Training Continued...

Ok, so yesterday I posted on how I plan to accomplish my Bible reading goal for this year.  Now, I want to talk about training for my 10K race and a triathlon.  You might be asking why I'm lumping the Bible and my race training together, but for me it's similar.  They are both goals to make myself a healthier person. They both require a lot of time and they both require a PLAN.  For me, that's the biggest part of accomplishing something I set out to do.

My first goal is to participate in the Flying Pig 10K race on Saturday, May 5.  I have never completed a 10K race before, so I'm looking forward to this challenge.  Because the 10K race is similar in distance to the run distance for the triathlon (8.8K), I'm using it as a test to see how I will do for the triathlon.  It's a full month before, so I'm hoping to get a good idea of how fast I can do the triathlon, but also give myself a pace goal that's a little faster!

As I have mentioned before, I have completed the Little Miami Triathlon before in the Spring of 2010.  My partner was my sister and I pretty much twisted her arm into joining me.  She didn't really want to do it, but I begged her enough that she finally caved.  But then she ended up doing more triathlons that year and blowing me out of the water!

The Little Miami Triathlon is a little different than most tri's.  It's similar in distance to a sprint tri, but instead of swimming, the first leg is canoeing (or you can kayak) on the Little Miami river.  It's composed of a 6 mile canoe, 5.5 mile run and 18 mile bike, in that order.  Each individual leg of the race is challenging in itself, but when you add them all together, it's really a great challenge!  Of course, there are longer triathlons out there and even ironman events, but those are way above my level!

I'm still hammering out all the details of my training plan to account for both the 10K race and the triathlon, but the running portion of my training will look something like this:

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	2	rest	2	rest	2	rest	3	9 mi total
2	2	rest	2	rest	2	rest	3	9 mi total
3	2	rest	2	rest	3	rest	3	10 mi total
4	2	rest	3	rest	3	rest	4	12 mi total
5	2	rest	3	rest	3	rest	4	12 mi total
6	3	rest	3	rest	4	rest	4	14 mi total
7	3	rest	3	rest	4	rest	4	14 mi total
8	3	rest	4	rest	4	rest	5	16 mi total
9	3	rest	4	rest	4	rest	5	16 mi total
10	4	rest	4	rest	5	rest	6	19 mi total
11	4	rest	4	rest	5	rest	6	19 mi total
12	4	rest	5	rest	6	rest	7	22 mi total
13	4	rest	5	rest	6	rest	7	22 mi total
14	5	rest	6	rest	7	rest	8.5	26.5 mi total
15	6	rest	4	rest	rest	race	rest	10 mi total

The start date for this training program would be February 20, but I have already started running (on the treadmill in my basement).  My goal at the beginning of the year was just to run a mile without stopping.  Now I can do 2 miles, but I'm working on achieving a faster pace and will then work up to 3 miles.  The program I am using to track my progress (and also keep track of my training plan) is LogYourRun.com.  They have an app for the iPhone/iPod Touch, so I'm able to enter my data and see a big picture.  So far this month, I have run a total of 16.62 miles in 3hours, 10 min and 17 seconds, or an average pace of 11:44minutes/mile. :)  Not awesome, but I'm improving!  My goal for the 10K race is 10 minutes per mile and 9:30/mile for the triathlon.

In addition to the running part of the triathlon, there are obviously 2 other events to train for...canoeing and biking!  For the canoeing, my plan is to do some weight training at the local Y in order to build up my shoulder muscles a little more.  I also plan on doing a "trial run" of the canoe a few weeks before the event (maybe as a recovery event the week after the 10K).

As for the biking portion, I plan on taking a spinning class at the Y before the weather is nice enough to get outside to bike.  My training last time consisted of me hooking up the bike trailer and pulling 2 kids around in it behind me.  I'm not exactly sure how that is going to work this year since I now have 3 kids (and they won't all fit in the bike trailer!), but it was great training because the extra weight during my training rides helped me to have a better completion time.  Plus, my boys love going for bike rides!

As you can tell, the Bible reading, 10K and Triathlon all take up a lot of time and require a commitment, but I'm hoping that by putting it all out on this blog, it will help keep me motivated, on track and accountable!  My main goal is just to finish what I have started!