I know you’ve all been wondering just how I arranged my weekend training wise (sure you have…). So here’s what happened:

Thursday – ran with my race club. There were 4 other runners and I did a great job keeping up with them on the way out but I was chatting and chatting and running don’t work for me. I ran out of breath and thought I might die. When we got to a water fountain I sent the others on their way and I ran back – quite a bit faster than I had gone on the way out. For me, silence really is golden when I’m running. I did 3.21 miles in 34:30. The first 1.5 miles were 11:45/mi and 10:45/mi and the second were 10:11/mile and 9:59/mile. I should have gone a few more – I was on a roll!

Friday – None of the above. I ended up sleeping in and then going for a great, hard walk in the evening with a friend. It turns out that about a mile from the house I have lived in for the last 19 years there is access to the hills and open space and great trails for walking or running. It was a nice evening and I got in a good hill workout of very fast walking.

Saturday – Triathlon clinic “Faster Transitions”. I had a great time and learned some stuff. Most of it seems very obvious but it was informative and a great reminder. I’ll give the low down in a minute. Then we practiced open water swimming in which I tested out my new wetsuit. Loved it.

There are some people in these clinics who are gearing up for their first triathlon so the leaders used the experienced people to let the rookies practice getting hemmed in and swum over and having your feet grabbed. I was on the rookie team. It was a little like this:

Then we did the bike route for the up coming teeny tri. I think I might do the July one. It was fun and those rookie ladies kind of kicked my ass on the bike. Very humbling but mostly just a ton of fun.

Sunday – laaaaaazy…… I gardened. I did not swim. I did not ride. I did not run. I slept in until 8:30. Naughty but really enjoyable. I also had a birthday party to attend.

Monday – rode my bike ALL BY MYSELF for an hour and then went to masters workout that was exhausting but good. We did 2 finger swimming, 2 strokes between the lines swimming, build up swimming… exhausting but great and then I went out for coffee with friends. Now I’m out to do more gardening. Excellent weekend.

What I learned in the clinic:
T1 –
1). Have your bike stuff in front of your run stuff. Now that sounds like DUH! but honestly I never thought about it before.
2). Have your bike shoes opened up as far as possible. I knew this about running shoes (have the laces undone) but never thought about how you should unvelcro the riding shoes and open them up.
3). Forget about the socks if you can live with it. I rode sockless and for 11 miles it was okay but I can’t imagine doing an Oly like that. SO if you must wear socks:
4). dry your feet off fast and make sure you have socks you can pull on really easily .
5). have your sunglasses in your helmet and the helmet straps undone and open, untwisted. Putting on your helmet and buckling it shut should be one fluid motion. If your glasses/helmet will stay together you can have the glasses stuck on the outside of the helmet through the air vents. Then you can put on the helmet and grab the glasses after you get out of T1. My glasses were uncooperative in this regard but it try it with yours. If it works it will save a few seconds.

T2

6). Use Yankz or at least those lace locks so you can tighten your laces FAST. No bow tying, please.
7). Grab your race belt, your hat and glasses and get a move on!