The Training Front

It's been a little while since I actually posted about the status of my training. I always get some great comments and advise when I post training updates that I thought it was time for one. Things have been progressing! The 17 hour group has been making quite the progress and although I didn't run the 50 miler this weekend I have actually been keeping up with my training pretty well (despite the knee). Knee pain seems to be just the triathlon gods way of telling me to work on my swim, and I have been listening. I've been killing myself every chance I can at Masters and it's actually been a lot of fun. Noell is my lane mate and we have been having a lot of fun annoying the heck out of our other two lane mates. But, we are getting faster, or we at least feel faster. I have yet to go a week without biking despite it being winter and tomorrow I'm getting out for an outdoor ride since we are having great weather. I have found that I have a love/hate relationship with the trainer, and since every time I try to get on Steve's computrainer it's taken, my trainer and I have been getting to know each other better. I have a sweet little set up in the spare room and I have even rigged my iPod to play movies on a little speaker system. So, that's been progress.

The last change I have made is that Troy and I started an abdominal routine. We do it every day. We started on January 5th and we did the little 8 minute routine for 14 days straight and it was hilarious. I just kept getting worse and worse at it. I was so sore. The next day I was double sore, and then triple sore. But the two of us kept plugging along. Troy on the other hand kept getting better and better at them, darn men! Some days I really didn't want to do them and Troy would bribe me, that's been fun! Yesterday Troy spent the morning hours puking up his guts from some phantom sickness so we skipped a day b/c his abs were sore (from hurling). It was the first day we missed!! Today, when we did them I KILLED it. I was so proud and my abs actually felt like they weren't going to fall out of me at the end. So I think I have turned a corner. One day of rest every 15 is okay. But I'm gonna keep it up. I can feel it in my running, a stronger core, a more upright position, and I know that speed comes from the core. Power to the ABS!

That's about all that's new with me. I hope that you all are having success with your winter training schedules. I hope you are finding the time to try something new (like snowshoeing), or you are using any new found down time to reconnect with family members (maybe to start a new athletic routine with them?). If you are struggling this winter don't hesitate to contact me, I've always got a few hundred suggestions of ways to beat the winter blues.

Happy Training!!

Oh, and if you are interested in the nitty gritty. Here's the training blog.