Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Does this ever happen to you?

So, I've been cruising along with my training, and apart from the occasional small bout of soreness, everything has been going very well. My swimming is as good as it's ever been; plus it's only April, and get to take a swim clinic to work on skills this Saturday. We're just starting to ramp up outdoor bike fitness, but the sun has been shining, we got in a long ride on Saturday, and other than getting comfortable in the saddle for longer periods of time, We'll be biking along at race pace in no time.

But the running; that's a different story. I've been running 3 days a week in accordance with my Couch to 5k training plan, and I have been making some progress. But every time I move on to the next week in the plan, I feel like I'm struggling desperately just to finish the run, and I'm always REALLY slow for the last running segment of the workout. Last night was no different. Now on week 5, I'm doing 1.5 miles in 21 minutes with 15 minutes of going as fast a jog/run as I can sustain, and 6 minutes of super slow recovery walk. I mean so slow, if you could stand still and walk at the same time, that's what my recovery walks are like.

Do any of you really struggle with one of the triathlon disciplines? I read all the time on daily mile about my friends who run like cheetahs for miles and miles and I get to regularly watch my wife turn in sub-8 minute miles like it's walking from one side of a room to another. It's REALLY frustrating that I still struggle so much with running. I'm aware part of those struggles are tied to my weight, and last night was just a bad day. After 2 weeks of very strong portion control and food choices, we went to dinner last night and I got a salad and water for dinner. It was a big salad, but not of say Cheesecake Factory proportions. Somehow, making all good choices for a day, I was STILL up four pounds on the day. Yes, I drank a decent amount of fluids (probably 80 ounces total), but it just seems insane that I would fluctuate that much.

I'm not downtrodden or feeling like I'm not making progress, because I'm having non-scale victories one right after the other (unless I'm running), but man, yesterday was just a brutal day for my mental state regarding my forward path. I guess if it was easy, America wouldn't be filled with obese people who are slowly dying mostly because of what they eat.

4 comments:

  1. We are in the same boat, I am a good swiimer, strong biker, the run sucks for me.

    I was talking to a good friend who is also a multiple ironman finisher. She said that you will be amazed on how much walking you will see on the mary.

    I am taking a different approached based on many conversations with friends, I am training to walk fast and using a jog as a break, for example, walk 3 mins fast, jog 90-120 seconds as "recovery" and I am hoping it works. As long as I can cover 26.2 miles under 11:59:59pm

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  2. Race-walkers are often faster than middle to back of the pack runners.

    Anyway, C to 5k is a great program - it's how I started - but you still have to be mindful of pacing yourself, even in the short intervals. The object is to endure while still running, not to race the interval, so maybe holding back for now would help on that end. Also, I've read your run continues to improve for about 10 years, just by keeping running, so at least there's that!

    Now me, I can't bike.

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  3. Ryan - Thanks man!

    BDD - Ive walked the majority of my 3 half-marys so ive employed techniques similar to that one, and it's worked. I dont mind being slow for the 26.2, but for my shorter races I want to be able to run. Need more work

    Ms. Duffy - My race walking (or my power walking equivalent) got to be pretty good. I once finished 330ish out of 1500 in a walk race 10k. My running, I just need to keep pluggin away at.

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