First Race of the Season

In four weeks I am going to run my first half marathon. I am entering the last third of my training schedule and will have my last long run this weekend. It's going to be a 20 km (12.4 mile) run and the longest distance I will be covering during my training. I am pretty confident that I'll be able to finish that run without any major problems since I have been steadily building my endurance since January. I have been running 3 - 4 times a week. Throughout the week I usually do shorter but faster runs and on the weekends I have been steadily increasing the distance. My long runs so far were a 16 km (10 mile) and a 18 km (11 mile) run and I felt pretty good about my performance. I did go slow as my schedule asked for the runs to be at 70% of my HF max. I am hoping that I can increase the speed during the actual race and I would like to be running at about 80%. But since this is my first half marathon I am also going to play it safe and am thinking about going for a negative split. That would have me starting the race off pretty slow (maybe 75%) until the halfway point. I will then see how I feel that day and try to pick up the pace for the second half of the run to finish that one faster than the first. But all in all this is not about results. I will be truly happy and excited if I can cross that finish line with a smile on my face! I'll let you know how it goes!

Marathon Plans

Hello! I am back… although, I haven’t really been gone anywhere. As much as I like my blog and talking about triathlons here, it somehow was not possible for me to sit down and take a couple of minutes to let you all know how the training has been going lately. But there are some exciting news: Some of my friends, my mom, my husband, my brother and I have signed up to run a relay marathon next spring. What started out as a (somewhat drunk) conversation about exercising at a friend’s birthday party turned into the eight of us participating in the marathon. The race is one of the biggest marathons in Germany and each team consisting of four members splits up the total of 42,195 km (26.2 miles) in four legs. Everybody will be running right around 10km (6 miles) and we decided that the slower team has to provide the beer for the after marathon-party. I guess that my run-training next spring is coming together. I will start the official training for my half marathon in early April in January 2012. After the half marathon I am going to do the relay race in late April and the first Olympic distance triathlon will be in early July. The focus on the running earlier in the year still gives me plenty of time to turn to the swim and bike training later although I am going to continue to incorporate the two throughout. It’s going to be interesting how I will manage to run and bike in the winter though. Time and weather will tell and I will continue to let you know about it here!

Transitions

The transitions between the swim/bike and bike/run leg of a triathlon are often called the fourth discipline of the sport. You have to train for a long time to shave off a few minutes of your swim, bike or run but if you mess up your transition and add precious minutes to your race, all the training goes down the drain. That’s why triathletes have to practice their transitions. I will do my first brick training today, meaning that I will combine two of the sports in one workout for the first time. My training plan calls for an hour long bike ride followed by a short 10 minute run. This training is supposed to get the body used to consecutively doing the different sports. My living room is going to serve as the transition area where I will set up everything I need for the run. I am also going to get everything ready that I might need during my transition such as a towel and something to drink. Knowing me, I will also have to incorporate a short bathroom visit. Since that extra stop would really add some time to my overall race results, I should probably start training not having to use the restroom for an extended period of time…

Bike Anxiety

One of the first major investments I made after deciding to pick up triathlon training was a road bike. In fact, this is the first bike I ever bought since the ones I had before were city cruisers that I got from my parents as a child or that were somehow passed on to me. It was pretty exiting to go to the bike store and tell the guy that I wanted to do a triathlon but figured I would start cycling on a road bike since they are cheaper than the actual tri-bikes and I didn't know if I was going to stick with the sport. After the guy measured me an told me about the different sizes of bikes I ended up purchasing a basic road bike from the German company Cube. It is in fact a "Cube Aerial" with an aluminum frame.  Additional purchases that day were a bike helmet, pedals, spare tubes, a pump, bottle holders and bottles, a bib and bike pants,  and after my first ride on the bike a saddle that would allow my sit bones to actually fit on it. The funny thing is that the saddle is more like a mountain bike/touring model but it's really comfortable and I figured that for somebody like me who is just learning to handle a road bike it's not going to have any negative effects as far as speed and performance goes. So here I go, all proud of my new bike and ready to ride. Well... what I've since figured out is that I am uncomfortable riding the bike around the many other bikers out there. I mean the guys (I rarely see other women) that just look so professional in their gear and on their crazy bikes. I always feel very intimidated like I don't belong out on the road with them. I am really still learning the basics such as properly shifting my gears and I don't wear the clip-on-pedal-shoes yet. The fastest I ever went on the bike were 34kmh (21mph) and it makes me feel anxious and awkward to be out there. It's not actually a fear of riding the bike itself, it's more of a fear of making a total idiot of myself pretending to be road biking... I have talked to people about it and everybody said that I shouldn't worry about it but somehow I can't help myself but feel a little lost on the bike. Although I am not a swimmer and runner either it just feels more natural to be in the pool and the park. A big difference is that I can actually see what the other people around me are doing since they are not just passing by me in lightning speed which gives me more of a perspective on their and my abilities. This bike anxiety is not going to stop me from learning to handle and race my bike but so far it makes the riding the hardest part of my triathlon experience. I will keep you posted on my progress and hopefully will be able to overcome this unique condition!