Ken Nail's Group -- Closed

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My name's Jim.  I'm from Ocala, FL, 40yrs old, married 7 years with three little ones.  I've been a firefighter for 13years.  I've always been running and cycling all my life between soccer, cross country, track, and racing road bikes.  Things slowed down over time with my training as life happens, until last year when I kind of got to that crossroads in my life.  You're starting to gain a little weight, endurance just isn't there like it was, and you can decide to continue to slide or fix it.  I chose fix it.  I got back into serious distance running and completed the Goofy Challenge at Walt Disney World as my first organized half and full marathon (both run in one weekend).  Loved it.  Down side was that I finished with a good bit of ankle pain.  I thought about looking for an endurance sport that was challenging but where I wasn't hitting my joints with a hammer so much....... enter triathlon.

I started training in February and entered my first sprint Triathlon on March 24th.  750m swim, 12mi bike, 3mi run.  HITS in Ocala (great race organization btw).  The swim was hideous.  Honestly, I swam to prepare, but not the way I should.  I wasn't nearly prepared enough and it showed.  Decent bike and a great run.  I walked away loving it. 

Goals for the season:  The first race taught me that I'm in a fair place on the bike and a good place on the run.  My biggest priority is to swim better.  I really don't care about faster, but better.  I'm signed up for a three race sprint series spread over the summer.  My ultimate goal for the year is to complete an OLY in the fall, October or November, we're still shopping for a race.  That's plenty of time to do the 20 week plan and have three races in to learn from.

Let's have some fun.

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NAME:  Wendall

AGE:  42

FAMILY: Married for 16 years this July, two daughters ages 19 and 15

CURRENT TRAINING:  Attempting to get in two workouts in each discipline weekly.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

MY STORY:  Started running 10 years ago.  Race regularly in distances from 5k to marathon.  Over the past couple of years have been thinking about trying a triathlon but never had anywhere that I could swim regularly.  My family joined a local gym a couple of months ago that has a pool so now I have no excuse. 

GOALS:  Looking at a short sprint (300m/10m/5k) first week in July.  If that goes well there are some more local tris where I can gradually increase the distance.  A 500m/12m/5k in August and an 800m/17m/4mile in September.  Glad to have the opportunity to have others with a little more experience look over my log and let me know if I am on track.

WEIGHT/NUTRITION:  Currently 6' 222.  Need to get down under 210 to race comfortably, 200 to go fast!

Looking forward to the summer!!

Hi Ken,

I would like to join the group. I'm Jim and have been with bt for about a year or so and was just an observer last year and started a program for a sprint I am doing on May 20th. This will be my first time doing a tri.

I am a married 54 year old and have a 5 year old girl (my heaven sent oops!)and boys 29 and 27.   My oldest son lives in CA and he has been doing triathons and half marathons for a few years. It looked like fun, so that is how I became interested in the sport. I am a bit over weight at 235-240 lbs but after a few months of training I feel so much better.

I think my run is the weakest due to the weight. I like the bike and the swim workouts. When I stared a few months ago I could only swim 50 yards and that was it! I have come a long way since then.

Hi Ken, 

My name is Bill, I am working towards my 1st sprint  tri this June 3rd. I am 54 and all of my children are grown and gone. I would value the experience you and others have in this adventure. I have much to learn if you have room and time to help me.  Thanks 

Hi,

My name is Alison Pollock.  I'm 43, married, 2 kids (daughter = 7, son = 4), live in the suburbs of New York.  To be honest, this is my 3rd season of triathlon, but I definitely still think of myself as a "beginner", as I don't do them well and have never been properly trained.

I grew up as the fat kid, and didn't really do much about it until my son was born and I was 184 pounds and only 5'0".  Since growing about 13 inches didn't seem likely, I decided to get my weight under control, and proceeded to lose 70 pounds via Weight Watchers and exercising.  I've been at my goal weight almost 3 years now, and have gone from couch potato to runner and triathlete.  My biggest running accomplishment was completing the NYC Marathon in 2011 last November (time: 5:28:11).

This winter I was training for the NJ Full Marathon in May, when I hurt my Achilles Tendon.  I had to take about 2 months off from running, and am just getting back (another part of why I'm looking for a mentor and consider myself a beginner.  I would love to learn to train properly to avoid any further injuries).

This Summer I have a few tris set up, the biggest being an Olympic on 6/2, the Rev3 Quassy in Middlebury, CT.

