drewb8's group - FULL

Bump!

Hi Drew, can I join your group?

I noticed you live in Denver - I'll be doing my first sprint tri in July in Denver (any advice for altitude adjustment??!). A little bit about me..


Name: greys34/Natalia

Story: Just turned 28, and I have the coordination of a duck, so don't consider myself athletic in any way. My friend ran the same triathlon last year, and convinced me to do it with her in 2007. I work outside which has kept my weight in some sort of check, but definitely have 15-20 pounds from grad school that I could lose. I don't mind the biking, and love to swim. Probably pretty ugly form, but still ok speed. Very, very scared of the run... try not to do that unless someone scary is chasing me.

Family: Single, sisters and parents are scattered in the Midwest.

Training: Hmm, should probably do that.. What exactly, I don't know yet. Just joined the 'Y' yesterday. Will take any and all advice.

Weightloss: Hopefully a side benefit of the training, although my main goal is just to finish the race. Currently 5'10" and weigh 170.

Hi Drew, I'm hoping you would like to help be my mentor for my first triathlon training.

A little about me;

My name is Amanda, I'm 27, and live in philly. Not married but I have a pretty great boyfriend who has inspired me to start working out again and be in a triathlon.

Growing up I was always extremely athletic. I was big into swimming and soccer. Unfortunatly, when I went to college, I was sucked into the party lifestyle. I had spent a few years wrecking my body and mind and became a full fledged alcholic and addict. By the grace of caring friend and family, I found my way to recovery. I am now 4 months and 3 weeks sober and am ready to start my life again.

Growing up I was always amazed by triathletes and someday wanted to be in one. After years of abusing myself, I never thought I would be able to achieve this dream. Just recently, I had made the decision to start training and once again believed that this is something I can do. My first step is to quit smoking (I meet with my doctor on the 11th in order to start the process) My second step is to drop about 10-15 lbs in order to avoid turning too much fat into muscle.

I start my training this week and am still slightly uncertain as to exactly what it will entail. I am confident with my swimming ability, I just need to learn to swim in open water and in packs. I am a decent biker, but again, I need to learn how to bike well on the road and in packs. As far as running goes, I am fair at it, but my form could use some work.

My major concerns are making sure I keep motivated and mainly just get myself back in a generally decent state of health. i plan to attend a beginner triathlete boot camp at the end of march here in Philadelphia and am hoping to finish my first sprint triathlon at the end of June.

I will log on to this site in the morning and hopefully get a better handle on what is available and how to log in my training.

Thank you so much for the consideration and happy new year!

~Amanda

Welcome to the group! The first thing I would do is to get started on a training plan and start logging your workouts here. For me a great motivation is to look at my log and see how much I have done and see how far I have come. If your friend has a plan and you are traing with her that is great, otherwise this site has some great free ones. I think swimming is the hardest of the sports to get feeling good at so you have a head start there.

I also started out having never run before. What I did when I started was to combine two of the plans together. I used the beginner sprint plan to tell me when to bike and swim and the couch-5k plan for the running. I think that plan has you walking with no running for the entire 1st month so I skipped that and started at the next month where you run for 1 minute, walk for 28 and increase from there. There is still quite a bit of time before the races start and with running especially you want to start out slow so you can get your tendons and ligaments used to running. The reason I never ran before I started tris was that when I did it, I hated it, but now I actually enjoy it, so there is hope.

Feel free to ask any questions. I might not know all the answers but hopefully some, and I can point you in the right direction for the ones I don't know.

Welcome to the group Amanda! Congrats on deciding to be healthy again. It sounds like you have a decent vision of where you want to go and are already making all the right moves to get there so hopefully I can help with motivation and answers some questions. Like I mentioned to Natalia I think one of the best motivations is to start logging your workouts so you can see where you've come from and see the progress you are making. The bootcamp sounds like a great idea - you might also want to pick out a race this summer to set as your goal so you have something tangible you are working towards. I found that when you know that your workouts have a purpose other than just working out it is much easier to motivate for them. Good luck and fire away!

I hope I can join your group.

NAME: Jeff417/Jeff

STORY: I'm a 33 year old firefighter/paramedic in southeastern Nebraska. I was never gifted in the athletic department. During High School I was the lanky kid in the band. After High School my weight finally caught up with my heigth. While you would think being a full time firefighter would result in excellent fitness, let me tell you, it isn't true. It involves poor eating, eating at odd times, snacking and some general laziness that easily puts on the pounds. I was challenged to run in a 10K last summer with a fellow firefighter. I trained and ate poorly and the results showed. I finished dead last and walked more than I ran. I was asked on several occasions if I wanted to ride the four wheeler to the finish line. That was a true wakeup call. So I began to train for triathlons with several other firefighters.

FAMILY STATUS: Wonderful wife of 11 years. Daughter is seven and son is four.

