‘Tri’ing’ with a new born in the family

First of all, it’s been really long that I wrote anything.Part being lazy and part being busy.

There has been an addition to my family. Blessed with a sweet angel 10 days back, and since then my wife and I are having very special moments with our cute girl. One of those moments being that I am right now lying on the kids mat and writing this blog post.
Triathlon in the makingWith any life changing event, comes the struggle or rather the challenge of continuing to lead an endurance athlete’s life. The challenge is even more if you have three sports to balance and a full time job (you definitely need this with your growing family). Continue reading

10 Reasons I love doing triathlon !!!

 

For bragging rights !!

Because it sounds cool !!

So that I can smile and say ‘that is cute‘, when someone says ‘I did a marathon‘.

Well on a serious note, I just love it because it makes me happy, keeps me sane, and my wife loves seeing me on the leaner side. Continue reading

Masters Swim – for Triathletes

We generally get drawn into lots of drills when swimming with the Masters group. No doubt that the drills are great, and lot to learn from the Masters group. This post is not to discuss the pros and cons of the drills for Masters Swimming, rather incorporate those drills to suit the triathlon needs.

So after my Masters swim workout, I spoke to a triathlon coach. And I found three really good points from our talk- Continue reading

It’s Cold !!

Guess it was the coldest day that I had to pick for swimming. Morning temperatures 34 F and evening 42F.

Woke up to go swimming for an hour, but looking out the window it was chilly cold, and a little windy :(. Took me 30 mins to decide, to hit the pool. I made it for the last 20 mins before the pool closure. This pool visit was after 2 months, and wasn’t bad given I did 1000 yds in those 20 mins. So begins the swim part of the Ironman training.

The hardest part in the morning, especially during winters, is to prepare mentally to dive into the pool. Water is always warm, so once I dive into the pool, I remain underwater for the first 25 yds, coming out just twice to catch breath.

Anyways, post swim feeling was great !!

Evening, I skipped the crossfit session, it was Angie’s workout (100 pushups – 100 pull-ups – 100 sit-ups – 100 squats), and went for a run. There weren’t any two thoughts about doing less than 10 miles, till I felt an awful pain on my posterior lower calf muscles. Its called  ‘Gastrocnemius’ muscle strain. Whatever the hell it is, you can read it and understand it over here.

Had to stop a couple of times. A little before 4 miles, I almost gave up, but walking was more painful than running. So I started a slow jog back, and at about mile 5, I picked up the pace. Thanks to crossfit sessions, that I was maintaining my pace for a good .75 miles at around 7:30 min/mile.

Check out the pace analysis-

http://www.strava.com/activities/98714288/pace-analysis  A sense of achievement, so I am continuing with Crossfit.

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Crossfit WOD for Runners-Triathletes

Crossfit for runners or triathletes should be supplementary. Use the workouts to build strength in the muscle group.

WOD:

Workout 1

  • 420 m run
  • 20 m OverHead weighted lunges (Did 2 sets with 45 lbs, 1 set with 35 lbs, 2 sets with 25 lbs – to keep the tempo)
  • repeat 5 times (2100 m in total)

Overhead Lunges

Workout 2

In a group of 3, One person ready to pull the sledge, other two at two ends of a football field doing planks.

  • 100 yds sledge pull (70 lbs) targeted to be around 30 secs
  • Plank position
  • repeat 3 times

http://www.strava.com/activities/97452887

This was a killer workout, for the hamstrings. But the trick is to look down. Focus on the ground below, take smaller steps. Your foot should fall right below your centre of gravity. The back should be straight, NO ARCH, keep your head tucked down.

Sledge Pull

Cooled down with jog and walk across the field a couple of times.

But I was not done !!

Put on some music, and finished a 1.5 mile easy peasy run on the track. Chilling cold !!

http://www.strava.com/activities/97452886