The very first time I met my trainer was this past summer at a bike clinic for the first and only sprint triathlon I did. The clinic was being hosted by E3 Training Solutions, which is the same training company that is coaching our marathon team. I didn't actually talk to Patricia that day, but I remember thinking, "Holy shit, that girl is ripped!" as she talked us through what do in transition 1 after you get out of the water and get on your bike. Answer: Take your goggles off and put your helmet on. They said much more detailed, helpful information, but this was all my brain could handle at the time.
When I inquired about personal coaching, head coach Jorge matched me with Patricia. We met at a local Panera to go over the basics of what the training plan would offer. As I sat across from her in Panera, I thought, "Holy shit, this girl is ripped!" She's like 5 feet tall and all muscle, but cute as a button.
I'm going to list my anticipated fears, and then rate them on a scale of rationality (1 being completely rational and sane, and 5 being completely irrational and insane), because I think that will be fun to look back on in 3 or 6 months from now.
1) I fear that I'm not going to be able to do the workouts. This is level 2 fear. Judging by the first two weeks of workouts, there is nothing on there that I can't do.
2) I fear that I am going to go broke. This fear is full on level 5, and tomorrow it will be down to a 1. I spent a big chunk of change today on things that I didn't even know existed before. Normally I don't spend hundreds of dollars on something I have to go to wikipedia to figure out what the hell it is.
3) I fear that all the activities will cancel each other out. Once I see this in writing, I'm upgrading the rationality of this fear from a level 2 to a level 4. It sounds kind of crazy, but hear me out! If I was just marathon training, I'd be becoming a faster, stronger runner, right? Now if I add biking AND swimming, I'm going to somehow dilute my running abilities. And since I'm a horrible cyclist to start with, I can't see how biking one or two days a week on a trainer is going to help, and swimming just seems like a recovery workout, so that's not really going to help me either. Yes, I'm pretty sure that most people who swim, cycle, and run in preparation for a triathlon are doing it all wrong. (That's the crazy part of my brain talking, I don't really think that.)
4) I fear that people will expect too much of me. Level 1. I shouldn't be worried so much about other people's opinions, but I don't like falling short of someone else's inflated expectations. I still can't do a push-up, I hate climbing stairs, and I can barely run a 5K in under 30 minutes. When people know I'm training for a marathon or a triathlon, I think they expect me to look a certain way. No one will ever say, "Holy shit, this girl is ripped!" when they look at me. It's more like, "You did a marathon? How many years ago?" I need to let this one go.
I think the coaching experience will be good, especially because of these fears, rational or not. My thinking and my "creative problem solving" have always been my downfall. I can rationalize that sitting on the couch eating chips is the best thing for me, and the next day I can rationalize that doing a practice half ironman with no training is the best thing for me. I think the coaching will give me the guidance that I need, and it will give my brain a rest. I don't know what the hell I'm doing, and the good news is, I don't have to know. I just have to do it.
" I can't see how biking one or two days a week on a trainer is going to help" .
ReplyDelete- Maybe it is not going to help. Instead bike five to six days a week on a trainer. Make it a 20 minute dealie you do in the morning before shower before morning routine before work. Where eventually that ungodly extra 30 minute morning wake up time will become a normal thing and you compensate by passing out zombie tired a bit earlier in the evenings to make up for it. I am sure training programs or plans or such do work for many people, but as a tall person myself, I found my mechanics of running are somewhat different than the usual person's abilities. And I found when I only ran the 3 days a week on the running room training program I was not really pushing myself to the limits of my abilities. Where I think the training program does work to improve speed, reduce time, or increase technique. But I started running like one would hit a rock with a sledge hammer. Just pound the sh*t out of it. every day. I would go until something breaks. Because without knowing your limit (or the limit of your equipment), you don't really know how much you are capable of doing. And to only do what someone else tells you to do is perhaps possibly not the your limit of your abilities. I have consistently found that I am capable of at least twice what my mind originally thought I possible of doing. Now I'm not sure how this would fit into a scheduled plan because I have never had this to work within. But I can see myself abusing my off days to do something different from what I would be training on. Like fence post digging or shovelling snow - just to get more of a full body work out and burn. Because everything is training.