Milestone in swim training with a little reflection
Saturday morning October 21, 2006.
This is the date I will not forget. This is the date that I went over 100,000 yards of swimming for the year. "
Well for the first time in my life I think I can say that I might be starting to become one. When I started swimming a few years ago I was out of shape from years of loafing and doing nothing really. I decided ,at the urging of my brother to "try a tri", I figured it looked easy and he always placed well so why not?
Easy was not the word of that day. My first tri consisted of a 500 yard pool swim, 13.1 mile bike followed by a 5k. Being an accomplished cyclist I figured I could breeze through the bike and just jog the remainder. 5k was nothing. Boy was I ready for a rude awakening!
The Swim - Having never trained really for a competitive swim I had no idea of what 500 yards was like nor did I really know how many laps it was. I figured a few, no problem. Fast forward to the swimming---->Total swim time was 11:38 and I was completely exhausted. It turned out to be 20 laps in the pool. Up to this point I had never done that before. At least that was a personal victory. I walked a bit in the pool till the HR came down and started swimming again. This was only after 10 laps. As I got to the wall I kept asking the person doing my timing for the swim
After a few laughs I was told I was only at the halfway point, sorry.
The Bike - Finally I could go to what I thought was my strength. I hopped on the trusty new road bike and went. As I left I noticed a lot of the bikes. Some had the fancy rims, the aerobars and the Bento boxes filled with gels. I hopped on my trusty ride with just my inspirational IM Wisconsin bike jersey (I will do that dream someday, sooner that I think though)and the helmet which I forgot coming out of T1. Finished the ride in 48:56 and felt pretty good about my ride till I saw the actual time I did it in. I only averaged a measly 15.3 miles per hour! Oh well chalk that one up for room to improve!
The Run a.k.a "my personal deathmarch" - Wow I was not ready for this. Now I am supposed to run after that? I was an overweight hurting unit. Barely held together by whets left of me. During the deathmarch I had to walk a substantial portion of it. I got side stitches, the HR was absolutely through the roof and I was just spent. I managed to make it look like I ran the entire route by kicking it up for the last 200 yards, but boy did that take everything I had! I finished the run in 42:35. I was the happiest I think I ever was even with a showing of sub-standard numbers. I finished my first tri!
Where does this relate to the now? Well a 500 yard swim is now the warm-up for my swim workouts which typically go 2000-3000 yards total, the biking has now progressed to finishing a half IM bike with a little over a 3 hour split, and nor running a 5K in 24.00 and some change. I have proven to myself it can be done. All that needs to happen is the work to get there which with a family and work can sometimes be hard, but IT CAN BE DONE! There were many night of less sleep that I wanted to get up before the sunrise to get in that dreadfull 70 mile ride, many a cold freezing day in the winter to get in that 2 hour run and lastly many a 5:30 am swim call at the pool to get in those laps. Looking back it is all worth it seeing the progression I have made. I only hope I can improve upon it even more and get to the goal. The starting gun in Lake Monona in '08.
This is the date I will not forget. This is the date that I went over 100,000 yards of swimming for the year. "
I am not a swimmer".repeat,
"I am still not a swimmer."
Well for the first time in my life I think I can say that I might be starting to become one. When I started swimming a few years ago I was out of shape from years of loafing and doing nothing really. I decided ,at the urging of my brother to "try a tri", I figured it looked easy and he always placed well so why not?
Easy was not the word of that day. My first tri consisted of a 500 yard pool swim, 13.1 mile bike followed by a 5k. Being an accomplished cyclist I figured I could breeze through the bike and just jog the remainder. 5k was nothing. Boy was I ready for a rude awakening!
The Swim - Having never trained really for a competitive swim I had no idea of what 500 yards was like nor did I really know how many laps it was. I figured a few, no problem. Fast forward to the swimming---->Total swim time was 11:38 and I was completely exhausted. It turned out to be 20 laps in the pool. Up to this point I had never done that before. At least that was a personal victory. I walked a bit in the pool till the HR came down and started swimming again. This was only after 10 laps. As I got to the wall I kept asking the person doing my timing for the swim
"am I done yet? This is killing me!"
After a few laughs I was told I was only at the halfway point, sorry.
The Bike - Finally I could go to what I thought was my strength. I hopped on the trusty new road bike and went. As I left I noticed a lot of the bikes. Some had the fancy rims, the aerobars and the Bento boxes filled with gels. I hopped on my trusty ride with just my inspirational IM Wisconsin bike jersey (I will do that dream someday, sooner that I think though)and the helmet which I forgot coming out of T1. Finished the ride in 48:56 and felt pretty good about my ride till I saw the actual time I did it in. I only averaged a measly 15.3 miles per hour! Oh well chalk that one up for room to improve!
The Run a.k.a "my personal deathmarch" - Wow I was not ready for this. Now I am supposed to run after that? I was an overweight hurting unit. Barely held together by whets left of me. During the deathmarch I had to walk a substantial portion of it. I got side stitches, the HR was absolutely through the roof and I was just spent. I managed to make it look like I ran the entire route by kicking it up for the last 200 yards, but boy did that take everything I had! I finished the run in 42:35. I was the happiest I think I ever was even with a showing of sub-standard numbers. I finished my first tri!
Where does this relate to the now? Well a 500 yard swim is now the warm-up for my swim workouts which typically go 2000-3000 yards total, the biking has now progressed to finishing a half IM bike with a little over a 3 hour split, and nor running a 5K in 24.00 and some change. I have proven to myself it can be done. All that needs to happen is the work to get there which with a family and work can sometimes be hard, but IT CAN BE DONE! There were many night of less sleep that I wanted to get up before the sunrise to get in that dreadfull 70 mile ride, many a cold freezing day in the winter to get in that 2 hour run and lastly many a 5:30 am swim call at the pool to get in those laps. Looking back it is all worth it seeing the progression I have made. I only hope I can improve upon it even more and get to the goal. The starting gun in Lake Monona in '08.
posted by bbieberitz at 8:00 AM
2 Comments:
I am SO proud of you. You have come so far. And to think that in 2008 you will be doing the Ironman.
Joe and I are behind you 100% and look forward to being with you every step, cycle and lap of the way...
Congratulations brother. I believe in you. Kasey
Rock on! Keep it up.
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