Training Day 2

Hello Triathletes:
Great job again this morning and we had two more folks out there braving the dark and cold. Kristin and Katie were kicking butt on their first day out with the ladies. Everyone ran at least part of the 3.2 mile route. The key thing to keep in mind is that everyone is training at their pace and you can't feel bad if you are not on the same level as some of the other folks. Training at your pace and within your capabilities ensures that you can train for the whole time without injury or pain. Speaking of which some have mentioned that their shins are already bothering them. The first thing to keep in mind is that you must stretch after you exercise.....we are old enough that stretching is absolutely critical. I also have become an advocate of advil on a regular basis to handle the inflammation as you are training. You have to take it regularly not necessarily for the pain but to reduce the inflammation and thereby recover and not cause further injury (i did it wrong for years). The other thing to do is to go to the dollar tree and get one or two 20 oz bottles of liquid soap (like for washing dishes). Dump the whole bottle in a sandwich bag and then put that inside of another ziplock sandwich bag and pop it in the freezer and you have a great, cheap ice pack. The ice pack is great for those sore shins.
I really do not want anyone to train in pain so I am going to ask my friend, Mary Kay, who is a retired physical therapist from the Army to join us at 0530 so she can consult with those who are experiencing some pain. I am sure she will love being the team sports physical therapist. I also have some of the team backpacks for people at my house thanks to Diane!!!

I will now introduce you to an Army term....Standard Operating Procedure...(SOP) After two days of training some natural SOPs are surfacing so I will cover them here and we will all know what to do.
1. If you have some hand weights, exercise balls or yoga mats bring them for boot camp. At the very least bring an old towel so you can use it on my very pretty but cold garage floor. I do not want you hurting your arms during planks :-)
2. I have a case of water in the garage for the drinking and we will just rotate who brings a case to have on hand so that you can hydrate. I may be able to see if Ronnie can send us some coupons but if not Nestle Pure Life water is on sale at Walmart right now.....did you see that pitch for Nestle water :-) Of course the case in my garage is BJ's brand. I did see Diane drink water today so that means that....she can drink water she simply chooses not to....hmmmm.
3. You guys were great about stepping off right at 0530 so you have that SOP down pat.
4. I would like to offer Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 0515 as an option for additional running or for biking. I am up and running at 0515 so it would be a great bike day for some folks you would simply stay in the development for your route. It could be an additional walk/run day for those that are building up and we could do boot camp at 0615 back at the house until 0630.
5. I am getting the sense that most people are going to sign up for Campbell so that we can have swim instruction/workout as a group once a week and then folks can feel free to go on their own in small groups. You just can't beat the price. For this Saturday we are looking at 3:30 and we can carpool from my house at 3:00. That will give us over an hour to be at the pool and get some of the basics down pat. I will also put some suggested workouts up here on the blog so you can have some standard swim workouts to take with you to the pool. The goal is to get a workout while you are in the pool....not simply do 300 yards since that is the length of the swim on the tri. You will need goggles for swim training and I would suggest a bathing cap for the health of your eyes and hair.
6. You guys have a great attitudes in the morning and people are talking and getting together to workout....great job! The SOP would be to keep that going. Post times that you will be training or heading to the gym here or shoot out an email so it will motivate others to join you and also force you to go!