Time to get serious

I have less than a month until my first triathlon and I've been a bit slack the past few weeks.

Last week was a bit pathetic: I got in the least that I have since I started training and probably is the least I have exercised since I had that bad bout of sinusitis and bronchitis in November. Here is the week's end totals:
Run: 33 miles
Bike: 32 miles
Swim: 1 mile

Not totally terrible and part of it was because I went to the beach the last half of the week with some of my girlfriends. Pictures and details coming soon. . .

Anyway, I went to the gym this morning planning to get back on it, the training that is--not the wagon (never!)-- and really start working. My plan was 7 hard miles on the treadmill and a mile swim. Tomorrow a brick.

Well, dumbass me forgot to charge my ipod and it was dead. No way I was running so I hit the pool for a half hour and I really pushed pretty hard. I felt super strong. Probably because this was the first swim workout I did without having run or biked before it. I really need to start forcing myself to do other swim workouts other than just swimming a mile. I am so lazy in the pool. Really. So my plan is to try this month to do at least two, preferably three, swim workouts a week and one of them being drills and sprints and whatnot.

After my swim the kids and I headed out for our errands and other work I had to do. Ryan was home for a bit this afternoon so I had the opportunity to run but it was 3 in the afternoon and just so muggy and hot that I figured I'd do better on the treadmill in the air conditioning. So around 5ish I put my kids in nursery hock and hit the treadmill for 4 miles-- clocking in 29:12. Then I hopped on the bike and cranked out 11 miles in just a hair under 31 minutes. Then I got back on the treadmill to test the legs and got a mile out in 7:18. Not spectacular but I totally had my legs back and could have done 2 more miles at a similar, if not faster pace easy peasy.

So here is what my training thus far is telling me to expect, roughly, for the tri:

I think the swim will come in under 7 or right around 7 minutes. Ideally, I'd like to do closer to 6 minutes. And I have, in the pool, many times. Open water competition is a bit of mystery for me. I hope to test out an open water swim at Altoona sometime this month and that might give me a more realistic idea of what I can do.

The bike is absolutely my weak link. I hate it. Not the bike, just how sucky I am. It is frustrating. I pump my little legs but seriously can't kick it up any more than I do. I think I can expect 17 mph pace on the bike. Maybe 20 but I doubt it. So what is that for 13 miles? Around 40 minutes? Ideally I want the bike to come in under 35 and I just don't think that is realistic at all for me.

The run is what it is for me. I have never run just a 5k but in 10k's and on the treadmill I am consistently just over or exactly 21 minutes. I definitely think I am capable of sub 21. In a tri I don't know though. Probably not. I do think the run will come in under 22 minutes.

So goal time? I hope to be under 78 minutes but ideally I'd like to come in closer to the hour mark. I don't even entertain under 60.
Is that crazy?

Totally unrealistic?

I have tried to structure my training so that at least 5 days of the week my workouts for the day exceed 90 minutes. My thinking is that anything under that will feel like a walk in the park.

I am sure I am in for a rude awakening. Sand bagger I am not.

Oh, and in other news I've bought my outfit for the sprint. I bought this suit (it is so cute!) and this skirt to snap on over it for the bike and run. I have been acclimating my ass by biking in my running skirts and Nike compression shorts so hopefully my transitions will be quick.
So yeah, my ass?
It kicks itself these days.