The Slow Burn....

Holy schnikeys it feels like FOREVER since I worked out....and I guess it has been. Life has been very busy of late, unfortunately not busy on the workout side. Ah well, such is life in the 'off season'. Now is the time to get everything else done before I have to get serious in January!


Tuesdays are my super busy days. I swim in the morning and bike in the evening. In between that I have to fit in that four letter word....W-O-R-K. Ahhh, to be a professional triathlete and just get to train, train, train...but I digress....


I went to my swim class first thing in the morning today. For some reason I did not feel as 'light' as I normally do in the water. Perhaps those two days off were catching up to me?? It took quite me a while to get into the groove! We did a quick warm up then got into some kicking drills. Today was a fun day as we got to use flippers - yay!!


I LOVE flippers, they give me the opportunity to feel what it's like to actually swim fast. Not that I'm that much of a slowpoke anymore, but I still have a ways to go! haha. We alternated between kicking with the board for 50 m and kicking with our hands above our heads and streamlined for 50m. Our next drill was to do six count kicks for a few hundred meters. All good stuff.


I like doing kicking drills because they remind me that there acutally is a kicking component in swimming. See, I'm a lazy triathlete....I like to just kind of flick me feet every once in a while and use all of my upper body to get me moving through the water. There are two reasons I do this....in a race I'm wearing a wetsuit and have that wonderful attribute called 'buoyancy'. The second reason is I figure it'll save my legs for the bike and run.


I should point out that neither of these are good excuses not to kick in the swim. If I would remember to do this I might actually get faster! Not to mention my legs would be nice, warm and ready for the bike in a race. Ah well, I'm sure I'll get it one day.


Jen also got us to swim on our backs with the flippers. We were to tip our heads back and forward to see how our body position changes. I tipped my head back and promptly got a ton of water up my nose. Ow, ow, ow! Not only that, but it shot through to the back of my throat. Cough, gasp, sputter!! Needless to say my coach was amused. Anything for a laugh! haha.


The reason for swimming on our backs was so that we could learn about the backstroke. Jen showed us the movements and off we went. I quite enjoyed it, other than the mass splashing that occurred. See, your face is exposed to all that splashing. Lucky me, my schnoz is big enough that with each splash there was the potential for another sinus enema. I quickly learned how to take a breath through my mouth and then breath out through my nose while I took a stroke. Yes, I'm a smart girl!! haha.


After all that kicking and backstroke we did a 500 m swim. It was quite strange to swim without the flippers on.....and I missed them, haha. Jen reminded us we were to do flip turns during our swim, so I did just that.


My flip turns of late have not been very graceful, but I still try. I did one flip turn and thought it wasn't too bad, as I started to swim the length when I started to feel the slow burn go up my nostrils and then into my sinus cavity. YEEOOOOOOWWW!! WATER UP THE NOSE AGAIN!!! Mental note, breathe OUT when doing the flip!!! This too I shall one day learn.


After work I made my way to my favourite tri shop. This is where IronGreg holds the bike classes. I got there early and got warmed up. I wasn't sure what would be in store as I believe I said 'Sure, make Tuesdays classes hard!'. What was I thinking?!


IronGreg has a plan though, and he stuck to that plan. We are slowly working our way up and so it was a little bit harder than last week, but not super duper hard. (Lots of time for that!) We warmed up with one legged spins and speed ups. Next we did pyramids of 90-100-110-120 rpm, with easy 90 rpm spinning in between. IronGreg checked my bike while I was riding and adjusted my roller so that I had a bit more resistance.


I commented that my heart rate wasn't really going up and I'd have to crank the gears just to get resistance. So now that's all fixed....and my heart rate climbed! haha. Not super high, but I was glistening quite a bit by the end of the workout. To finish things off we did some speed work and then a cool down. Was a good workout and lots of fun!


After all that biking and swimming, I think it's safe to say I'm tired now....