Freethinker ~ Freerunner

Today begins my first week of Olympic distance triathlon training.  It is going to appear that my mileage has dropped significantly going forward because in fact my running mileage will have dropped.  That will only be because I will now only be running three times a week instead of five, and for slightly shorter distances.  This will be to make room for biking and swimming three times a week each. 

Being mostly a runner at heart I really wanted to select a program that has an emphasis on running so I could keep my mileage up.  Not only because I enjoy the running more than the other two sports, but at the end of my tri training I will have ten weeks until the Route 66 Marathon.  A marathon in which I wish to BQ.   Given that I am still a tri nubie, I've only trained for an completed one sprint distance tri, I'm not sure how this training will affect my running conditioning since it will overlap the marathon training by six weeks.  I ended up choosing a tri training plan that has an emphasis on all three sports.  I did not want to sacrifice the running for two reasons.  I enjoy and I need the mileage going into marathon training.  I needed emphasis on the other two sports as well simply because I need the practice and to develop better skills especially in swimming.  

It will be interesting to see how this plan plays out in juggling it with my personal and professional life.  I just ordered a book from Borders called The Time Crunched Triathlete.  The authors Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg claims that using their plans you can train for up to a half Iron Man distance and still have time left over for work and family.  I may be drawing heavily on their recommendations as I get into the book and into my training.