It's funny to me that after thoroughly disliking cross-training for as long as I've been running, I've come to love it so much as part of training for my first tri.

I think it's because the cross-training finally feels like it's serving a purpose other than just being a break from running.

Week Two was another solid week of training.


Monday: 4 miles

Nothing too special here, just a quick and easy four miler to start the week.

Tuesday: 45 minutes cycling

A friend of mine warned me that riding on a trainer would be more boring than running on a treadmill. I'm starting to think he's right. Trainer rides aren't the most exciting thing ever, but at least I'm able to prop my laptop near the bike so I can watch Hulu while I ride. Makes the time go a little bit faster.

Wednesday: 5 miles

It was another gorgeous day for running and I got to wear shorts again in February.


I knocked out my five miles on one of the trails near my house. I'm having fun exploring new running routes this training cycle and I think that's really helping to keep things fresh.

Thursday: Swim 2,000 yards

This was one of the best swims I've had in a long time. I felt like the correct form was starting to feel natural and I moved through the water so smoothly. Swim like this one made me want to find time to get in the pool again over the weekend. Unfortunately I just ran out of time and that didn't happen.

Friday: Rest!

Saturday: 6 miles

It was freezing cold, windy and snowing when I started this run. But the flurries quickly disappeared and the sun eventually came out. The wind never stopped though and it felt like I was running into a head wind the whole time, even though this route was an out and back.

Sunday: Active rest!

I was hoping to get in a swim at some point, but I just didn't have time. It was a busy weekend and Sunday was the only time I had to catch up on all the fun and exciting parts of life, like grocery shopping and cleaning my house. I know, I know, I live such an exciting life, I'm sure you're all jealous. At least cleaning is a sort of decent workout.

I'm really happy with how all the workouts went this week. It was definitely a solid week of training. 

Football Update:

In fantastically good Monday news, rumor has it the ACC football schedules are finally going to be released today after many, many weeks of delays. That means I can finally start planning my fall race schedule around Terps games and tailgate weekends. Yes, I am beyond excited.

One of the things I know is really important for me when it comes to swimming is having a set workout for when I get in the pool.


I have no idea how some people can just decide on a certain distance and swim until they reach it. Staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool for that long makes me want to blow my brains out.

I much prefer a workout that's broken down into sets, where each set has a goal.

Yesterday, I was on the way to the pool and realized I hadn't put together a workout yet. I hate not having a plan, so I whipped up a workout off the top of my head, and it actually ended up being a lot of fun.


Warm-up:
That's pretty self explanatory. I got in the water and took it nice and easy for these 500 yards. I always try to focus on good form in the warm up. I find that if I start a swim with poor form, it usually doesn't improve as I go.

Main Set:
5x50 on 1:00 - For these, I focused on speed by getting through the water efficiently. I worked on long strokes, keeping my gaze down, and breathing every three strokes. The time interval is adjustable based on your fitness. One minute intervals gives me anywhere from six to ten seconds of rest between 50's.

3x300 with 30 seconds rest between - The purpose of these 300's was to focus on maintaining good form after I was fatigued from some speedier intervals. I know in triathlons I'm going to get tired during the swim and I want to make sure I still maintain good form. I've learned you lose so much efficiency in the water if you start to let your form suffer so that's something I'm paying very close attention to in all of my pool workouts.

5x50 on 1:00 - Same as the first set. I like swimming shorter distances because I don't get as bored, so I threw another set of speedier intervals in at the end of the workout.

Cool-down:
There's nothing like a nice easy cool down after a good workout. I mixed freestyle and breast stroke during the cool-down because sometimes when I swim just freestyle, I end up pushing harder than I mean to. Breast stroke forces me to slow down and take it easy.

It took me right around 45 minutes to finish this workout and it was pretty much the perfect way to wrap up a busy day.

Swimmers out there, do you prefer to do your workouts broken into sets or do you pick a distance and just keep swimming until you reach it?

One of the things I hate most about swimming is the damage the chlorine does to my hair.

Case in point, I went for a long overdue hair cut on Monday, and the stylish practically shrank back in horror when she saw what the chlorine was doing to my hair.

To be fair, I didn't put much effort making my hair look nice before the appointment, so I went in with it looking like this.


After she got over her horror, the stylist offered me a couple of suggestions to help counter the effects of the chlorine.

First she suggested I wear a swim cap, but I already do that.

I also told her I use a special shampoo to help remove the chlorine after every swim.


She recommended that I use one of one those super hydrating hair conditioning masks and leave it in my hair for about 15 minutes before rinsing.

She also suggested that I use a very light-weight oil to add some moisture and softness back to my chlorine-dried hair.

At my hair appointment, my stylish worked her magic with both a hair mask and some oil and by the time I was all finished, my hair looked healthy and soft again.


Now let's hope I can keep it this way for the rest of triathlon training.

Swimmers out there, what do you do to keep your hair from getting completely destroyed by the chlorine?