I thought this would be easy(er)
I mentioned in a post a while back that my training goal for the Clemson Triathlon was to be comfortable doing double the distances for that event. And hey, guess what? The Kiawah Triathlon is double the distance of the Clemson event! (for those not up to speed on the Kiawah event, see here)
So. If I trained for, and am already comfortable doing double those Clemson distances, why is training for Kiawah so much harder than I expected?
Then vs. Now
See, having never done a triathlon and severely lacking in competitive swim skills, my training plan for Clemson basically consisted of: LEARN HOW TO NOT DIE WHEN SWIMMING 750 METERS IN OPEN WATER....along with some running and biking. My workouts were relatively short but plentiful just to get used to the mechanics. In other words: training to survive.
This go around for Kiawah, we're following an official 12 week 'intermediate' training plan. On the surface, it seemed about the same as the Clemson schedule: six workouts a week. I GOT THIS! What I didn't notice was that each session was longer and far more intense than what I did for Clemson. In other words: training to get better.
Oh, and did I mention the workout plans get harder each week? Yay!
Click to See Our Official Training Plan
So How Am I Doing So Far?
We're on our sixth week and I'm too bi-polar to answer this question properly. I look at my progress and see how much farther and faster I'm getting, and think I'm going to be the next Michael Lance Phelps Armstrong! But then it never fails: one, if not more, of the workouts during the next week will kick my butt all over town and have me thinking I should just go back to being a sloth.
Ask me again next week...