Monday Brain Exchange week 3

Jill over at http://onelittletrigirl.wordpress.com/ posts a new series of questions each week. It is a fun way to share with other bloggers! Now on to this week's questions:

How do you train? Do you use a schedule, have a coach or go with the flow? Do you train alone or with group?

First off, I love training with a group and also love solo runs. I run with www.rushrunning.com several times a week. On Mondays we meet for speed workouts, Wednesday is the easy, fun run, and Friday is dedicated to hill repeats! What I love about the group is that there is such a wide range of abilities in the group and everyone is friendly, motivating, and encouraging. Even though I workout with the group, I do also get in some alone training time too just because my pace doesn't always match up with someone else for long runs or midweek easy runs.

Mike Rush is our fearless leader and he surprises us with a new workout each week for the speed session and a new, killer hill for repeats. Other than those workouts, I tend to just go with the flow. I usually have a plan for long run distances but midweek runs can be short or long depending on the day and how I feel. I will get around to a more formal plan in the next month or so and usually I have Mike review my plan versus my racing schedule to make sure I'm ready.

I haven't really gotten the hang of triathlon training down yet. Last year I tried to bike and swim at least twice a week but this year I would like to work more on these sports. There is a great group ride on Saturday mornings called The Big Ride. I'm hoping to restart for the season this weekend. For swimming, I belong to the Arkansas Masters Swim club but haven't made it to any of their workouts...5:45 a.m. start times with a 30 min drive to the pool just don't work for my non-morning person self! I'm really lucky to have friends that are talented athletes who have offered me lots of help and encouragement as I have expanded from running to triathlon training.