The clock is beginning to count down toward the August 2 Fronhofer Tool Triathlon. Tomorrow marks the start of Week 6 in the sixteen week training plan I decided more or less to try and follow at the start of April. When I think about the logic of the plan, it seems like I am following it and am making progress. When I actually look at the plan, I laugh. It seems that I am not following it at all.
After considering the paradox of this situation, I relaxed. The plan — from Beginner Triathlete — has a steady, rhythmic structure that makes sense on a lot of levels: It entails doing two swims (a short swim and a long swim); two bike rides (short and long); and three runs (short, medium, and long) each week. The plan has a double-workout on one day of the week (Mondays) and a rest day on Saturdays. The training for each athletic discipline takes place on the same days of each week. The weekly output builds gradually for each of the first three weeks of the month and then drops down to a recovery week in week 4.
The only problem, I’ve discovered, is that my life doesn’t follow this kind of a structure. So I’ve more or less stuck to the ideas behind the plan — two swims, two bike rides, and three runs week — but abandoned the rigid day-to-day structure. So far, the approach seems to be working out well, and is teaching me some new things about training.
For instance, I’ve learned that I am quite happy to do the bulk of my workouts toward the end of the week whenever I can, specifically on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. I’ve also learned that no matter how much sleep I get over the weekend, I tend to be quite physically tired on Mondays and benefit greatly from taking that day (rather than Saturday) as a rest day. And, in a most enlightening manner, I have learned that training in this way actually allows for each athletic event — the swim, the bike and the run — to sort of support each other.
This has been quite helpful in running, which is a sport which for years I believed was necessary to do at least four if not five or six days a week in order to get faster. The original plan calls for only two days of running each week, with an optional third day thrown in.
Originally, I planned to add short runs to each of the bicycle rides so that I would maintain a five-day-a-week regimen. I scrapped that idea, however, after I realized that actually finding a way to run that many days of the week wasn’t going to be easy but decided to maintain a goal of running with the idea of completing the Adirondack Marathon (eight weeks after the triathlon), which meant bumping up the weekly run miles ever so slightly.
And so this week I logged a 5.2 mile run and a 6.3 miler. These distances are quite a bit over those set by the training program, but they do seem to be working out well for me. Last week, I ran a 9 miler, and I also was able to bicycle 21 miles in one single ride.
The training itself is pretty intense, and it does leave me quite sleepy. In fact I am feeling my eyes droop right now as I am trying to get in my words before midnight and a a new day arrive. But it is immensely satisfying and fulfilling. Each day seems to offer a new challenge, and new questions. Will I make it through the prescribed distance? Can I push the envelope just a little? I find that the challenges embedded in these questions embolden me. They tell me that I should keep my focus on doing what I am able to do, rather than on what I should do. This approach seems to re-center the concept of training so that it comes from the mindset of the athlete herself. I train to make my body stronger and faster, and while the plan holds much meaning, it is not the final determinant. And so now I drift off to sleep.
Moving Your Body 