My Attempt at a Regular Update

It finally feels like springtime here in Maryland! Today was one of the wonderful two-a-days that are characteristic of triathlon training, so that gave me a chance to take advantage of the nice weather. In the morning I did a nice 5mi run along the harbor to Fells Point. Though I've only been in Baltimore for a couple of days, the nicer areas are fairly interesting and have a lot of character. This evening, I did my first swim practice with the Master's group at Merritt and I quickly realized how I'm lacking swim fitness. Fortunately, I manged to make it through the whole workout for a total of about 2700yds. That's almost 1000 yds farther than any workout I've done this year, so if I can keep this up, I think I'll be in good shape come August. I've got a couple more workouts scheduled for Thursday and Friday, but I'm really looking forward to the group ride on Saturday. I think the high is supposed to reach about 80deg, so hopefully we'll have a decent sized group. I hear that the roads are great for cycling once you get out into Baltimore county, so I'm ready to see if it's true.

Crazy Times

So I've been missing in action for the last two weeks and I think I have a couple of decent reasons for not updating my blog.

1. I defended my doctoral dissertation a week ago and for some reason, that whole process consumed a decent bit of my time. I think like many triathletes, I have a penchant for punishment. Who in their right mind celebrates the completion of a Ph.D. by training for an Ironman?

2. After my defense, my wife and I had about 3 days to celebrate, pack our place, and drive to Baltimore so that I could begin my job on Monday (yes yesterday). Needless to say, it's been a wild ride for the past couple weeks.

Somehow, throughout this process I've managed to keep a decent training schedule and now I'm starting to get back into the full swing of things here in Baltimore. As far as workouts are concerned, today was an hour on the trainer with 8 sprint intervals and tomorrow has a moderate intensity run in the morning and a Master's workout in the evening.

I think I've settled on joining a local Master's group at Merritt Athletic Club for weekday workouts, and I'm considering doing Saturday swims with the Master's group at Meadowbrook. Fortunately, these practices start bright and early at 6:30am. If I can manage to actually roll out of bed around 5:30, I can swim, eat breakfast, and then join a local group ride at Tri-Speed (http://www.tri-speed.com) at 8:30. That way I could actually get a bit of rest on Sunday and not have to worry about doing both a swim and run. I guess we'll see how well that works in the upcoming weeks.


Until next time!

Here we go!

Week 1 of my training plan begins tomorrow (technically Tuesday since Monday is a rest day). In preparation for Ironman Louisville, I will be following a 24-week training plan from Matt Fitzgerald's book, Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide.

Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Triathlete-Magazines-Essential-Week-Training/dp/0446696765

The first 8-weeks are focused on building a solid aerobic base and letting my body adjust to doing 8-9 workouts per week.

If you're interested in how "normal" people balance Ironman training with the rest of life's commitments, stay tuned to future posts!