Progress – Watch Rick Train https://www.watchricktrain.com Improving Overall Fitness Mon, 10 Oct 2022 23:53:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1 https://www.watchricktrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/cropped-site-icon-wrt-32x32.png Progress – Watch Rick Train https://www.watchricktrain.com 32 32 Tough Mudder update! https://www.watchricktrain.com/2011/04/05/tough-mudder-update/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 13:06:50 +0000 http://www.watchricktrain.com/?p=91 First off, here’s the link to my fundraising page for this event: Crowdrise/watchricktrain is where I’ll be posting all the events between now and the Ironman in November.

Since the Tough Mudder course is about 10 miles, plus up and down the hills, I have eased off on the swimming and focused more on running and good old pushups the last two weeks.

I ran 15.4 yesterday in about 2:20. That was a pretty slow 9 min pace, and I’ve got to see if my iphone app will give me better splits. I think I was at 7 min through the first 5 or s0, and at 8 through the turnaround. But I have to see. I guess maybe there’s a good reason to do a running/biking GPS app shoot-out!

My knees are a little creaky today going down steps, and I realized that this might be why the run is at the end of the triathlon rather than the beginning. Wise choice!

 

 

 

 

]]> Biking update https://www.watchricktrain.com/2011/04/03/biking-update/ Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:56:37 +0000 http://www.watchricktrain.com/?p=71 Since the Ironman has a substantial bike component — I don’t know what other adjective describes 112 miles — I knew I needed to start learning how to really bike. My plan was to swim through the winter and start biking in the spring. Weather’s slowly changing, and that time is now.

I picked up a road bike two weeks ago. Went out that afternoon for 12 miles on the bike path that runs from my town north. Short and sweet, my goal was really to just try it out.

First thought: it didn’t suck. That was my big fear. But it was also true that swimming was much better than I’d feared. So good all around.

Second thought: it might be bad for me to say, but a couple miles in I realized that as long as I put in the time and the work and the hours and the miles, I can do the Ironman. I mean, I always thought I could — plenty of people do, even as plenty of people fail and even more never consider trying. But I felt like it was really real.

My 12 miles and change took me a little less than an hour, putting me at 12-13 mph. I have to look up that segment of the ironman and look at last year’s times to see where I should be aiming. Working backwards, though, is tough: 12 mph into 112 miles is over 9 hours; that is too darn long!

 

]]> Swimming update https://www.watchricktrain.com/2011/03/15/swimming-update/ Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:25:09 +0000 http://www.watchricktrain.com/?p=75 My swimming progress has been decent: the last few swims have been a long consistent one-hour or so, and I find that I am dramatically less tired than when I started lessons in the winter. But I have to get some more time in the pool, which means I need to really start aiming at the early morning swim slot — it’s 1 1/2 hours at the Y rather than just an hour. That extra work should help me build my endurance for the long swim.

Reality check: I’ve been told, and am now looking up, that there is a time cutoff for the swim that is shorter than I’d thought. Yep, 2h 20min. Excellent. That’s actually good news because it will push me to swim a bit faster rather than thinking I can go nice and easy over a longer time period. (Easy? Hah! Still doesn’t sound like “easy” to me.)

Still coming: review of my swim gear for listening to music in the pool.

]]> Upcoming events https://www.watchricktrain.com/2011/01/26/upcoming-events/ Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:08:11 +0000 http://www.watchricktrain.com/?p=61 Here’s my event schedule.

Confirmed:

  • Tough Mudder PA, Bear Creek / Allentown PA, April 9, 2011
  • NYC Triathlon, NY, NY, August 7, 2011 — I will be participating as part of a team for Drive for Rebecca, and the funds I raise through/for them will be donated in their entirety to Reed Academy.
  • Ironman Florida, Panama City, FL, November 5, 2011

Some other things I’m considering:

  • The Triathlon for Autism, Belmar NJ July 31, 2011 (I’ve invited someone to be a run partner for the race to make it more fun)
  • West Point Triathlon, West Point, NY August 14, 2011
  • A marathon sometime before mid-late September (to run with someone who’s newly de-injured); I just need to have time to recover before the Ironman
  • The Dam Tri, Meadville, PA June 26, 2011

Probably not on my list:

I’ll update this post from time to time, and I think I may have a plugin to show the events calendar more easily.

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