Jess’ school is holding a triathlon this spring, and we’ve decided to enter and give it a shot.

Only this past week have I really started giving thought to the training.  The event is May 1st, and will consist of:

500 m swim in the ASW pool
14 km bike ride from school to Wilanów
3 km run

My training so far is:

Monday & Thursday mornings – swim before teaching TKD
Bike in to school and home whenever I go in (4 days/week currently) (I live in Wilanów, so this is perfect practice)
Running with Greta.  Which is usually just a few small sprints, or a jog around the block, but it’s helping.

The biking is pretty straightforward, and I’ve been getting more used to this since we moved to Poland.

Running I can do, but I need to do a little training, but mostly I need to focus on core and back strengthening, because running causes my back to hurt a lot, and causes some of my back muscles to cramp up really badly.   Diet will help me out here, too.

The swimming is the hardest part.  I’ve never done lane-style swimming.  Just freeform in the pond type swimming.  So I’m learning better form, and breathing…  my God the breathing is the hardest part!  If I’m not sucking in water from the pool, I’m getting it as it streams down my face.  It’s frustrating, and I’ve also been breathing too shallow up in my chest.  So I’m working on this, and I’m also putting more focus on breathing again in my taekwondo training.

I’m hoping to find a taekwondo school, maybe this week.  It will make the training I’m doing even harder, but that’s ok!

With all the training I’ve been doing, I’m starting to notice that I’m getting in better shape again.  Muscles are getting more defined, sleep and apetite have been really good.  And I’ve just been feeling really great.  Though my back is killing me these past few days, I blame my sleep shift, and the fact that I’ve just started riding the bike again – which hurts my back, but not as much as running.

I might try to get the clip pedals and shoes for the bike, because that makes it much better.  I never realized why before, until someone explained that you pull on the up-stroke, as well as pushing down, so the force is doubled, but the energy is more or less the same.  Plus it’s more of a constant pressure, which reduces the resistance and shock.  We’ve got a great (if expensive) bike shop a block away, so I’ll probably go see what he’s got. 

I’ve been watching what I eat, too, though not quite for the training.  I’ve been having a lot of fruits and vegetables, plus a fair bit of carbs and starches.  Probably too much of the latter, but as I start to do more, it will balance out.