Thursday, December 10, 2009

Why Did You Join Team In Training? Well...

"I have a wildly innacurate understanding of my physical limitations."

That was my response to the seemingly simple question on TNT's "Get to Know Me" form: Why did you join Team In Training.

And it's true. As mentioned in the last post, I'm not entirely in tune with my body when it comes to understanding its limits for exercise (or cookies for that matter, but that's another post entirely). I've run myself into at least 4 (diagnosed) stress fractures. Me and my 5'3" 115lb body decided it was an excellent idea to play roller derby for a year. Downhill skiing wasn't tough enough so I opted for telemarking (essentially cross-country skiing downhill, or, as I like to call it, downhill walking lunges for 7 hours). After four marathons, I decided to do a triathlon last year. I also decided it was a great idea to train myself.

All this to say, I'm grateful for the TNT schedule of workouts to ensure I remember that two-a-days are not necessary and that yes, there is time to properly learn everything instead of, say, jumping in the pool and swimming a mile on day 1.

Last Saturday's workout started with a lesson about proper running apparel and riding technique. Biking lesson #1 (self-taught): a tee shirt and a thin running jacket are not appropriate apparel for a 30-degree ride. The workout was a frigid bike ride around Central Park for 1.5 hours, but lovely in that our coaches were waiting at the end of each loop to watch our form and pace.

On Monday, rather than just throwing us in the pool and yelling "swim, Phelps!", the coaches spent time walking us through drills including "sculling." I have determined that sculling is a cruel joke and/or hazing ritual of the coaches. Essentially it involves lying face down in the water with a buoy between your legs and trying to get from one end of the pool to the other by moving only your forearms and wrists. That is to say, it gets you absolutely nowhere fast. For the entire first lap I was positive that if I looked up I'd see all the coaches snickering and pointing at the new kids.

Since I wasn't able to make the Wednesday practice, the rest of the week's workouts were drawn from the coach-provided calendar and included another solo swim and a few runs, meaning that, for the first time since I've been training for any event, I seem to be exercising proper restraint.

Here's hoping that next time I can answer that Get to Know Me question with a sunnier: Because I have a perfectly reasonable understanding of my physical abilities... but I'm going to train for this endurance event anyway.

No comments: