Not really a triathlon

Although I did sorta do all three disciplines. OK Chuck, explain. I started with a great Spin class with Condy. This is one class I do during the week that I least like to miss. Condy is high energy and leads a really challenging ride week after week. Today I only totalled 45 minutes, 15.3 miles. Usually if I am doing only Spin I will stay on the bike and try to get 1 hour or 20 miles whichever comes first.

Off the bike and to the pool. I did it a little differently than what I usually do. I usually just swim 500 or 750 meters and call it good. Today I wanted to try some aqua jogging. So what I did was do a 250 meter swim followed by 250 meters of aqua jogging. I did 4 rounds of each giving me 1000 meters of swimming and 1000 meters of pool running. This took me about 55 minutes. So total of about 1 hr 40 minutes, about what it takes me to do my weekly triathlon when I count in the transition times.

I feel like I got a great overall workout with these activities today. I really want to keep including the pool running a part of my regular swim days. Although aqua jogging is used primarily for keeping in condition while recovering from an injury I think it can be an important part of any training plan. I will do a little more research and maybe do a post just on pool running, or aqua jogging.

Triathlon time again

For several weeks now I have been doing a triathlon every week on Thursday. I do them on my own at the gym - 1/2 mile in the swimming pool, 12 miles on the Spin bike and then a 5K run. I couldn't help but notice though that at the San Luis Obispo 'sprint' triathlon the bike portion was 16 miles, so I may change to that distance. At any rate I did my triathlon today and felt pretty good about it. When I do these I wear my Polar heart rate watch throughout the entire triathlon so that I get an overall time which includes my transitions. When I go out for the run I also put on my Garmin 305 GPS so that I have accurate numbers for the run. This requires me to remember my time when I get out of the pool and my time on the bike, maybe I had better start using a notebook, at 66 I sometimes have a little difficulty with my short term memory! OK, here is the hard part. My hips are sore, I have a hard time bending over and getting back up without pain. I get twinges in my lower abs, I have piriformis syndrome on my right side. Basically, I hurt like an old man. I don't want to hurt like an old man, but as my wife reminded me recently, I have to realize that I am not 30 any more. That's fine, I can live with it. I know that if I just get back into a regular routine of yoga and using my foam roller I can probably work it out. So, give up my weekly routine of running, Spinning, hiking etc? - not on your life!