Entry Level to Ironman Fly Tri Racing (Tri Ritter's Group) OPEN

Welcome to the group!!

Wow that's quite awesome and a good way to deal with the unemployment. You've come a long way in a short amount of time. 

What continue to motivates you to keep running and wanting to do an Ironman?  

 Do you have any training questions that can help you out today? 

Where are you from? 

Thanks,

William

Also I'm a rep at Cobb Cycling and know quite a bit how to make your riding a little more pleasant.  

Pro Tip: The right mindset is foundational. It shapes our attitude towards being comfortable being un-comfortable. It shapes how we perceive spending hours on the trainer or in in-climate weather. Anybody can train when the settings are right. Do you have fear of failure, fear of failure? It's important to be in the presence. For example when you're racing "think small", when your swimming swim to one buoy at a time, one stroke at a time. When running it's from one phone post to the next, one stride to the next. Follow your plan and don't think about what's coming up next.

Awesome, I'm here in Tyler, Tx.  it sounds like you've had a successful career. What do you do? I'm the Director of Dealer Sales at Cobb Cycling and I also do a bit of coaching. Do you live with any family? I'm married almost two years, with a 15 year old step son and almost a 7 month old boy. 

Haha yeah starting to swim can be very sobering. You can't muscle your way through like you can on the bike or run. I'd recommend taking a further step back and just started with body position and maybe some kicking. Get a snorkel, on your stomach arms extended and just kick. You can use fins to get a feel for a better kick. You can also just kick with one fin and see if your other leg can mimic the one with the fin, and alternate that. 

Forget what you heard about sit bone width, it's irrelevant especially to road riding and triathlon saddles with good relief channels. Why you ask? Because it will allow you to rotate your hips off your sit bones. 129 mm rear width is actually a good, because it's narrow enough to have hamstring irritation or extra chafing. Nose width matters more and not many saddle companies I know advertise those except Cobb Cycling.  Also it's best to actually ride more in a tri short with a thin fleece chamois, I know this is backwards thinking to what most people will tell you but a big padded chamois is you cant control where that chamois goes and it adds extra friction and can absorb sweat. Also it blocks to relief channels of the saddles so you don't get the benefit of that.  A fleece like chamois will keep everything dry down there dry too.  

Congratulations on 25 years in marriage and your two girls! I've heard of Evadale but don't know exactly where it is. 

What has your training and such been like this week?  

That's maybe 5 hours north of here.  I'm about an hour and half east of Dallas.  That sounds pretty solid! 

Pro Tip: Going to a race to "train through it" or "tempo" ingrains a weak mindset. Just stay home and train if you're not gonna race it or give your best. Doing this makes it more difficult to flip the switch when it's really time to race your big race. Racing and training is not just physical.

Hey Amy, welcome to the group and thanks for joining! You picked a good one IMWI is super hilly!! There's nothing like jumping straight in. 

Triathlete are marketed with a lot of gadgets so it's best, I think to keep things simple use what you really need.  

The first steps learning to swim is learning be comfortable and relaxing. You can't muscle or fight you way through like you can as much with cycling or running. You'll swim faster the more relaxed are. But also start with learning correct body position and pushing off the wall in streamline position will set you up well. I have my beginner swimmers kick on their stomach with a snorkel  and we can dial in where there head should be and it also works on kicking as well. Sometimes I'll have them kick with one fin so their other leg can mimic the one with the fin to get a better feel for it.  Then when they get a hang of this pretty well we can move onto rotation and breathing.  

Feel free to ask any question you have about equipment! 

How did training go this weekend?  

QUOTE]Originally posted by blakester Evadale is near Beaumont. I've done 40 minutes on bike trainer, 4 mile easy run, and 200 yrd swimming (thrashing about actually haha), and an hour of gym work today on core and upper body. Planning swim, bike, run the next 3 days. Swim will focus on balance and kicking, maybe some side kick drills if it goes well. Bike will be 50 min on trainer, and run 5 miles with some sprint intervals thrown in.

Hey welcome to this great sport and triathlon!  You got quite the family!  I'm married for almost 2 year and 15 year old step son and 7 month old. We start baseball games next week. 

What made you want to start this crazy fun sport?

Speed doesn't matter, especially when establishing a base or for an easy run for that matter.  I always tell people let the pace come to you and not to force it.  I have another athlete, male with similar run paces. His main thing is just get the work done. He's been athlete for awhile but at points not being consistent so we can also phase in strides, surges, and hill sprints for establishing his base. This will make an easier transition when we do get more speed oriented. 

I think I would pick up a late season half ironman.  Where are you located? The races you mentioned are quite a distance apart.  

Thanks, William 

Pro Tip: Just because you worked hard and were consistent doesn't make you entitled to a great race. You still have to earn it there. You have to get out there and be mentally, emotionally, and prepared ready to make it happen.

That's pretty cool how you randomly started. Most people did sports in school or started running  and then found triathlon. 

You must have a good trainer to be living in Nebraska. It's probably full of snow right now. 

Please let me know what you did for training this weekend through Monday, use the quote button to reply. 

For me it was : 

Saturday: Bike 3.5 hours on the road, first time on the road in months,  with 4x15 above 70.3 effort, I went averaged about over 260 watts on these. with 10 min easy spin followed by 2x1 miles fast off the bike at oly effort I went 6:05 on the first one, I was feeling my heavy bike legs and a couple of hills, then went 5:25 on the way back. 

Sunday: turned into an unplanned rest day, my 7th month old has been a little sick and was waking up every hour so by the third night of this and Saturday's training I was pretty whooped. I jogged down the road and turned back around. I was going to swim too in the afternoon, but decided to let my body go ahead rest since I'm about to start a recovery week. 

Monday: Planned rest day. 

Hey Chet,

Thanks for sharing your story! I believe with your back ground already you got an olympic triathlon distance in you.  I guess the real question is how's your swim? 

I'm definitely a proponent for strength training year and around and I believe it can help you tremendously. It all depends on what you call functional - this seems like an over used term. In our sports you want actual power transfer.  I don't think you need anything too complicated, but you should value things like heavy squats, lunges, and possibly some plyometrics.  During the season it's more of a maintenance mode depending on your training and how far out your next big "A" race is.  You won't get big from this - there are power and neuromuscular benefits from lifting on the heavier side without it taking a toll on you.  There's more to it than that plus the triathlon training on top of that.  

You have any races picked out this year?

Welcome to the group! 

Thanks,

William