Week 3 and 4 were quite interesting. I’ve been really scatterbrained lately, which is odd because school is not in session 🙂
In an effort to help me with training, I’ve rejoined Orangetheory Fitness. I had a membership a few years ago, and I really liked it. I just found it difficult to incorporate into my Dopey Challenge training. With Alcatraz, I really need help with strength training and conditioning, so I’m hoping OTF will get me to where I need to go. It also didn’t help that I was reading Roar (a women’s nutrition book), which essentially scared be back into strength training. I guess that’s a good thing!
In week 1+2 I referenced a shoulder injury brought on by my very FIRST swim of the training plan. I’m just now wrapping up physical therapy on it. Apparently I swapped it with a strained calf! As of this writing, my right calf seems fine but my left one still cramps a bit.
So far I’m averaging about 4 sessions a week at OTF, along with my tri training. It’s nice just showing up and being told what to do. I don’t get a chance to second-guess my workout or bail. For anyone else who is tri training and doing OTF, the coach there advised me to come in for a workout on short/easy days, so paired with swimming or biking.
I have the Louisiana half marathon this coming weekend. I downgraded from a full to a half so that I could focus on my Alcatraz training. I’m looking forward to checking out Baton Rouge for the first time, and eating all of the amazing food! I took a day off of work, which is coincidentally also the last day of winter break for the university.
I’ve been doing lots of visualizations for the swim, bike, and run. I know that the swim will be very choppy, dark, and cold, so I try to think about that when I am on the rower. I need some help on my bike, but I think a lot about those screaming downhills and uphills and I wonder how I will survive. (I still need to reach out to my friends about some casual lessons on bike handling!) When I think about the run, I think about Manitou Incline or the Great Wall half marathon…all stairs, difficult to complete, and some sand here and there (except, in the race, there will be lots of sand).
Week 5 was a bit quiet. I’m not sure what took up so much of my time but I pretty much missed rest week. I completed a split workout bike/run on Monday, went to Orangetheory on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday and Saturday were my rest days and I ran the Louisiana Half on Sunday. (It was a great race by the way! Race recap coming soon.)
Week 6 ramps up my second month of the training program. I can definitely do better, but I’m adding a lot of HIIT into my regimen in hopes that I can drop a few pounds and also get stronger for the other disciplines. It feels like with a better base, I can perform much better on race day, even if some of my tri training suffers. However, that is a hypothesis and I should probably consult with a coach.
Or, maybe I am just in denial because the race looks so hard!
Amara in Training 