Setbacks and Steps Forward

Formal triathlon training has begun and today marks the end of week 4 of my 18-week 70.3 training.  Some pretty cool stuff is happening for me physically and I feel like I'm coming into the main tri training season with a decent winter base in all three disciplines.  A few steps forward to celebrate:

• Volume - this was my first 10-hour training week, which is a lot for me.  I put in 2:15:00 in the pool, 4:21:00 on the bike and 3:22:00 of running.  Feeling good and my main goal is stay consistent and average 10-12 hour training weeks through my A race of 70.3 Steelhead in August.
• My swim technique is definitely improving.  My swim coach Jim has really helped me over the last few months and the pesky high elbow catch is starting to come into focus.  My left arm still sucks but it's improving.  Today we did 100yd repeats and I was pretty pumped to clock a 1:46 and a 1:47.  Pretty much all of my 100s were faster than 1:50 which is amazing for me. 
• Consistent running base - I have really tried to maintain the 3-runs-a-week plan since January.  I work towards a short, medium and long on the weekend each week.  Doesn't always work out that way, but it's the most consistent I've been with running during the winter in a few years.  My Hot Chocolate 15K performance was not too shabby (sorry no formal race report for that one) and the course was not easy.  Lots of major climbing and punishing downhills but I still maintained a 10:44 pace which was somewhat surprising.  And I did this tough race the day after a 32 mile ride so that's positive.

And a few setbacks unfortunately...

• A minor bike incident - So I tend to be a bit accident prone.  Not generally a great attribute for someone who participates in a sport that is ripe with accidents waiting to happen.  Honestly, it's amazing I haven't had more 'incidents.'  Note that I will not refer to it as an accident because this situation was somewhat intentional on my part. 

I was enjoying a lovely lunchtime ride from downtown Omaha to Lake Manawa in Iowa.  Gorgeous day, light winds, lots of sun.  So, of course, everyone and their brother was out walking, running, biking, etc. on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge that connects Iowa and Nebraska.  I'm coming back to the office and approaching the bridge towards Nebraska.  This dude with his weiner dog and two kids is oblivious as I'm coming up about 100 yards behind.  I keep yelling out for him to move and that I'm approaching, but he just kind of looked like a deer in headlights.  In an effort to avoid running over this precious dog who was put in harms way by no fault of his own, I veered left hard.  Couldn't dismount quick enough so I crashed into the bridge railing.  Nothing broken or seriously injured but I had a nasty patch of road rash.  A little education for those of you who don't 'play' in this world.  Road rash is not a rash.  It's a patch of abrasions where your skin has hit the pavement and basically ripped off.  One patch on my knee was pretty deep.  Good amount of blood and gravel, but with the help of hard core antibiotic ointment and Tegaderm bandages (greatest invention EVER), I was able to continue training that week.

• ....but I was not able to swim.... - The "weiner dog incident" was bad enough and within a few days of my open water swim meet that I had to withdraw.  I really seriously considered doing the Tempe Town Lake Swim until the day I left for Arizona.  At 4:30am, as Ben was getting ready to drive me to the airport, he says, "Honey, you can't do this swim."  and I'm like "OK, you're right - not worth getting a Staph infection."  So he took the wetsuits out of the luggage...to ensure that I wouldn't be able to change my mind.  I had been reading a lot of triathlon forums about swimming in open water with road rash and the risks were just too high.  Boooo!

So that's the latest.  My first multisport race is next weekend:  Omaha Duathlon.  This race consists of a 2.5 mile run followed by a 14.5 mile bike followed by another 2.5 mile run.  I haven't been doing a lot of brick workouts so we'll see how this goes.  I'll try to get a race report published sometime next week.  Stay tuned, friends!