My Triathlon Training Thoughts

I started thinking seriously about competing in an Ironman triathlon while I was in the Wasatch Back Relay Ragnar 09. The race inspired me to want to fulfill a dream I held since I was 18. I wanted a coach or trainer to help me stay motivated. Ironman requires extraordinary endurance and strength to finish.

I started out by taking swim lessons at my local Recreation center. Becca and Britany helped me improve all of my swim strokes: free style, breast stroke, back stroke and butterfly. They had both participated in triathlon competitions. I asked for strength training routines And was shown a simple routine for building upper and lower body strength.

At work, we had a gym benefit that would pay most of the membership fees at Lifetime Fitness. I visited the gym and was impressed with the facility. I was introduced to Robby who told me about their triathlon class. The class met on Monday (swim), Wednesday (run) and Friday (cycle). I signed up immediately.

I was introduced to Polar exercise systems, a watch, heart rate monitor and foot pod. I was told that the systems worked with the treadmills, eliptical and stationary bikes to display heart rate. The watch can also download information to the computer and analyzed with polar pro trainer.

Vince told me about his plans to test his VO2 maximum. The test measures how much oxygen the lungs absorb and maps it to heart rate to determine exertion zones. The zones are described on a scale from 1-5. Zone 1 being active recovery, zone 2 base, zone 3 aerobic training, zone 4 anaerobic training and zone 5, peak training. I retest every 3 months to adjust training zones and to provide a report card of how I'm doing.

The Polar system measures key performance indicators, i.e. heart rate.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone