Alarm clock went off at 6.15 this Saturday morning. Better get used to it as it will do that every Saturday until October. Met up with about 40 people for the kick off of the 2011 ProClub Triathlon team with introductions and it sounds like a really fun group with everything from Ironman to Beginner triathletes and Boston Marathon runners to beginners like me who. Fairly common across the room was that swimming was the big worry – with my swim training as a teenager and the fact that I do enjoy swimming laps now and then I am more worried about riding a road bike.

With really great weather with temperature just above freezing and no rain all of us took off for self paced trail run for a total of just over 12km but we there were a couple of turning points at 5k and 10k if you didn’t want to do the whole run. It started really nice and then the hills came.. my third kilometer took me 8 minutes as I had to walk up for a little while. Very nice run though and when I turned at the 6k point to head back I felt pretty good because I knew that there are hills coming but that there are good flat sections to get some power back in the legs and make up some time. I had a lot of fun and cant wait to get on this trail again now that I know what it looks like.

// Brjann

Data from the run
Distance: 12.14km
Time taken: 01:17:56
Average/Max Speed : 9.34/19.81 kph
Average/Min Pace : 00:06:25/00:03:01
Calories: 1250
Altitude up/down:472 / 473m
Conditions:1C
Wind of 6 kmH from bearing 125 (SE)

When I told my family that I was going to do a Triathlon their first response was: are you going to wear Speedos and bike pants with diapers?

Well.. I will wear long “speedo’s” and I did try out my new padded bike shorts today and I must say it is a big difference on that small, hard saddle.

Charlotte’s foot is getting a little better but I’m still the designated driver so I decided to do a bike ride at ProClub when I drove her to physical therapy. I have no idea how to train on the bike but I figure it cant be bad to do 45 min of level 8 on the Hill program on the Lemond bike. I did 16.6 miles in 45 minutes so about 22 mph in average … have no idea if that is good or not but I think I need to go for higher level or a longer ride as I did have quite a bit more in me.

It has been a pretty good first week of training with the bike ride today, 2 runs (Sunday-Tuesday) and 2 body burn classes (Monday-Wednesday). I met one of the Triathlon coaches today and heard that we are just doing a 7.5 miles trail run on Saturday …  he also pointed out that there are a couple of bail out points along the trail if I want to cut it shorter.

Resting tomorrow and then a fun run on Saturday

Brjann

ps GO SEAHAWKS !

Trying to find my pace on 5k+ runs. I believe I can get down to 5 min/km or 8 min/mile over a 10k race but I have some work to do. Today I did 4.41mi / 7.1 km in 0:38:45 feeling pretty ok after the run.

I have installed a GPS application called RunSat on my Windows Phone 7 and it gives me some data about the run and uploads to http://www.runningfreeonline.com.

Distance: 4.41mi / 7.1 km
Time taken: 00:38:45
Average Speed : 6.82mph
Average pace : 08:48 min/mile, 05:27 min/km

/ Brjann

Today Charlotte and I tried out a new class focused on more strength training and it was a lot of fun and I think at least my upper body will be very sore tomorrow. Charlotte, my hero, went down hard after about 20 minutes with a sprained ankle .. no fun but I look forward to taking care of her a few days.

This class was run for the first time today and it was pretty good with focus on upper body strength then a cardio section with strength focus, lower body then cardio and finally a grande finale of upper and lower strength combined with cardio …  easy 700 calories in 50 minutes of work but most of all a good strength workout.

If you live in the Redmond area and a member at ProClub I can strongly recommend getting an access pass for a month and try out all the classes as the coaches are really good and we have a lot of fun.

/ Brjann

During 2010 we have all spent a lot of hours at the gym getting in better shape and having a lot of fun. This started in January 2010 when ProClub at Willows Road started a new program called Total Body Transformers… Charlotte and I joined the program for six weeks and have been hooked on the great classes at Willows ever since. The girls enjoy a kids class twice a week as well. Thanks to all our great trainers and staff at Willows !

For me I got a bit of awakening when my doctor told me I almost had diabetes in January 2010 and that I had to do something about it and just loosing weight wasn’t helping. In November 2009 I was almost 115 kg and really wasn’t feeling all that good so together with Charlotte we did something about it and when we weighed in on the first day of the TBT program I had managed to loose 15 KG in just 8 weeks. I am now pending between 90 and 93 kg, have run my first races ever with local 5K, 10K and 12K events. I have my 2011 yearly checkup with my doctor in a couple of weeks but I feel great so have hopes for better numbers… think I need to loose a few more kg

My new goal is to do a Olympic Triathlon in the fall of 2011 so I have joined the triathlon program at ProClub with 2 hour classes every Saturday morning at 7.15. I have not yet decided on a race calendar for the year which will include a couple of sprint triathlons, some running races such as the Kirkland half marathon in May and of course an Olympic distance triathlon.

Triathlon races vary in distance but the main race distances are Sprint (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run), Olympic (1.5 km swim, 40 km ride, 10 km run), the Half Ironman (1.9 km swim, 90 km ride, 21.1 km run) and of course the Ironman (3.8 km swim, 180 km ride, and a marathon: 42.2 km run)

I have been reading about training for different races and everywhere it says that you should keep a training diary so I thought why not do it on this blog. The girls gave me a running vest for Christmas so today I took it for a test run so lets start my “diary” with the first run of the new year.

I did a sunny but cold 5.9 km run in 34 min around our North Rose Hill neighborhood with a new GPS application on my phone that provided the pace and distance and I realized that I did start this way too slow with over 6 min on the first kilometer and my fastest km was the last which is also all uphill. I think I have to get a watch that can give me this info as the phone is just too big and cumbersome to use – I need the help to get the best pace as I don’t have the experience to listen to my body.

New working week starts tomorrow with training planned for all days except Friday and Sunday with the first Triathlon program training on Saturday.

Shorter posts coming to help me keep track of my progress.

/ Brjann

Distance: 5.9 km (3.67 mi)
Time: 34.1 min
Pace: 5.47 min/km (9.18 min/mi)
Weight: 92.5