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Sunday, February 13, 2011

First Race and Training

It is official. I have made it into my first race on March 5th in Clermont FL. I had not made the start list originally, but on Tuesday February 8th it was updated and I am now on it. I did not make the start list the first time as there are 75 total slots for racers in ITU draft legal races. In continental cup races, there are 20 slots reserved for the top 20 athletes for the host country. Since I have not yet raced yet, I do not have points and I was not chosen. When you have a start list that has Olympians Hunter Kemper and Jarrod Shoemaker on it, along with about 6 others who have a good chance to be on the 2012 Olympic team, athletes like myself tend to get pushed to the back. The original start list only had 41 athletes and as the field was not filled up with athletes from other countries, athletes like myself have been added to the start list. There will now be 66 athlete towing the line.

I wanted to give an insight on what I am doing to prepare for the race, how I train. I typically train 13 days on, one day off. My day off being Sunday. Monday's are a swim and bike with a short run off the bike, Tuesday's are a swim and run. Wednesday is Strength and a bike, with again, a short run off the bike. Thursday back to a swim and Run. Friday I have strength and a swim. Saturday is a longer bike with a longer run off the bike, and Sunday is usually a little longer run. Every morning I have to get up for work at 5:00 am. I swim or do strength on lunch and then do my second workout after work. It makes for long days and since I also coach outside of work, it tends to make for even longer days. A good example would be some Wednesdays. I have an even early morning due to work, so it would be a 4:30 morning. Then I would do strength on lunch, get home, jump on my bike and ride from anywhere from an hour to 90 min and then have a run of 15-20 min after that. Then it was cram some food in my face and off to the pool to teach a private swim lesson at 8. Done at 9, then home and hopefully, if I am lucky, in bed by 10. If you do the math that is 17.5 hour day, pretty much non stop. To say the least, it is exhausting. Then I only get 7 hours of sleep. I could normally do 7 hours of sleep and be fine, but not with the amount of time I am training. I was getting to broken down. So I have made the decision to cut back on some of my outside coaching. This is a bit of a double edge sword as I use that money to pay for flights, races, travel, etc. I may be out of that money, but I need to rest as well, and being broken down, does not help me. I will fill you in some more on training as the season goes, but I have to go. I am taking up the table and Valentines day dinner is almost ready. Yes, we are doing this on Sunday the 13th (is that bad luck, I really hope not, this one is a keeper), but with Monday's and training, the 14th is not really an option. It is part of the overall sacrifice and I have a very understanding Girlfriend.

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