Enjoying it!

Now that I am devoting training time to swimming, biking, and running, I find myself looking forward to most if not all of my workouts. The variety is amazing!

Swimming: I can't believe how much I improved in less than one year. October 2009 was the first time I decided to learn to swim free style. After watching a few videos on line, I went to the pull, put a belt on, and started "swimming". That was the first time ever I put my head in the water. It was a long process until I graduated to swimming one lap, than 8 laps, and so on. I am still a slow swimmer, but I am much more comfortable in the water. I have learned to go against my instincts in the water - slow down when I feel out of breath, push my head into the water when I feel I am sinking, and so on. I have been reading "Total Immersion" during this past month, and have been watching instruction videos on line. That program is amazing, and I have learned a ton from it. I am now swimming 3 times/week, 3-5 miles total, but I feel I need to swim about 5 days a week to get my times down to where I think I can (for this year). I think I'll be able to make that happen come June. Will see! My challenge in swimming is still fear, fear that if I go too fast, I may get into oxygen debt and I can't just stop like I could in running and biking! I think I need to work on alternative fast and slow swimming within one interval, to get over that fear.

Biking: I love biking. My longest distance so far is 50 miles. I go pretty slow and don't really push myself, but will try to add some speed in June. During May my goal was to get my muscles used to biking, and my body used to increased training volume. I think that I have a good built for biking and I actually could get really strong on the bike. Next week I will join a group ride and am pretty excited (and nervous) about that. I also love my trainer rides. They are only 90 minutes so far, but a great excuse to watch reruns of Survivor and This Amazing Race!

Running: I started to do my 2 easy runs without my Garmin. It's actually fun, and I can't believe it. I still have to keep an eye on my pace and keep it slow, but not having the watch with me definitely helps. Since Boston I have not done any speedwork, with the exception of my 5K last week. I have been averaging 30-35 miles/week, with 75% on trails. I will probably do a few intervals before my sprint tri end of June, and than marathon training starts! Hurray!

Core work: I can now do 50 push-ups in one session, no problem. I can only do 2 chin ups (we got a pull up bar) and one pull up, which is funny because I developed a strong upper body due to swimming. Guess different muscles.. I have also been doing lots of jumps, leg work, etc, about 10-20 minutes every weeknight!

So questions for you!

1. Any books on triathlon, biking or swimming that you recommend? I love love love reading anything sports related but at the same time, I don't have a ton of time for fun reading and would love to be efficient and choosy about it!

2. Any info you wish you had when you first got started with all or one of the sports (run, bike, swim).

Thanks!