February

February was my first month of official training, and I think it went well! I rode a total of 250 miles and ran 51 miles (wow!). I did not swim at all, but have my first swim this evening. Got my goggles ready and everything.

Most of my longer rides were done with other people, which is something that I need to be conscious about. One of my struggles is riding by myself and continuing to push myself, so I’m going to try to ride solo at least a couple times a month. Our longest ride for last month was 53 miles, and the longest run was 7.

The bikes over all went well, and mostly I’ve just been getting the mileage in. Riding with Laryssa has helped me work harder for shorter periods, as I know I’ll get a break. Running with her has been nice as we’re mostly the same speed, and talking to someone keeps my mind off the mileage. We did quite a few runs with Apollo, and he absolutely loves it. His longest run is 6 miles!

Overall I think February went well. I forgot to wear my calf compression sleeves for all of January and most of February, which led to some mild shins splints. Luckily the pain coincided with my easy week, so I think I’ve got it taken care of, but we’ll see tonight. I have gotten a lot better at holding the aero position, and much faster on my tri bike (especially with the new gears). I like riding it more than my road bike right now, and still make the rocket sounds as I scream by.

March should be a hard month, with swimming added and some busy weekends, but it’s nice to be getting closer to a race. I hope to do a mock sprint tri this month to see how I’m feeling, and to start adding bricks.

Here’s hoping the 60s and 70s and sun stick around!

Kelly

January was my “negative” month of training. My official training plan is 18 weeks long, starting on February 9^th. So the six weeks before that in 2015 were weeks -6 to -1. As such, I wasn’t very consistent in my workouts, but I think they went well overall.

Biking

I had many trainer session on my triathlon bike, and even a couple long rides. I was able to ride my bike to work 5 times that month, which I am pretty darn proud of. I found a bike seat that is comfortable, and am getting much better at holding the tri position for longer and longer periods of time. For a pre-training training month, I’m really proud of how this went. I think I built a good foundation for the rest of my sessions.

Running

Running didn’t go as well as biking. I am struggling with my new shoes, and my old shoes are getting worn down in support as well. I haven’t come up with a solution. I did enjoy my longish (5 mi, 5 mi, 6 mi) runs with Laryssa, and was reminded that running with others always beats running alone. Apollo came on our 6 mile run with us, and did very well for himself.

While I don’t think running went as well as biking, I didn’t need the same base to start the actual training sessions. So actually, it ended up being just fine. I’m dreading increasing my weekday mileage, but otherwise I think I’m prepared for the start of the sessions.

Getting excited for the Olympic tri, if only because it’ll be warm in VEGAS!

*Kelly*