Training? We don't need no stinking training

So this blog has not quite lived up to expectations about training for the upcoming (3 weeks!) Salem Spring triathlon.  I remember now why training is so hard.  Something called life gets in the way.

For starters, as you all know, I had pneumonia in January.  So in February I started training.  I followed the periodization system, where you start out with endurance training at relatively low (65%-70% MHR) levels.  That went well for about 8 weeks until the end of March, when my father died unexpectedly.  Training got derailed in dealing with all that entails.  Then there was the weather.  A wet, cold spring that lingers to today has kept me off the roads for cycling or running except for exactly twice.  I did ride my bike to work last Friday, the first really nice spring day.  The pull up 6200 South almost did me in.  My heart rate was pushing 150+, very near my max.  It might have hit my max of 162; I didn't stop to count heartbeats.

I have been running on a treadmill and cycling on the stationary bike, but that isn't the same.  I've tried to incorporate some interval training, where you up the intensity for brief periods, raising your heart rate, then back off for a few minutes to recover, and then do it again. 

What I'm really hoping for, in terms of the Salem tri, is a couple of good weeks riding to work to get my cycling legs really working better.  The swim is the only thing coming on schedule.  As for the run, well, the run and I have never been friends, so I might take the run's ugly stepsister, the walk, to the triathlon.