Training Day #21

So, I’m not sure how I want to do my updates for my triathlon training. For now, I am going to post daily or close to daily training updates.  Bear with me as I try to figure out the best way to structure these updates. This is the first week I’m posting my training sessions, but it is the 4th week of my training. That explains why my training day begin on day 21 instead of day 1.

I started the week with a brick session on Sunday. A brick is two back-to-back workouts. This is to train for the transition that occurs in a triathlon.  I started with an 8.9-kilometer bike ride around my local area and then moved to a 3-kilometer run. I learned a lot from this training day.

During my bike ride, I noticed that shifting to my lower gears during steep hill climbs resulted in my chain skipping and the chain rubbing on the derailers. The last time I got the bike tuned has been at least four years (mainly because I haven’t ridden consistently since 2014). After the bike ride, I changed my cycling shorts for pair of running shorts and shoes because I didn’t own any tri-shorts to practice the transition. This type of transition made my workout a bit long and unrealistic. It took me about 5-7 minutes to change, and my running motivation began to wane. Nevertheless, I pushed through this inconvenience and completed the 3k run. The run felt ok; I didn’t push myself too hard and focused on the feeling of my legs to get a baseline of my performance.

Key Learning Points:

1. A tuned Bike is vital to maximizing performance.
2. Tri-shorts are essential gear for training.
3. Practicing the bike to run transition to get familiar with your performance