2013: Tri-ing something new

[marathondan]

Right, where were we?

Looking back over the log, it seems that week 6 of 17 was a mostly satisfactory event, with a 6+3.5 mini-brick (run at 7:45 pace) and a full brick of 17.5+3.5, with the run coming in at a very pleasing 8:03 pace. Managed a lunchtime klick in the pool, plus the obligatory Monday night lesson. I seem to recall that this was a short, hard session which I didn't really feel the enthusiasm to complete, and then a rather silly end of term game of water polo between all of the classes. 40 or so adults, mostly aged between 30 and 50, reverting to schooldays stereotypes. Which for me meant mostly hanging around in space and being a largely ineffectual link player. Didn't feel like a great use of a Monday night.

Week 7 of 17 was the first week of the Easter holidays, I only worked 2 days and spent the rest hanging around with the family (after attending our neice's wedding, the first we've been to where the happy couple are a full generation younger than us). Motivation went completely out of the window. It was meant to be a step-back, but I did nothing apart from a 1km swim.

Week 8 of 17 arrived, with lessons still out for Easter. I set myself 1.25 km (sounds better than 1250m) which was accomplished reasonably well, and it's fair to say that I have come on a lot since January. But will it be enough? I still take around a 5 sec break at the end of each length, and find it hard to force myself not to do this - the side of the pool is there, and it's too tempting not to grab onto it. So I tried to swim the last 250m set truly continuously, with just a tap on the side each time... and failed miserably. I forget now at exactly what point I ground to a halt, but it wasn't very far in. With hindsight I think this was a faliure of effort rather than ability, but it was a pretty depressing event. My 250m time is not improving at all, and for the rest of the set I began to fantasise about chucking the whole thing in and switching to a late summer marathon (I've always had my eye on the Robin Hood in September). It would be so easy to go back to the familiar world... But that's not what it's all about. Onwards we go.

But the week ended in great style, with my longest brick to date - 20+4.5, starting at 6.30 am under glorious blue skies (which at some point clouded over, but I didn't notice till I finished).

Overall, the whole thing feels far less tiring than marathon training - maybe because I'm still so inefficient at the swimming that it's not really a good aerobic workout yet. I'm missing the spiritual nature of the long run a little, but I'm not missing the creaking joints.

This week I'm holed up in a Mumbai business park. So there will be a couple of bricks on the static bike and treadmill (podcasts at the ready) but the hotel pool is (unsurprsingly) tiny, so unless I can search out a sports centre, any serious swimming is out.

I had a chat with my Ironman friend, who has agreed to accompany me on my first lake outing in a few weeks time. Everyone says how disconcerting it all is, what with the cold, the murky water, the lack of lanes, etc, etc, so it will be good to have someone around with plenty of experience.

Frankly I still think the river current is going to be a big problem, but I need to at least get out into a lake before I can even begin to confront that issue.

Fortunately the bike leg is looking steady if slow (and my ancient hardware can take some of the blame for that) and I'm really getting hang of running straight off the bike.