CURRENT TRAINING: Am starting back after a lull in training in December. Right now am self coaching from these forums and others training logs. I try and train five to six times a week.

LAST YEARS RACES: 10K in July finishing dead last (time around 1:15:00). 5 mile turkey trot at the local YMCA (time around 43:00).

2007 RACES: 5 miler in February. Half marathon in May. Sprint Tri in July.

WEIGHTLOSS: At 5'11 and arond 190 (added about 10 pounds in December) I would like to drop some more weight. However, with the job, I need to keep some wieght on to do the heavy work.

I'll throw my name in, if'n it's alright...

Zach

This is me: http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... sorry, I'm a lazy typer!

I'm married, got a 3.5 month old.

Right now I'm focusing more on running, but doing some swim and a little bike. Around valentine's I'll begin the 16 or 20 week (can't remember) oly tri plan.

Didn't race in 2006.

Signed up for OKC memorial half in April. Hoping to do OKC centennial tri in June.

Could definitely shed quite a few pounds. My wife was helping me clean my office and found a picture of us from about 9 years ago. She said I was carved out of "man-stone" then, but now I'm made of Play-Doh. We'll see how close I get to the 35# loss it would take to be "man-stone" again...

Come on in! Looks like you already have some pretty good goals so thats a great way to begin. To start with, I would encourange you to start logging your workouts on this site so that I (and the rest of the group hopefully) can leave notes and inspires. If you are going to follow your own training plan I would try and plan workouts ahead of time. For example, swim and bike on mon-wed-fri and run on tues-thurs-sat, something like that. I've found if you have something planned its alot harder to skip it than if you just go out there and make it up as you go along. It also allows you to get into some sort of a routine. The other thing I would mention since you are planning some long running races is to make sure that you follow the 10% rule - it says that you don't increase your running (total distance or time) by moer than 10% per week. Its intended to help avoid injuries so your body adapts to the extra stress you are putting on it. Good luck, fire away (get it?) with any questions.

Welcome! I can imagine as a med student witha newborn that finding time for training will be hard - like you said, the hardest thing is just making the training into a routine. Again, try to start logging your workouts on this site and maybe try to set some goals like "run 3x per week, swim and bike 2x per week" until you start the training plan in Feb. Especially with the swimming and also the running the more time you put in now the better it will be when the traiing plan starts getting towards longer times. Good luck and feel free to hit me with any questions you have.

Drew,

I have been logging my workouts for a several months now. Would appreciate any advise on my previous training. Everything training wise has been going good. Had a slight ITB issue for a while but I think I figured it was from my LSD runs and the crown in the road. When I run on the trail in town, no adverse affects.

Thanks,

Jeff

Some of the roads I run on have pretty big crowns, and if I run "legally" on the left, my over-pronation is exagerrated further on my right foot. If I do an out and back, I run a leg on each side of the road. Or even right down the middle when I can...

BT tech question: When I reply to an "Inspire me", does it let anyone know, or am I talking to myself? I don't have any problem doing that, but I would like to know whether to continue the convo with myself or not.

Jeff-

For the next week or two I would just work on consistency and getting into a routine. For me that is the hardest part about coming back after a lay off. The crown on the road may have been causing your problems but it sounds like you have that figured out.

I think I've mentioned it a couple of times already but I would try to make sure you follow the 10% rule (the rule is that you don't increase total distance or time by more than 10% each week). It takes time to get you muscles and tendons & ligaments used to running. Its very easy to get over eager and just go out there an pound on them, only to get hurt a few weeks later. Then you undo everything waiting to feel better again. Thats what happened to me anyway.

Zach- With the insprires - if you hit 'reply' it replies on your blog. If you want to reply on the other persons inspires click on the 'blog' button instead.

Drew, I have a couple quick questions....

Although I am all amped to get myself a really nice training bike, financially, being that it's right after the holidays, I can't really afford to get one at the moment. A friend of mine has offered me their old road bike for free. This bike is old, but in decent condition, only needing new tires. So for right now, I am thinking of just taking this bike, fixing it up for now, and using it for practice. I guess I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing. Hopefully before I race in June, I will have found myself a great bike. But for now, I'm hoping something is better then nothing.

Now, when I get this bike, it doesn't have the clip bike pedals. Is this something I should invest in? The person giving me the bike suggested I compete in my first race without the bike shoe clips(I don't know the technical name). Is competeing without them even an option? I was under the assumtion it would just be better to use them, and before I learn to pedal correctly and ride correctly, I would just practice getting in, and out of the clips. Please let me know what you advise.

Lastly, I am curious as to what cadence is. I've read a few articles discussing cadence, but have only a slight idea what it means...in regards to running and biking. So I guess I need to know what is cadence? And how to I achieve it?

