[Part II of Race journal: Tri Santa Cruz, August 2018] March-May 2018: the actual training begins

[Forked from the entire race report for ease of reading]
Previous: [Part I of Race journal: Tri Santa Cruz, August 2018] Prologue: the back story

March 2018 (Swimming + HIIT):

I thought I'll get a headstart and kick off the swimming part of the training, what followed was humbling and a good indicator of things to come.

Swimming:
I had learnt to swim as a kid,  I couldn't dive or jump in, but I remember being okay swimming to the deep end and back to the shallow. I grew up in a landlocked city so there are no ocean or even bay/lake/river swims in my life. I had taken refresher courses around 5 years ago. In my mind, I was in decent shape. In reality, it had been 5 years since I had even stepped into a pool!
I set up a lesson with a coach and in the first few minutes, she had asked me to float, do a lap and something else which I thought was very simple, and yet, I couldn't do a single thing. She asked me why I was doing the lessons and I told her I wanted to do a triathlon. Her advice: sign up for more lessons..

It was a rude awakening, but what I remember the most from that day is how good it felt to be in the water, something I do not remember from the past. Till this day, swimming remains my favorite part of the triathlon, I have no idea why or what led to this, but I'm not complaining. It took me couple of lessons to jog my memory but then it took us many lessons to correct my form. For around couple of months, I only swam during lessons and soon it was evident that it was not helping with the endurance at all. I still remember the day I went for a swim without a lesson on my calendar, I felt so accomplished! I had some breathing issues as a kid and in general, I have a tendency to run out of breath. Being aware of this, I had to be patient as I would stop mid lap or not be able to do as much as I would have liked to push. What really helped (I think) was the fact that I had started HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) which is a mix of strength training and cardio a few months ago. With a combination of more hours in the pool, deliberate fixing of form and HIIT, I started to feel a lot more comfortable going for longer distances without pausing as much. Around this time, the main triathlon training had also kicked off, which helped me immensely!

HIIT:
I won't go into as much detail here, but I started HIIT in September 2017. The particular version I do, is structured as a 10-12 week course where you meet twice a week for one hour. In that hour, you alternate between 45-50 seconds of strength training and 45-50 seconds of cardio (the remaining 10 seconds in between are for rest/switching). In the first week, I had requested the trainer for a weight less than 7 lbs, and he laughed and said no. Later he explained that he could hand me the 7, but if I got used to the 7 when I could do more, it will be painful for me when they move to some equipment like kettlebells where there is no 7 lb (maybe they just didn't have it). I bought the argument. By the time our triathlon training started, I had been doing HIIT school for 2 semesters and had signed up for the third one.

April 2018 (biking + running + HIIT):

If I had to remember one significant event in April, that will be the day I bought my bike! It was a day before the first Team Asha ride and I was so excited! I had never owned a road bike before. I walked into Sports basement and tried out the carbon bike- I felt 'one with the bike'..until I saw the price. Then I tried something which was aluminum frame but also not the best parts, I felt all the roads around sports basement in my bum, my head and my heart. Finally, I tried the Cannondale Synapse 105, with disc brakes. It felt like a good in between. I always have a tough time making decisions but thankfully, Sports basement didn't have as many options that day for my height so this white beauty it was! I later named her Swaagger (yes, with all the extra emphasis). Since April, Swaagger has gotten better treatment than almost any human in my life. She only leaves the apartment for training rides or spin sessions and chills out on her bike rack at home otherwise.

Spin sessions started end of April, I dutifully bought off the trainer and attended the first session. It was great but since it clashed with my HIIT days, it would be a choice I would have to make over the next few weeks. That day (April 26), I did HIIT and then Spin and then a short brick run. Needless to say, my system wasn't used to this level of exercise so I was dead tired the next day. Coach advised me to not double up if it didn't feel right. I paid heed and wouldn't come back to doing this again until June.

We had our swim test for the Open Water Swims on April 22. I was so excited! While deciding which lane to go in, I remember Prasad asking me if I'm comfortable with the leftmost lane, which was 7 feet. I told him that I hadn't practised in that, but I'm game to find out what happens when I do. I went ahead and enjoyed the couple of laps that I did that day. This attitude was my approach to swimming throughout. I wasn't the fastest in any of the three disciplines, but when I was in the water, I was game to try out something new and stretch. This was really useful as a confidence booster (since it wasn't really tied to my ability to swim either :))

May 2018 (Biking + HIIT + OWS + Swimming):

I was one of the slowest riders in the bike rides every Sunday. It was true that I was still finishing all the rides and practising on a stationery bike twice a week and attending Spin once in two weeks, but I remember being frustrated after those Sundays wondering what it would take to go faster. In early May, in one of the rides I was pretty much on my own and one of the few people who didn't get lost. I may not be the fastest but I was definitely not underprepared. This gave me some consolation.

The weekend of May 19-20 was one of the most happening ones! I was performing with my improv group and trying out my first stand up comedy piece on Sunday. We were going for our first Open Water Swim on the same Saturday. My stomach was a ball of nerves the entire week! The OWS was super fun, as was my show. Around the same time, I had decided to switch teams at work. This would have meant a steep ramp-up for the next few months and will become another factor that I'll have to balance my training with.

To be honest, I imagined that I would freak out in any kind of open water. But then when I put my face in the slimy waters of Gull Park (lake?), I couldn't see a thing. At this point, it didn't matter if I was 5 ft deep or 30 or more. Those slimy waters have gone a long way in ensuring that nobody realizes how much in the deep end they truly are..

Meanwhile, I was steadily practicing in the pool and completed my first 1000m in pool swim. I also took Karthik's advice of deciding beforehand how many laps I wanted to do and that made it a little easier to both push and track. I also finished third semester of HIIT school and the measurements gave me the highest fat percentage drop so far. These checkpoints were a great confidence booster! May wrapped up with a backpacking trip to the Lost coast which meant missed training for a weekend but it was also a checkpoint as I carried a heavier than usual backpack but felt stronger and fitter than ever before.

Next: 
[Part III of Race journal: Tri Santa Cruz, August 2018] Jun-July 2018: almost there