triathlon, and I love helping others. So last year, I decided to put those two things together and became a USAT Certified Level 1 Coach. I'm not really big on credentials or certifications, but I thought it might be good for business.

I was planning on starting a triathlon coaching business in 2009, but was approached by a friend to help her and some of her friends train for the JCC Indoor Triathlon, so I actually ended up starting my business at the end of last year. I'm happy to say that I have 5 people in the JCC training group, and we are in week 4 of our training and all seems to be going well.

Now, let's get caught up on my training since the first of the year:
Thursday, January 1st - Did running speedwork 5X800's on the track - felt good
Friday, January 2nd - Ran 6 miles - felt good
Saturday, January 3rd - Ran 5 miles with the training group and then another 9 for a nice 14 mile run
Sunday, January 4th - Went for a very cold 20 mile bike ride with Tara. It was 35 degrees with 22 mph winds, making it feel like 22 degrees. I think this is the coldest ride I've ever been on.
Monday, January 5th - Ran 5 miles on the treadmill.

Well that's it for my first post.