Thanks so much!

Absolutely take your friends bike! When you go to a race you'll see people on every kind of bike from mountain bikes with knobby tires to $4000 triathlon bikes. The most important thing is just to get out there and start pedaling. In fact it's probably better to start out on a free or cheap bike than to drop a bunch of money on a bike and then find out you don't like triathlons (pretty unlikely but you never know).

The pedals you are thinking of are called clipless pedals and work by having cleat on the bottom of the shoe (yes, you need special bike shoes) which clips into the pedal so basically the shoe is locked onto the pedal (there is a reason they are called 'clipless' pedals but I forget). It allows for a better transfer of power from you to the bike. If you are just starting out I wouldn't bother with them yet though. Better to work on making the engine (you) stronger first and then worry about upgrading the bike. A cheaper and easier option you might look into though is toe cages which are just what they sound like. You don't need special shoes or pedals but they do somewhat the same thing that clipless pedals do.

CADENCE- Great question. Think of cadence as the rpm of your legs or arms. When you are running, your cadence would be how many times either your left or right foot hits the ground per minute (so a cadence of 90 would mean your left foot hits the ground 90 times per minute which would be 180 steps per minute). For cycling it's how many revolutions your right or left foot makes per minute.

For both running and biking the magic number to aim for seems to be 90. For biking you can get a bike computer which goes on your handlebars which will tell you your cadence however for running it can be a little tricky to figure it out. One way is if you run with an ipod or mp3 player to find a song that has 180 beats per minute drums and run to that. One thing you will notice is that it will feel like a very high turnover and as a result you will end up taking smaller steps - they almost feel like baby steps to me sometimes.

Hope that somewhat explains things.

Drew, I'm hoping that there is still room in your group....My name is Jeff and I live in Idaho Falls, ID. I am 39 and in reasonable shape(6'0" 190 lbs). I am a fireman by trade and also work for my local lifeflight helicopter service. I have no experience in tri, but I can run and swim fairly well. I got a bike for xmas (Lemond Tourmalet) and am excited about doing a sprint early this summer and possibly an Oly late in the summer. I started training this week and would love the benefit of an experienced advisor. Most of my physical training is more sprint oriented. I am a member of our fire department's Combat Challenge Team (you may have seen it on ESPN). It is a race that encompasses five fire department oriented events, a stair climb with 40 lb hose bundle, pulling a hose roll up the side of building on a rope, hitting a steel sled with a hammer, pulling a charged hoseline and spraying a target, and dragging a 180lb. dummy. All of the events are done in turnout gear and on SCBA air. I can do it typically in about 3 minutes, so you can see that I don't do much endurance training....until this week. The snow is still on the ground here (as it is where you live I'm sure) so I haven't ridden my bike. What I have done is swim for 40 mins (I almost drown), and took a spinning class for 40 mins ( it was ok).....so, kick it around....if you think I would be a good guy to mentor, then please let me know...thanks in advance....jeff

Welcome to the group Jeff D. I don't know if you noticed but there is another Jeff who is also a firefighter in the group. Your background sounds great, I think its a big advantage to have even a little swimming experience. I'd say an Oly at the end of the summer is definatly doable. It is kind of a different game going from the sprint combat challenges to endurance racing. Its probably going to feel very slow at first, but especially now consistency is much more improtant than speed. Hopefully I'll be able to help you get started. Feel free to throwout any questions.

Awesome!!! Thank you so so much!

I did look at the bike last night. It is a tad too big I think, but I can work with it. It's not pretty, but it's light as a feather and apparently according to my friend was top of the line (20 yrs ago, lol). I'm going to invest in some good tires, some more comfortable handlebars, and the toe cage you told me about. I have used those before and I think it will definetly help me when I cycle, especially when I start to feel fatigued.

Last night I settled on a training program for myself. I am going to do the 16 week sprint - 3x balanced. Up until the 16 weeks prior to the race I chose (which is June 23rd), I am going to concentrate on my running, which is weak, get a nice gym secured, get the bike in good working condition, and focus on my diet, losing some weight, and quitting smoking. So I'm glad I have these 2 months now leading up to the hardcore training to prepare myself better.

This weekend, I'm going to try and work on my cadence and form for running and get a grill so I can make yummy grilled foods to eat with my new diet.

Ok, so we have a full group now. We have:

Natalia / greys34
Amanda / Magella
Jeff Nebraska / jeff417
Zach / Mr. Freeze
Jeff Idaho / jeffd

I just wanted to encourange you guys to check out the articles on this site, there is lots of great information out there and sometimes I find it motivating. Like say for example one of the articles has a new workout or drill I hadn't heard about before I'll get excited to go out and give it a try.

I also want to encourage you guys to check each others logs and leave inspires there (just click on the word 'inspire me' at the top right corner of that persons blog). The more people you have checking in on you and giving encouragement the less likely you are to start slacking. Happy trainig!

