It's you... Not Me

So, J and I have made the commitment to two triathlons (actually, J has signed up for three, but I can't make the first because I'm going to be out of town at a wedding) and we've been training pretty consistently for the past three weeks. I could shoot myself for not doing anything during the month of March and most of April. Training and consistency of said training are absolutely key to being successful at something like a triathlon (where your body is truly challenged by the combination of the three disciplines) and even if you're not worried about success in the sense of a quick finish, the physical punishment of a lax training program creates the mental stress woulda', coulda', shoulda' been easier had you trained a bit more. As of today, the runs, bike rides and swims are going ok, but I'm still struggling with timing and pace on the runs. While I like running outside more than anything, because of my schedule, I've been forced to use the treadmill the past two runs and can't believe how much difficulty I had making it to the 5k mark. I know my 195lbs aren't helping any, but in many ways, a treadmill should make distance running easier (because of the controlled environment). In reality, it doesn't. Besides the physical endurance issues (which really isn't an issue if you don't care about your finish times and you just pace yourself), the brutal fact of the longer triathlons (the longest I'm training for this year is the Olympic distance) is the little fights that go on in your head as to whether or not you can make it and if you should simply stop - at least that is the conversation I have with myself at the beginning of every bike ride and near the middle of every run.
Later this weekend, I'm hoping to post some of the routes we've been riding using a piece of software I've fallen for: TrailRunner. The software is nothing short of stellar and makes tracking the runs and bike rides a breeze. I've been having issues with my heart and cadence monitor on my bike, so some of the entries aren't too helpful, as they don't show heart rates and averages, but it still is nice to see where we're actually going since we don't necessarily know before we hit the road.
My first tri is in just under four weeks. Here's to hoping for the best.

Technorati Tags: training, triathlon