I think I'm getting serious...

Today for the first time it dawned on me that I'm pretty serious about racing triathlons and training for them. What got me thinking that was when I was in the water with a buoy wrapped around my waist and was "water running". For years I had heard of water running and all the benefits, but had never done it. I was never that serious about training that I'd bother to water run if I became injured or wanted to improve performance. And here I was today "water running". I'm not sure if I'm committed or should be committed.

Before I went to the pool, I was talking to Bill at work who went on one of those "running boat cruises" and he told me that the pro triathlete Lisa Bentley water ran everyday for an hour. She wasn't injured and still ran with the group on dry land. Lisa is an awesome runner, it is her strong suit. I can just beat her on the bike, but I can't come close to her run times. I was thinking that if she water runs when she's not injured there must be a real benefit to it.

I also read that a study was done with runners who were injured and water ran for 6 weeks. It turns out that they were still able to maintain there 5 km race times by only water running.

I was a little nervous about running in the water. I like running and when I run, I get into a zone and time can go by quickly. When I swim, time seems to stand still. I was concerned that water running would be as boring as swimming. I was wrong. 

I was surprised the time went by fairly quickly. I did a speed work session and I think the intervals kept it interesting and made the time go by quickly. As I was running in the water, I was envisioning myself on the track. I was also able to get my heart rate up to 143 bpm with no ground resistance. Other than looking a little "dorky", it was a good experience.

All day I've been icing my foot. I did it before work, after my bike ride and after my water run. I find out tomorrow if my foot has a stress fracture and I'm hoping it doesn't. For sure I'm going to show up and race next weekend, I'm just not sure if it will be a swim-bike or a swim-bike-run. I'm not going flush 16 weeks and over 2500 miles of training down the drain. I'm racing at least part of it.

It was a good training day, swim at noon, bike and run after work. I did a speed bike session and had one of my faster sessions. There was quite a head wind during the intervals and it felt good to go 37kph into a stiff wind. On the way home I had the wind at my back and at times kept the bike at 50 kph on the flats and over 60 kph on slight downhills. On one long, gradual uphill, which at the beginning of the year I do at 13-16 kph, I was able to do at 30 -31 kph. 

I was also surprised that I virtually didn't lose any swimming speed. The last time I did a swim was a week ago, and with no swim training since then I was still able to do all 15 x 100 meters under 1:47. My fastest was 1:37 and slowest 1:47. I probably averaged 1:45 for all of them.

Swim - 54.07 / 2500 meters.

Bike - 56:18 / 30.18 km / 32.1 kph

Water Run - 44:00 / 5.27 miles (estimate) / avg hr 125