Looks like a pretty cool group we have!

Hey, I found the following link somewhere else on the BT site, and it's helping me out a lot with tracking what I eat - thought you all might be interested..

http://www.fitday.com







Edited by greys34 2007-01-05 5:17 PM

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Weekends are generally the time when you will want to schedule your longer rides and/or runs, although this time of year they aren't likely to be all that long. Which is good the way the weather is going, around here anyway.

I like to schedule a rest day for the weekends as well. Its a day where I don't do anything tri related although I still might do something active like go skiing or hiking. Remember that getting the proper rest is equally important as the workouts. Its the rest where your body repairs itself and builds itself up - where all of you gains are made.

Happy training.

Hey Drew, thanks for the words of encouragement. What do you think of spinning classes as a way to prepare for the bike? Like you I live in a place where I can't bike right now and I have been substituting spinning for biking. Also, should I figure out what my own MHR is for the different events? I read an article about it and I think I know a guy at the local hospital that can at least do the running one for me. Does it really matter or can I just use the age based one for a while? Thanks again.....jeffd

Jeff-

Ok, I'll tackle the heart rate (HR) question 1st. If you are using a heart rate monitor (HRM) to train there are several way of determining your training zones for your heart rate. Your training zones in turn are based upon your lactate threshhold (LT). Basically, this is the point at which lactate (lactic acid) is created in your muscles faster than it can be removed. For all intents and purposes it is also the point at which your body switches from getting its energy aerobically to creating it anaerobically. This is important to triathletes because once your body switches over to burning fuel anaerobically you start burning glycogen which is stored in the liver and is only in limited supply as opposed to burning fat when you are working aerobially which you have a much greater supply of. This is why for endurance athletes you spend most of your time training aerobically, or at a heart rate below your lactate threshold.

Ok, but how do you figure out your lacate threshold? There are several ways. You can go to a clinic and have them test your blood as you run. You can do a 5k run test or you can use a generic formula. One of the most common methods is to run a 5k race with your heart rate monitor on (or just do a training run at 5k pace) - this is as fast a pace as you can MAINTAIN FOR THE ENTIRE 5k. It doesn't do you any good to sprint the 1st 1/2 mile and then walk the rest. Run the 1st 10 minutes and then take your average heart rate for the last 20 minutes and this should be pretty close to your lactate threshold. You will want to do the same thing for your bike since they will be different numbers for each discipline. Do the same thing over a 10 mile course.

If you are just starting out you are probably ok using the 220-age formula. Exact zones probably aren't as important as just getting some miles in. A more important thing is to just try and stay aerobic - run at a pace where you can have a conversation. Lactate threshold is also the point at which you notice a change in your breathing and it becomes labored so if you realize you are breathing hard you probably want to back off. Eventually you will want to find out what your LT specifically is though.

There is a GREAT thread http://beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid... which has just about every question you could ever think of on this topic.

Finally (yeah I know) - about the spinning class: since its on a regular bike its a great alternative especially this time of year. From what I've heard though in alot of classes the instructor really tries to push people hard so if you are trying to stay in aerobic training zones you might want to sit in the back and tell the instructor ahead of time that you are just going to go at your own pace.

Whew. 5 pages long and clear as mud I'm sure, but I hope that answered some questions.

I also want to say if this all seems a bit much don't worry about it. Finding your heart rate zones and training accordingly may help you get more out of your workouts but AREN'T NECESSARY to train for or finish a triathlon. Don't feel like you have to center your life around this or have a phD to finish a race, remember, it should be fun above all else.

Edited by drewb8 2007-01-08 10:49 PM

There is a spin class at the Y I've been going to, although I haven't gone to any yet. It's at the same times the pool is open. But I've talked with the instructor and he seemed very receptive to the whole "I'll be the guy that looks lazy 'cuz he won't stand up the whole time, but I'll still be spinning along at 90 rpm an hour from now" thing. Plus he's had people training for tri's before and helped them with bike coaching, +MPH avg., that sort of thing. You might seek out an instructor without the Spin-nazi vibe.

I'm probably physically where I could/should do a LT test, but I've just been using adjusted zones from the HR formula that uses age x .85 subtracted from 220 (I think). But I had to make some changes here and there, as it was too restrictive per the effort I was putting out. A lot of times I use effort scales, and then just get my avg HR for the workout; but I have an aversion to trusting things with batteries...

We had to do a cardiac stress test (more like got to, rather than had) for the FD I was at; not sure if you have a university local to you, but that is who did ours. The dept. paid for it as part of our PT program. It worked well for us because Ok State has an athletic training program, so they'd give us a pretty comprehensive physical, both of the medical variety and the fitness component. Maybe something you could look into.