Training, Part two, and more of the narrative
According to a training program on BeginnerTriathlete.com, I am at about Week Six. This is important, and great, because I have been training for about six weeks and felt like I was woefully behind. The schedule for Week Six is thus:
So, the beer is not an official part of the training plan. I am actually a little ahead of this on the swim, but I cannot do more with the run, so I shan't.
Where was I? Oh, so I registered for the Texas Tri Series. And then I started looking at what I needed to do about my bike. Most people who know me know that I own a mountain bike on which I put many miles while I lived in Austin, and that one of the most frustrating things for me about living out of Austin is that I am unable to ride my bike around town or to school.
So, I own a mountain bike. I actually have two, one of which I got while I was in Europe. I own zero road bikes and do not especially want to get rid of either of my mountain bikes, so I came to the decision to refit one of them to work for a triathlon. My first impression was that I would simply put thin tires and aerobars on and leave it at that.
Ha. Well, so I soon realised that I would not be able to get the same kind of speed as my competitors because the front chainrings (front gears) that came standard my bike are smaller than those on a road bike, to make dealing with hills easier. Part of why I bought that particular bike (a Trek 4300 for anyone who cares) was because of this, since my beloved Austin is hilly, to put it mildly. Thus, I went in search of a larger chainring, only to discover that since my chainrings are all pressed together, I would have to actually replace the entire crankset (i.e., I don't just add a larger gear and remove the smallest; I have to replace the whole thing as one, which means that there are new cranks (pedal arms) involved).
Sigh. So I set out into eBay, looking for a nice, cheap road crankset. It came. And then I was faced with an entirely new problem.
In the interim, I became a gym rat at the Rec Center, more than I had been last fall, in an effort to actually be able to race come May.
Monday
Swim: Warm up, Freestyle 300 yards, Cool Down 100 yards
Walk/Jog for 35 minutes: Walk 4:30 minutes/Jog 2:30 minutes
Tuesday
Bike 5 miles
Wednesday
Swim: Warm up, Freestyle 300 yards, Cool Down 100 yards
Walk/Jog for 35 minutes: Walk 4:30 minutes, Jog 2:30 minutes
Thursday
Beer
Friday
Swim: Freestyle 300 yards, Cool Down 100 yards
Bike 5 miles
Saturday
Walk/Jog for 45 minutes
Sunday
Bike 7 miles
So, the beer is not an official part of the training plan. I am actually a little ahead of this on the swim, but I cannot do more with the run, so I shan't.
Where was I? Oh, so I registered for the Texas Tri Series. And then I started looking at what I needed to do about my bike. Most people who know me know that I own a mountain bike on which I put many miles while I lived in Austin, and that one of the most frustrating things for me about living out of Austin is that I am unable to ride my bike around town or to school.
So, I own a mountain bike. I actually have two, one of which I got while I was in Europe. I own zero road bikes and do not especially want to get rid of either of my mountain bikes, so I came to the decision to refit one of them to work for a triathlon. My first impression was that I would simply put thin tires and aerobars on and leave it at that.
Ha. Well, so I soon realised that I would not be able to get the same kind of speed as my competitors because the front chainrings (front gears) that came standard my bike are smaller than those on a road bike, to make dealing with hills easier. Part of why I bought that particular bike (a Trek 4300 for anyone who cares) was because of this, since my beloved Austin is hilly, to put it mildly. Thus, I went in search of a larger chainring, only to discover that since my chainrings are all pressed together, I would have to actually replace the entire crankset (i.e., I don't just add a larger gear and remove the smallest; I have to replace the whole thing as one, which means that there are new cranks (pedal arms) involved).
Sigh. So I set out into eBay, looking for a nice, cheap road crankset. It came. And then I was faced with an entirely new problem.
In the interim, I became a gym rat at the Rec Center, more than I had been last fall, in an effort to actually be able to race come May.
Labels: bike parts and maintenance, triathlon, what was I thinking
posted by Ivy at 14:07
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