Would love to join your group if there is still space available.  Please let me know.

Thanks,

Alison

Feeling a bit sick last week so took all week off.  Did start back this week with a short run and a very short bike and swim.  Going to take this week to get back in the groove of training.  Still ok since it is still 13 weeks til my sprint in July.

Ran a 10K race in Central Park on Saturday.  Was my first run since my achilles injury (I know, I shouldn't have started with a 10K, but I kind of didn't have a choice).  Ran very slowly, but did that on purpose.

Sunday I did 8 mile training bike ride in Greenwich, CT with a friend.

Today is off day.

My schedule this week will be unusual.  My daughter is off from school and I'm home with her, so no gym until Friday.  This week's plan:

-- Tuesday: 20 mins resistance bands and 30 min run

-- Weds: 20 mins bands, 60 mins on bike trainer

-- Thursday: 20 mins bands, 30 min run

-- Friday: 30 minute swim, 60 minute cardio sculpt class at the gym.

-- Saturday and Sunday: taking certified personal trainer course, so only have time each day for 20 mins bands.

Hah, Ken.  How was my form?  :-)

Alison

Thanks Ken, 

A bit more of who i am and where i'm at. First of all iv'e been on this site for a couple of months and i do log my training i hope you get a chance to check it out. Also I am a groundskeeper at a small college in central PA., and with graduation coming up in a month or so we are putting in some major OT. which makes training hard to do for time and tiredness some days. I am finding out a little about mindset with this issue. I started training in '11' and ran a half marathon "the Erie Presque Isle" which i did in 8:26/Mi. during this time i dropped from197lb to 180 and found out along the way about overtraining i live through that and went into the winter with a marathon on my mind for May this year but i hurt my back Feb. 10th after an 11mi. run and after what seems like a hundred trips to therapy and C-practer i am starting to run more this injury didn't stop me from getting in the pool and the bike. Right now i am focusing in on swimming and biking more than the running. I want to start "bricking when possible but am not sure how much i should do, once a week? twice? I also don't own tri shorts and would like to hear from others what to buy along with what recomendations you have on a wet suit for temps in the 65 to 70 degree range. I plan on a sprint tri June 3rd at Gifford Pinchot state park its a 900yd/22mi/3mi course. Thanks again. 

Bill- The longest journey begins with the first step

Hello, Everyone,

I am hoping to join a mentoring group in the hopes it will help keep me motivated.  I am 38 yrs old with 4 kids, living in Belgium (work).  This will be my second season of triathlon; my first season was 2010 ... I had to take off last year due to work commitments (gave me chances to run, but not much for swimming or biking).

FAMILY STATUS:  16yrs married, 4 kids from high school down to 6yrs (my 7y/o loves to ride his bike as I run)

CURRENT TRAINING:  I was trying to get ready for the Paris Marathon (16 April), but between plantar fasciitis and a late on-set of the cold (two days ago), I have slacked off.

THIS YEARS RACES:  Paris Marathon on 16 April, All Nations Sprint Triathlon on 22 April , Tough Mudder England in May, and I would like to get at least one Olympic and one HIM, depending upon recovery from the PF.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE:  I would like some help developing my training program and keeping me motivated to complete the training.  I have not logged my workouts, lately, but following this weekend's race, I will start, again.  I enjoy the shorter workouts, but need the motivation to get me out for the longer efforts.

I am certainly looking forward to some help, motivation, and advice.  Thank you,

Rich

My olympic triathlon is set for July 14th.

I started using a training plan from training peaks and I'm a little concerned that it's telling me to do too much.  On my own I was doing about 4-5 hours a week, 2 days of training for each leg of the race.  I've just been going for distance, increasing by 10% a week and taking a recovery week once a month (decreasing distances by 30% each day that week).

On the new program, however, I went to 8.5 hours last week and am scheduled for a whopping 13.5 hours this week.  These aren't all long runs/swims/rides like I was doing, but some of the drills are pretty challenging so I'm a little wary that I'm going to over do it.

My longest swim so far was 3.2km.  Longest ride was 25.5 km.  Longest run 5km.

Yesterday I did swimming and cycling. 3.5km swim was split between 8x50m sculls, 1000m tempo swim, 10x100m at 1:50, 8x50m splashing/no splash kick, and warm up/cool down.  Bike was 9.6 km hills keeping my HR between zone 2 and 4.

Today is hilly runs, moderate distance at low intensity (HR zones 2-3).  Shooting for ~5km.