Dominion's Sprint and Olympic Distance - OPEN !!! (Page 4)

Welcome to the group Stefano!

July is plenty of time to get ready for a Sprint race.

Hope you are over your illness and feeling better!

Welcome nsteiner.

Sorry to hear about your injury. Are you able to run any at the present?

Ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to give the answers. The first key to getting faster on the bike is just get out there and put in a lot of miles.

What kind of bike do you ? How much are you riding currently?

Originally posted by rjchilds8 I got my training started back up in a big way in January. My training has been very run heavy, mainly because I can (usually) only ride on my trainer which I hate. My run volume is higher than I've ever done in a month. Swim volume is pretty good for me, could have been a little higher, but not bad for January. Swim: 3h 18m 37s - 8550 M Bike: 3h 41m 34s - 15 Mi (only one outdoor ride, the rest is time on the trainer) Run: 8h 42m 38s - 56 Mi I'll probably have to back off the running volume a little bit and pick up my cycling time. But I totaled 21 workouts in the month, which I think is as much as I did in the peak of my training last year. I hope I can keep that momentum going through the rest of the winter and into spring.

Nice job Randy!

How many miles total on the bike? Do you keep up with trainer miles or just measure it by time?

January Totals:

S: 12,250 y

B: 137 miles (all trainer) **pretty low totals but that should change once my HM is out of the way this weekend.

R: 80 miles **goal was 90 but last long run got squashed with rain/thunderstorms and temps in high 30's last week

Randy, 

yes that is what i do also. I have my old bike permanently on the trainer and have a bike computer running to the rear wheel. As long as the rear wheel and front are the same size, it's is just like being on the front wheel while on the road.

That kind of depends on what the next week of workouts call for. If it's a week with notable progression you may need to go back a week or two and ease back into it. It also depends how far out your race or goal event is. If you have the time to go back and start where you left off that would be preferable, but if you are on say a 16 week plan and you started when your race was 16 weeks out, then you will need to try to catch up at some point, but catching up right after a full week off due to injury may not be the best option. You might could skip a week somewhere down the line to catch up once you are back into regular training. Make sense?

Hey guys!  I'm looking forward to another year!  Looks like some of you are already ramping up your training!  Right on!  Here's my updated info:

NAME: Monty / HelmoAlkou

STORY:  Swimming background, childhood into early 30's; Started running for weight loss in my early 40's (dropped 45 lbs.); Picked up cycling to do triathlon in mid 40's; Turning 50 this June!

FAMILY STATUS:  Married 22 years, my son is 21, and my daughter is 18.

WORK: I'm a power plant operator so lots of shift work. My normal shift is seven days on then seven days off, rinse and repeat.  So yeah, I work every other week. But it's 12 hour days which makes consistency difficult.

CURRENT TRAINING:  Four weeks into the 20 week Full Ironman plan on BT.

LAST YEAR'S RACES:  Ironman Buffalo Springs 70.3, and TriWaco Olympic course.  Filled the rest of year with misc runs/rides for fun.

2016 RACES:  Ironman Texas 140.6 North American Championship on May 14th.  After that I'll look into others.

GOALS:  Finish my first 140.6 this year.  Stay injury free!  Keep nutrition in check while training.

PLAY (no specific order): Triathlon, mtn biking, fishing, kayaking, hiking, camping, backpacking, home brewing, computer builds, empty nester, skiing

JAN TOTALS:

Swim: 6h 52m 

Bike: 19h 37m 

Run: 9h 10m

Strength: 8h 40m

Other Sport: 5h 45m

I feel your pain. It never fails that I get sick every year either in January or February. So far so good this year though (knock on wood). My wife has it currently though. Went to the doctor yesterday and told her she has the flu. I've been sleeping in the spare bedroom for the last 3 nights! 

Welcome back Monty!

Great to have you around for another season!!

My wet suit advice would be the following.

First off all, get one. You need one for colder swims and it will improve your performance.

Now the question of which one. You can spend anywhere from $100 to well over $1000. I'm of the belief that guys like me and you (average swimmers) won't gain a great deal of benefit from the higher priced suits. We just aren't good enough to maximize it's potential if that makes sense. I think an entry level suit will do everything you need it to. No need to spend more money unless you just want to.

I also went with the sleeveless for my first suit and have considered adding a full sleeve but haven't yet. I went sleeveless because of concern over shoulder mobility and the ease and quickness of getting a sleeveless off in T1 vs. a sleeved. I felt like I could get away with a sleeveless because I only use it once or twice a year and even then it is in races where the water temps are at or near the 78 degree cutoff. In your case where you may have the occasion to swim in much colder water, a full sleeve may be a better option. You have to make that decision.

I went with the Orca S4. I think the S5 is out now. I paid $160 i and got mine from trivilliage.com .  Xterra suits are also very popular now as entry level low priced suits. My brother just bought one, not sure which model but he likes it.

Hope this helped some.

I think it was some one in this group last year that told me to raise my front wheel higher when I'm on my trainer.  I've gone from 30 minutes of pain to being able to ride 2+ hours inside.  I'm still more uncomfortable on the trainer than on the road but it sure helped.  I raised it about 2 full inches.  AND, I love my bike fit!!

I bought a NeoSport sleeveless a couple of years ago.  Got it on Amazon for $114.  I just couldn't see spending hundreds of dollars on a wet suit. 

Edit: I'm also in North Texas.  The lakes heat up quickly around here.

You're right about cold being relative. The coldest swim I have done was Nationals in Milwaukee in 2014. I think it was announced at 65 degrees. That water was FREEZING to me. A shock to the system when I jumped in. We just aren't used to swimming in water like that down here. Maybe that is fine for you, a sleeveless would work well then.

I don't know if shops would let you try one out. They would certainly let you try one on. You could check the size and see how it feels. The shoulders and neck are the biggest areas to check for comfort. Sleeveless makes the shoulder fit a bit less important but still can be tight if the suit is too small and it pulls down on the top of the shoulders. You want it to be tight in all areas obviously and not let water in, but too constrictive in the neck can make you feel like you are choking.  If you can try it on and get the suit that fits best, like I said, most of the suits in that price range will be same/similar performance wise.

Great totals Cass! Especially on the bike. That's good volume for all trainer and the dead of winter.