At the Harriman sprint, I bumped into a couple of guys wearing Terrier Tri uniforms. I had already done some research about triathlon coaching in New York. Terrier was located pretty close to home and seemed to have a good program. I asked the guys if they liked Terrier, and they both praised the program, so coming into this year, I was 98% sure I'd train with Terrier. After going to an informational meeting in early January, I signed up for their Half Ironman program. I had some doubts about exactly how it would work and whether it was for me, but decided to give it a go. Working out the financial aspect of signing up it turned out that by no longer paying for a once weekly personal weight training session*, I had enough to cover not only the cost of the program, but enough for a tri bike!
Now I'm about one and a half months in, just starting a recovery week, and think that I made the right choice in joining a group coached triathlon program. Thus far training has ranged between 8 and 12.5 scheduled training hours per week, and I've made huge gains in running distances. Before the Miami Man, I had never run more than 5 miles, much less the 6.6 that I did that day. With the group, I've already completed 3 runs of 9+ miles, the last being an 11 miler.
Because I also need to be with my girls, I pick and choose which workouts to do with the group, and which I do on my own. Swimming is always with the group, because I don't otherwise have regular access to a pool. Cycling has typically been on my own, since I do it on my trainer at home. I've done one workout with the group, which was great for keeping me focussed and on my cadence and heart rate goals, but times haven't really been that convenient, and it's nicer for me to be home with my girls, training here. And the running has been a bit of both. I've been doing Sunday runs with the group, or at least starting with them. Tuesday runs have been a mix of on my own or with the group, though following the recommended plan if I don't join, and brick runs have been either on my own or not happening, depending on scheduling.
It's been interesting trying to a) balance triathlon training with trapeze/trampoline b) balance triathlon training with being with my girls and c) acclimate my girls to my different schedule. All three have gotten easier over the past month and a half, and I've had to embrace the idea that I might have to see how things go, and adjust, however hard that is to do. Now the biggest challenges are to keep myself honest about doing workouts on my own, (so far, pretty good - I just remind myself that I won't get any better just because a workout is on the schedule. I actually have to DO it in order to see gains) and not beat myself up too much because everyone else in the group is faster than I am. That second one is rough, but I'm trying to spin it - I'd rather be the worst in a fast group than the best in a slow group. Of course I'd also like to see myself gaining and surpassing people in the faster group... but will try to be patient with my progress.
*I had been doing once weekly half hour weight training session for the past year or two. While I concede that it likely made me stronger, I haven't felt like doing these private weight training sessions was justified either in terms of dollar amount or money invested. By this I mean that if I want to get better at trapeze or triathlon it makes more sense for me, dollar-wise to take the money per session of weight training and buy 2 trapeze classes with it, or triathlon specific training. I'm not at all knocking the value of weight training, but am prioritizing where I choose to invest my money.
No comments:
Post a Comment