So a few weeks ago I hooked up with a triathlon training group. I actually haven’t figured out what they go by. The Facebook page is Tampa Tri and their newsletters are A Train. I should ask just to see. They definitely kicked my butt the first weekend I met with them and I haven’t gone out with them again yet since I had my own races to run already. But the next couple of weeks I’ll be in town and that means I’ll definitely be joining them on the weekends.
I got the newsletter earlier in the week and it said that it was time to get serious. Woah! I did 56 miles with them on the bike and 13 miles of running the next day. How much more serious are we getting here? Apparently not much changes since the plan is 13 miles again, followed by a swim (conditions didn’t permit last time) and then 60+ miles on the bike. I’m really looking forward to the biking portion since I think at this point my biking can improve more than anything else. If I can knock 10 minutes off the bike, 5 minutes off the run, and a couple off the swim, that will give me a time very close to what I want.
Since the 13 miles took me by surprise a couple weeks ago, I knew it was time to step up the weekly training again. After Gasparilla, my plan was 11 – 13 miles on the weekend and then 6 – 8 miles 3 times per week during weekdays. That plan went to crap after my March ski accident. I took about a month just to recover (just in time to suffer through Marineland) and since then it was a steady climb to build the mileage back. Training alone I’d hit a bit of a plateau since I didn’t have any huge races looming. The Disney 10 miler I have in October I can complete easily.
So just this month, I’ve already run about 75 miles. I expect this will be a 120 mile month at this rate which I haven’t done since December when I was deep in to my Disney training. (Deep into my Disney training was also the start of my Disney training…) I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the bike. I’ve logged 121 miles on only 3 rides. That’s not going to cut it but there’s not a lot of opportunity to ride during the week where I am. I need to find somewhere much closer to me so I can get a second ride in. Swimming I don’t need to change at all since I get 2 or 3 swims a week in. If I do 2 during the week and then one on the weekend that’s plenty.
In the spirit of becoming as crazy as this group I joined, I signed up for a marathon in December. With my luck its going to be blazing hot on Dec 1st when this race is but it sounds awesome. I got an email today from one of the organizers reminding us to sign up for the Spacecoast Marathon which even though I hadn’t heard of it, is into its 42nd year. I picked a great time to start because they’re doing a 5 year commemoration of the space shuttle with each medal for the next 5 years commemorating a different shuttle’s first mission. After completing 3 years of the race there is a special medal and if I can do all 5 years there is another one. That’s my new long term running goal. For this race I do have a goal of about 4:15 which is really aggressive but with the right weather conditions I’ll make it happen.
I did run into another triathlon group at the Moss Park race and they happened to be out of Tampa. They had awesome jerseys so I asked them for info and when I went to check them out it turned out they charged $110 to train for 12 weeks. Crazy! If I wanted a special half Ironman/full Ironman program they’d charge $250 and their solo training was even more. Um, yeah, I’ll just stick with the cool people I’ve met who just go out and train together. The only coaching I’m considering is swimming and only if by my next triathlon I can’t get my swim under 30 minutes.