Spreading the joy or going for everything at once?

Tri or not tri; that's the question.

Last weekend I participated in a triathlon training weekend for ladies. Most of the other participants were experienced triathletes, with several iron(wo)men 140.6, but I managed to hang in there. Perhaps a bit too well, as I have been experiencing some hamstrings pain since then, so I might have pushed it too much. But hey, what happened to "variation is good"? And there was variation all right!

It started with swimming Friday evening. And mind you not just regular swimming, very interesting swimming drills. I have never been to a swim training before. Inexplicably, I have been able to swim freestyle naturally since I was a kid, so I have simply stuck to that, and grabbed a few tips on the way here and there from swimmer friends. But swim training turned out to be quite different than what I expected. Swim with one arm ahead and one arm on the side of your body (like Superman) using only your legs. Then swim both arms on the side of your body, rotating from side to side every 6 kicks. Then the most difficult: swim with one arm ahead, and one arm in the air perpendicular to your body. Mind you, you must also breath every now and then, and do it right, without falling on your back. At the end of the evening, I had a lot of neck pain. I must learn to keep my head straight.

Saturday started also with swimming. For warmups we had to do various swim styles, back, chest, and something I had never tried before: butterfly! A lot of fun. Then there were intervals, and there was breathing every 5 strokes and then every 7 strokes. And then there was breathing where only one of your goggles shows. I didn't know that there was so much more you could do in the swimming pool than just regular swimming. And it turns out that simply regular swimming is actually what you should not do. You should do drills and intervals every single time. And it is better to go to the pool three times a week 30 min each, rather than once 90 minutes. I must admit this became a bit too overwhelming to me. How to find time for this, when you also want to continue with your other activities?

Anyway, then there was the spinning, and I think this is where I might have pushed too hard. My legs are not used to biking a lot, and we did some pretty serious intervals, which I thought went pretty well. But I think I might have exhausted my hamstrings and noticed it only when I started running. The running training was fun but the advice was a bit frustrating. I have heard it many times before: You have to run with a frequency of 180 steps or more per minute. I find this very difficult. Still I did stick to it during the running training of the weekend, but I could already feel my hamstrings complaining about this frequency. During the healing of my hamstrings injury in 2015, my physiotherapist advised me to use the "whole movement" of the leg, i.e, push your leg all the way to the back. But with high frequency, the steps get shorter and the movement not so "smooth". When my body works in a different way than the expert advice, I get a bit demotivated, and start worrying too much about what to do.

Then there was more swimming and more running on Sunday, and there was a lot of fun. So many wonderful women, and I was very lucky to have my friends Irene, Wenche, and Torunn there with me. So many interesting stories, and so inspiring to see that ironwomen bodies come in all sizes and shapes. I also got some very interesting tips that I had never heard before: For long races, we were advised to try the 9-1 running to improve our race time. Run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 9 minutes, walk 1 minute, from start to end. I have been calculating and calculating every since, whether this could make sense for me. It was said that this is the way to go for everybody who is slower than 3:15 in a marathon. I will try it at the first opportunity and let you know how it goes.

Contrary to what I was expecting, the triathlon weekend did not really boost my enthusiasm for triathlon. Perhaps because I realized how much serious swimming and biking training is involved. By serious I mean that it is not "just" swimming and biking, but drills, intervals, hills, etc. Frank and I have been considering seriously the Ironman 70.3 in Haugesund in July this year. This is exactly why we bought new bikes a couple of months ago. I was thinking that all I need to do is to start swimming once a week in the beginning of June, and get the biking under control. Biking (with locked pedals) is the thing I am the most worried about, and I thought simply feeling safe would be enough. Well, I think it is still "enough" in the sense that I would be able to finish within the cut-off times of each of the disciplines. But the question is whether I should hurry and do it this year, or I should use the summer season to get better at biking, and then rather save Haugesund for next year?

Since I have been experiencing a nice form improvement, I am having a lot of fun already with getting new PBs in the local races around Bergen. So I could just concentrate on this for this year, and I could start on new challenges next year. I could still do the shorter triathlons, like Os and Strilamann this year, but not let triathlon become the main goal of the year. Last year, marathon was a new challenge. Do I need new challenges every year, or should I spread the joy over a longer time period? I still haven't made up my mind. I have an invitation to join Haugesund at a reduced price. The offer expires on March 1, and then it will be 1000 NOK more expensive to sign up.

I have three days to decide; what do you think?