Barely Tri-ing

Between illness and travel my training for the last two weeks has been almost nonexistent.  If I don't get back in the swing of things soon I'm going to have to re-title my blog Barely Tri-ing.  My normal/ideal weekly training schedule includes 2 swims, 3 bikes, 3 runs, yoga and strength training.  Let's see over the past two weeks I've gotten in most of my runs, a couple bikes, and absolutely no swimming or other activities.


To be completely honest I haven't been to the pool to swim in almost a month.  I was doing so good at the beginning of the year, but if I decide to skip a workout it's always the swim.  I DREAD the swim - every time.  It's my weakest sport, so it should be the one I work on the most, but instead I do the opposite, which makes me struggle even more.  Now when I finally do get back to swimming I will be back at square one again!!  ARGHHH.....why do I do this to myself?  I have several very good excuses of course.  My main one is that I don't have a good place to swim.  My gym has a terrible pool.  It only has 2 lanes, and it's only 20 Meters long and like 3 feet deep.  So most of the time I have to share a lane - which I hate and there really isn't enough room to make this work anyway.  If I want to avoid the lane share, I have to be there by 4:30 am (which I am fortunate they are open this early), but even then sometimes you still have to share because people have figured out that it's a "slow" time for the pool.  Of course it's a slow time, it's the freaking middle of the night!!  So, even if I get lucky enough to have my own lane the pool is so small and shallow it just doesn't seem like you get the best workout in, but better than nothing I guess.  So I stress and worry that I will have to share a lane, and I just end up skipping it.  To top things off, right now I don't have a triathlon scheduled until the end of July, so I don't have a sense of urgency about building my endurance which gives me a built in excuse.  So you are asking yourself, why don't I just find a new gym, well unfortunately where I live there aren't alot of other pool options.  The few places that have nicer pools have hours that aren't conducive to my schedule.......I know excuses, excuses!

Next week I'm really going to make an effort to get back to my schedule.  I will blog about it to keep me accountable.  Give me crap if I don't get my workouts in. 

This week officially kicked off my half marathon training too.  I had planned to start last week but I was too sick to get in more than a couple of short runs.  I only have 11 weeks to train.  I got a decent 3 mile run in this morning on the treadmill although I still lacked a little energy.  Running is not my strength either - did I already mention my half marathon PR is 2:50 - in case you can't do the math that's a lightening fast speed of 13:08 per mile.  On a positive note, the weather is FINALLY getting a little warmer and I am hopeful to do my "long run" (only 4 miles this week) outside this weekend. 

As for biking well we can talk about biking on another day.  But, like I said in my first blog, unfortunately I don't have a "strong sport".....but I keep tri-ing!!

What about you guys, do you ever have problems with motivation or a specific sport that really challenges you?  What do you do?  What motivates you?  Any tips or tricks?

"Pain is temporary. It may last for a minute, or an hour, or a day or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." Lance Armstrong