One Clydesdale’s Journey

And now for Sunday’s actual post…

I haven’t shared this yet, but a couple of weeks ago Shelly and I signed for a Tri-Fit class over at The WAC (Wisconsin Athletic Club) where we belong. The class that we signed up for is held every Thursday night from 6:30-8:30.

Since the lap pool has 4 lanes, we double up in each lane and there are 8 people in each group, with three groups total. One group starts in the pool, one on the spin bikes and one on the treadmills; 30 minutes each with a 10 minute transition. And then we rotate where we start each week.

Well, this week was our week to start on the spin bikes. Now at first thought that seems pretty cool, work up a good sweet on the bike and the treadmill and then hit the pool.

Ha!

Let me start from the beginning; on the bikes we did a mix training session of both endurance and hills. I’m not sure where the mix part was because it sure felt like a non-stop 30 minute hill climb. I had flashbacks to Devils Hill (more on that in a later post).

Okay, so on to the treadmill; OH goody, more hill training! Not just hill training, but he wants us to go all out for one 3 minute session at a steep incline. Did I mention that I think his watch is broken?! Because his idea of 3 minutes is more like my idea of 5 minutes. But then what do I know???

Great, so now we have a pretty good sweat built up let’s change and get in the pool.

Surprise! Not only is it sub-zero outside, the heat in the pool area isn’t working all that great. There goes the enjoyable swim. But hey, at least we can’t do hills… or can we???

No, no hills. But there is a reason why the swim is the first leg of the race! Once you are wore out it is a lot harder to find and maintain that rhythm in the water. Not a big deal in the pool, big deal in a lake!

Okay, so no hills in the pool. Instead we had got to do sprints; 75 at an easy pace, 75 at a hard pace… 10 times!

It was brutal, but very rewarding!

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training