Day 1... of 132

This is going to be the diary portion of my training. It's 132 days until the Kansas 1/2 Ironman, and my official training starts today. I'm following a plan from BeginnerTriathlete.com, a website that has proven to be invaluable to me the past year, being a newcomer to the sport.

What I'll be posting isn't anything special, it will just be a recap of what I did, how long, how I felt, pretty mundane stuff. I doubt anyone will be too terribly interested, but it's more for my documentation so I can look back and see if there are certain patterns emerging, trace back the start of injuries, see what worked and what didn't.

So without any further ado, here's Day 1.

Day 1: Run 40 min, Swim 40 min

Got up at 4:45, but hit the snooze once. Didn't get out of bed until 4:50, and subsequently wasn't out of the house until 5:10. Got to the campus a little after 5:20, and was running on the elevated track at 5:25. Today's workout called for a pace of 3 (on a 10-scale) so I settled in around an 8:30/mile pace. Good relaxing run, didn't feel exhausted at all at the end and wasn't sweating too much either.

Headed straight for the pool. Previously when I swam, I just jumped in, maybe did a few freestyle warm-up laps, took a brief breather, then would just do more freestyle for however long I wanted to go. Read that this is not the proper way to train. So I did what the plan instructed:
Warm-up of 200 freestyle, 200 pull (which is using your arms only), 200 kick (using just the kickboard) and another 200 freestyle. Man, using just the kickboard is TOUGH! I could barely make it 100 yards! That will definitely be an area of focus in the months to come.
The regular portion of the workout was 1500 yards, alternating breathing on each side. I did 250 going back and forth every three strokes, but then did 500 all on the right, next 500 all on the left, and last 250 switching.
Cool-down was just 100 yard at a relaxed pace.

According to my Garmin, I averaged 1:53. I wasn't expecting it to be that low (it's better than what I expected). Hopefully when I start doing more speed work in the following weeks.

After dinner I did Insanity Core Cardio & Balance. It's a recovery week (good timing) and I don't think my heart rate ever got above 140bpm.

Overall a good day, except for the fridge at work freezing my yogurt, chocolate milk, and fruit over the weekend. Had a banana and oatmeal for breakfast. Quizno's flatbread chicken for lunch, and fish with green beans for dinner.