Time for long workouts on road to Ironman

Denise Hazlick Entertainment editor • Profile

After a few days in Mexico — and a few days to recover from Mexico (Montezuma's Revenge is not an urban myth) — I have jumped into full-on triathlon training. From here until August, the intensity will continue to grow. Because the length and difficulty of my workouts are building, I now get two days a week off for recovery. Trust me, it isn't hard to convince myself to take a day off. And while training is often lonely and difficult, I can feel myself getting stronger each day. Here's a sampling of my training week:

Tuesday
After resting on Monday, it's time for trainer work. Lots and lots of trainer work (For those of you who don't know, a trainer is a device that you place your bike on that basically turns it into a stationary cycle). This is the bicycle equivalent of Wednesday-night track workouts — it's all about speed. During this workout, I focus on speeding up my cadence. When I started doing this trainer workout, I would pedal as fast as I could for 2 minutes, then slow down for a minute, then repeat for 10 minutes. Now I try to pedal as fast as I can for 4 minutes, the slow down for a minute, then repeat. I say try because this is much harder than it sounds. Using the tension knob on the trainer and the gears on my bike, I increase the resistance. This is supposed to be difficult — and it is. I have towels strategically placed beneath the bike to collect the buckets of sweat that pour off me.

In between these 10-minute bike sets, I run. Nothing too strenuous, but enough to shake out my legs and get them used to running off the bike. Four sets on the bike. Four 15-minute runs. And this is just the beginning of the week ...

Wednesday
I try to get to the pool early in the afternoon to do laps. I would prefer to swim in the morning, but since I start work at 6 a.m., it's hard to find a pool that's open at 4 o'clock. I swim for about an hour, doing laps. Back and forth, back and forth. My usual Wednesday routine is to do 25 sets of 100 meters. I try to go a little faster on each set. I enjoy this afternoon swim — it helps me unwind and decompress during the work day.

In the evenings, I attend the regular group track workout. Now that I am putting in longer hours on the weekend, I no longer attend the group triathlon workouts on Saturdays, so this is my only chance during the week to work out with my training friends. I really miss them. Ironman training is lonely business and as the long weekend workouts get longer, so does the time in my head. Without the chipper sounds of Laura or Catrena or Ali chatting away, there is only my voice to console — or chastise — me. Frankly, I'm getting bored with the voice's tired old chestnuts.

But on group track nights, we catch up and make tracks. This is still my best opportunity to work on running speed. I couldn't do without it.

Thursday
Back on the trainer for an early pre-work ride. I set up my trainer and my bike in the living room, in front of the TV and load up the DVD player. The latest offerings? Season two of "Chappelle's Show." I set the tension pretty high, to increase the resistance, and ride at a moderate cadence for 60 minutes.

Now that the sun is rising earlier (I live in the Seattle area, so sunrise is around 4:30 a.m. in the summer), I also ride to work some mornings, depending on how early I get out of bed and whether or not I'll need a car at work that day. It's a beautiful ride, about 17 miles each direction.

In the evening, it's back in the pool for more laps. Once the water temperature gets a bit warmer, I'll begin swimming in Lake Washington.

Friday
Rest day. Ah, sweet rest. This is a day to give my body a chance to recover and to go out with friends — unless I fall asleep on the couch by 7 p.m.

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