Swimming, Biking, Running -- Update

I have been continuing to work on improving my swimming, biking, and running skills in preparation for my Triathlon on April 16th. I have been very pleased with my progress in all three areas.

Biking:

I continue to commute to and from work every day by bike which is a 26 mile round trip each day. In addition to this I usually go for a ride on Saturday to an aquatic center in D.C. to do some swimming. I think this is good preparation for doing multiple events all at once on the actual Triathlon. I will also usually go for a long ride (50 miles or more) on days I don't have work, such as on holidays. The most recent long ride I did was a 50 mile ride last week on the Washington & Old Dominion (the 'WOD'). I did the 50 mile ride in just 3 hours, I really pushed myself the entire time, as opposed to just going at a natural pace that felt good. So by pushing myself I made pretty good time, not quite the goal I had of maintaining a speed of 20 mph the entire time, but I am progressing. That is the beautiful thing about this sport, its all up to you how much you will progress, how hard you will push yourself and so on. I am planning on doing my second century bike ride (100 miles) soon and hoping to shave a lot of time off my first one.

Biking is definitely the sport out of the three sports in the Triathlon that I am the most comfortable and confident in. I have already biked a 100 mile bike ride and actually bike the Triathlon distance every day I ride to work. The Ironman distance ride is 112 miles, but the other events will make it a lot harder than just completing this event alone. Nevertheless, I am confident for the Triathlon and am not too worried about it for my ultimate goal which is the Ironman.

Swimming:

I have been swimming one mile (about 1600 meters) twice a week. I have improved my time significantly from when I first started. I started at a time of 45 minutes, and the last two times I have completed the mile in 39.5 minutes. There are many things that I can do still to improve my time, like wear a Speedo and do the fancy somersault flip to turn around after each length and lap, but my goal is not to just improve my time in the pool. In fact, I am not really concerned at all about my time in the pool, it is completely irrelevant to my goals of being able to swim the length of the Triathlon and other events in lakes and rivers. There are no walls to push off of in these events, so I am not too preoccupied with my time in the pool, but timing how long it takes me to swim 1600 meters it is still a great way to measure my progress swimming.

Also, the most recent time I swam a mile I went to the shorter pool (Takoma Aquatic Center) and I was able to complete the entire mile using only freestyle. My goal is to eventually only use freestyle because it is the fastest and most efficient stroke (from what I have heard). It was easier to use only freestyle at the Takoma facility because I got to push off the wall many more times than at the longer pool distance at Wilson Aquatic Center, so consequently I wasn't using the freestyle muscles as much the most recent time; instead I would be using my legs to push off the wall a lot and this definitely makes it a lot easier. Nevertheless, it was the first time I swam a mile using only the freestyle stroke.

I have a long way to go in my ultimate goal, which would be to swim two and a half miles in an Ironman -- followed my a 112 mile bike ride and a marathon distance run -- but for now I am focusing on the Triathlon distance.

Running:

This is the sport that I have to be really careful with. I injured my leg (the IT band) really badly two years ago and it took me out of the game for a long time. There is no problem with the IT band when it comes to biking and swimming, but when I run even short distances I can still feel a slight pain where the injury was. What I have been doing is going on long walks and running a mile or a mile and a half at some point in the walk, when my leg muscles are really warmed up.

I have been very pleased though that I have been able to walk and run the distances I have attempted so far without any real pain or lasting discomfort. I take a very long time to stretch out the important muscles before and after doing the running or walking. I went to physical therapy a few times a couple years ago and learned how to stretch out the muscles and it really helps a ton to put in the time to stretch out. The longest walk/run that I have done so far was 6 miles, and I ran for 1.5 miles of it. I was really happy that I was able to do this because that is the distance in my upcoming Triathlon. I know I will have to be able to walk/run a marathon (26.2 miles) to complete my ultimate goal of an Ironman, but for now I am just focusing on taking things REALLY slowly and increasing the distances I run VERY slowly. You have 17 hours to complete the Ironman race, which from my research is a very generous amount of time and you could theoretically walk a large portion of the marathon at the end of the Ironman competition. So in terms of running, I am just taking it really slowly and as long as I am progressing, even if it is by very small amounts, I am completely satisfied with that.