Rest Day/Triathlon Thoughts

I'm taking today as a rest day. The lifting just wiped me out yesterday. Whenever I lift even semi-hard it is like a truck ran over me. Plus tomorrow is my first triathlon training day with the program I signed up for. They said to bring bike and running gear. I am excited about that. They promise each student will be independently evaluated and have a tailor made program made just for them. Mine will be: Ride, Ride, Ride, Ride.

On the riding issue I have been reading about how everyone wants as light a bike as possible so they strip their bikes down, removing kickstands, reflectors anything to lessen weight, they will pay hundreds of dollars more for a lighter bike. One article I read suggested to save money just loose some weight. But in my case, seriously now, even if I were too lose seven pounds,(which I figure is the most I could afford at my height) I'm still going to be so heavy in porportion to the bike that it would hardly matter. My speed I think can only improve with better pedals, a thinner tire, better gearing, more riding and stronger legs, which is plenty to work on.

Which brings me to another issue: While I like the triathlon, I do have some problems with it.

1. It is unbalanced. It should be a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, but for me it was roughly 8%, 56%, 35%. Even if the swim were the 1/2 mile that it is in some events, that would work out roughly (in my head) to 15%, 52%, 38%. Now a more balance athlete(the winner of the 2006 Hawaii Ironman broke down roughly as follows, 11%, 52%, 36%. By any case the bike is half the time.

2. The bike part (half the race) depends largely on equipment. I almost feel like they should have just one generic type of bike with certain specifications that you couldn't exceed to balance the field. Swimming and running are much purer.

As an aside the triathlon developed as it did in Hawaii by combining 3 existing island races, a 2.4 mile open swim, a 112 mile bike race and a marathon. They put the swim first for safety reasons.

***

Sleep: 6.5 hours
Weight: 221.8

Breakfast: banana, steamed dumplings, DC
Snack: toasted buttered everything bagel, DC
Snack: Salad
Lunch: Burrito, yogurt with nuts
Snack: grapes