week of 8-30

Well, last week didn't go as planned after Tuesday.

I trained on Monday, as planned, and Tuesday, my left shoulder hurt like mad, right in the front. Right shoulder was sore in the same place, but left shoulder hurt. Couldn't lift a glass to drink. Over the course of the week, it's gotten better, to the point where yesterday it twinged once or twice but that was all. I have been careful not to use it at the gym at all, soooo....

Tuesday I went to spin as planned.

Wednesday my whole body was sore and tired, so I went and used the steam room and the hot tub :) I've never gone to the gym with the intention not to exercise before, so that was kinda weird, but it was a good, relaxing, healthy thing to do.

Thursday I did some interval training on the treadmill.

Friday I did just the stairmaster. I'm close to being back where I was before monitoring my heart rate, which feels good!

Yesterday I did nifty 50s on lower body and core: ball squats, calf raises, crunches, oblique twists, back extensions, hip flexors.

Today, I am going to do more interval training on the treadmill and also use the steam room and hot tub.

Tomorrow, I am going to train. Tuesday, I'm going to spin. After that, it all kind of depends on how my shoulder feels. If it's not feeling better by Tuesday, I'm going to call the PT who worked wonders on my hamstring and see if he can do the same magic on my shoulder. In the meantime, my trainer did give me some exercises I can do for my shoulder, which I have been doing.

We'll see how it goes. The tri is four weeks from today!!

week at a glance

I thought I posted last week, but it's been two weeks!

The plan is to blog once a week about what's upcoming (and make amendments to anything that didn't get done according to plan from the previous week).

This morning, I went to spin.

Tomorrow, I'm going to run.

Monday, I'm with my trainer.

Tuesday, I'm going to spin.

Wednesday, I'm going to lift if I'm not still sore from Monday. If still sore, I'm going to swim.

Thursday, I'm going to do whatever I didn't do on Wednesday.

Friday, I'm going to lift and run.

Saturday, I'm going to spin.

Sunday I'm going to swim.

I swam on Thursday. My upper body is just tired, though, so I decided no more upper body anything until I train on Monday. Last night I did a good long set of foam rolling and half an hour on the stairmaster. Not resting entirely, but resting the parts that feel like they need to rest. I like this plan.

The next race is in 5 weeks! Four more weeks of good solid training, a week to taper, and two hours to show off all my hard work :)

goals

I was swimming yesterday and came to notice that I can do 800 meters about five minutes faster than I could two or three months ago. So I was thinking and plotting and planning ...

My current goal is to trim 15 minutes off my old time. I'm sure I can take 5 minutes off my swim. My bike time will be shorter if for no reason than the bike course is shorter ;) (by 1.4 miles). But I'd like to bike faster anyway. And my run time last race was awful, so I'm sure I can clean that up a bit.

So: 2 hours. That's the goal time. Yes, that's actually 16 minutes faster, but that's just details...

Today I trained with my trainer. Plan for the week is: spin tomorrow, swim on Wednesday, lift on Thursday, land cardio on Friday, lift on Saturday, swim on Sunday.

I'm getting excited!

tri #2 is officially on it's way!

Well, the title of the blog is my first triathlon, but since I'm still triathlon-ing this season, I might as well keep on blogging about it!

I just registered for my second triathlon, another sprint tri at the same place as the first one. The bike course is apparently different (a little shorter and a little hillier), but the swim and the run are exactly the same. There is also an olympic-distance tri at the same time and place (two loops for each of my one), but I don't really want to do anything longer. The last one took me over two hours to complete, and for me, that's plenty of time to be exercising.

I went to see a cardiologist regarding my exercising heart rate, as it easily climbs into the 180s, and with some exertion, hits 195. That's high. So he did some tests and said that it looks healthy and strong and not to worry about it, but for regular long-lasting exercise, to keep it around 165. I struggle with that, but I'm working on it.

For training now, I'm doing 1 or 2 spin classes per week, training once a week with my trainer, swimming 2-3 times per week, lifting weights 1-2 times per week without my trainer, and once a week doing other land-based cardio (treadmill, elliptical, stairmaster, rower). Things are varied enough that I'm never bored, and my body is getting stronger and stronger!

I have my weight and measurements checked roughly once a month by my trainer (scale, tape measure, calipers). According to those measurements, I've gained 7 pounds of muscle since March! Woo-hoo!

Training for the previous tri was hindered by a long-lasting hamstring injury. That's not happening again. Every time I go to exercise, I use a foam roller on my legs, which has been great. No problems so far...

I am very excited about this second tri, and I'm anxious to see how much better I perform!