Progress

Yesterday I had a hair appointment and didn't get home until after five. Could I have still dashed over to the pool and gotten some yardage in? Sure, but I would have felt rushed and honestly, HS wasn't even home from work (not a good sign) and after spending big bucks getting my hair colored, I just didn't feel like subjecting my new "do" to a chlorine bath.

Just a little more blonde :-)

Plyo

This does not mean that I blew off working out completely. Instead of swimming, I came home and did P90X - Plyometrics. I've been thinking about this workout a lot...probably because several of the things I have been reading have stressed the importance of plyometric work for triathletes...especially where running and cycling is concerned. A quick Google search will return a ton on info on the subject, a lot of which includes plyometric moves to do. I prefer just to use my P90X DVD...it keeps me from cutting corners :-)

I miss the days of doing P90X in the warehouse
with our workout buddies

I can personally attest to the benefits of plyometrics. I started doing P90X back in the summer of 2008. Prior to starting this workout program, I had completed a handful of 5k races with my average time somewhere around 25-26 minutes. Because I was so wrapped up in my P90X workouts, I stopped competing and did not race again until the 2010 Great Spear-It Run at the Asparagus festival. My time at this race was 23:56. It should be noted that I had not been doing any kind of run training prior to this. My legs felt strong...springy even, and I can only attribute this to my weekly plyometric workouts.

Knowing this, I wonder why I haven't made more of an attempt to include plyo in my training program???

Speaking of My Training Program

Last year on the way home from the Angel's Camp Triathlon, HS took me to REI and bought me my Garmin 910XT. This has delighted the data geek in me for over a year now and I can finally start comparing what I did last year to what I am doing this year.

Prior to getting my new Garmin, I did not record my swimming workouts. So my comparisons have to be from mid-April 2013 forward. The chart below shows my weekly averages leading up to Barb's Race vs. March-April 2014.

My quick take-away from this is more workouts per week (I've been doing strength training this year), more miles per week, and on average 3 hours per week more training than last year. Hopefully this will translate to a faster time at Barb's.

Last Piece of the Puzzle

While specific workouts and my training plan will have a lot to do with whether or not I meet my sub-6 hour goal at Barb's Race, the last remaining factor is my weight. Through a combination of stupid experiments and lack of concern about what goes into my mouth, I had allowed my weight to slowly creep upward. 

While my weight fluctuates daily, the chart still shows progress
(Fridays are usually my low point of the week)

On Monday, April 7, I tipped the scales at 154. A couple of years ago, this would have qualified me to compete in the Athena division. However, starting last year, the weight for this division was bumped up to 165. Anyway, this was my starting point and I have continued, since this date, to weigh myself every morning and to record everything I eat.

I'm not recording what I eat in order to count calories. It is more of an exercise in accountability and also of being aware of what and how much I am eating. My math and measuring gets real fuzzy when I have an open jar of peanut butter in front of me...I'm just saying :-)

My race weight goal is 135. I got down to 145.5 last week, so I still have a good 10 pounds to go depending on which day I get on the scale. My goal is to get to my goal weight by July 4 and then maintain it up until Barb's Race.

...many endurance athletes are also interested in weight loss (although we euphemistically say that we are trying to "improve our power-to-weight ratio" rather than "burn some fat off our ass" - Ben Greenfield "Beyond Training - Mastering Endurance, Health & Life"

Correction...my goal is to increase my power-to-weight ratio by July 4 and then maintain it up until Barb's Race :-)