Need a little explaination on my workout please.

Pector55,

I am also a newb and trying to figure out all the lingo and terminolgy.  So I am interested in the reponse to this!

My question is, I too have been training swim, bike, run with just distance and brick workouts(performing more then one disiplince), when is the right time to get serious about real training program or is brick training on a consistent basis enough?  I live in Chicago so the Tri-season here is quickly coming to an end, but looking forward to doing multiple races and distances in 2010, so I want to be ready to go.

Also I have not become a "real memeber" of this site yet.....trying to figure out where and what I want to be part of and the pros and cons?  Any thoughts on this????

Thanks,

Cheri

I'm not very experienced Cheri so I'm probably not the best person to answer your questions.  For what it's worth, I started training based on an event that was going to be close to my house.  It was an Olympic distance so I was a bit intimidated by the distances.  I started training the last week of June for an event in September and at the time, I needed to learn how to swim the crawl and I was a horrible runner.  I had to basically learn how to run properly so as to not injure myself.  My goal was to just build up to the distances so I could complete the course.

Now that I have done that, I see that I have plenty of endurance but I'm slow.  I've never worked on anything other than "just S, B, or R."  I like these training plans because they are teaching me how to break up workouts and improve a lot of different areas.  I have already picked an HIM in 2010, loaded a training plan, and worked backwards to see when I have to start it.  Up until that point, I want to do a bike heavy maintenance plan to be sure I'm ready for it.

Run at a pace where your left foot strikes the ground 30 times in approximately 20 seconds.  
Skip from Wikipedia: "A 3-beat, 4-beat, or 6-beat gait where a foot is repeated (i.e. LLR, RRL, LLR, RRL, etc. but there are many variations there of: L,L,R,R, etc.) It is typically considered an expression of giddiness"


T-Pace: swim test time / the number of 100 you swam. If you swam 20:00 for 1,000 yards, then your T-Pace would equal 20:00/10 for a T-Pace of 2:00 per 100. So T-pace-5" is 5 seconds faster than that pace. This and other training plan terms can be found in this article, a link to which is at the top of your Training Blog in the Current Plan Information tooltip. Also, in your training plan there should be a swim workout which is used to determine your T-Pace.


For that workout you want to get a total of 7 to 10 minutes of spinning PER LEG with each instance being no less than 20 seconds and no greater than 60 seconds. So, you could do 21 distinct instances of 20" per leg to get a total of 7 minutes each, or you could 10 distinct instances of 1 minute each or something in between. It's really up to how you feel that day.

I've found ILT workouts to be extremely beneficial.

Micheal,

Congratulations on your accomplishment.....you must of worked hard in that short timeframe.  Bet you were sore the next two days?

We are in the same boat, I started training in May and did my 1st Tri in Aug.  Never S, B, or R in my life for distance or time!  I am toally addicted to the lifesytle and trying to get into the loop, slow but sure!

I am a long time team athlete (volleyball and softball) but have no experience as an endurance athlete, but a lot of potential-I think? 

I am a good swimmer(in warmer temps) and an OK-runner, the biking is KILLING me(no background and wrong bike)!!!  Maybe once I buy the right kind of bike, it will get better????

Is the tri-season still going stong in PA?

Excellent!  Thank you for clarifying those terms Marmadaddy.  Like I said, I love the workouts being broken up like this.  It makes time go by a lot faster and you can put out a lot more energy when you keep your focus up.


NRG,

Thank you.  Surprisingly, I was not sore after my first tri.  I thought that was a good thing but I realized that I set way to slow of a pace since I simply didn't know how well I would do.

As for biking, I started on a mountain bike and it was brutal. I just picked up a 700c road bike for $250. I later added clipless pedals on the advice from this forum.  I'm still not fast but I am confident in riding and I can churn up the steepest of hills.

In PA, I know there are several sprints this upcoming weekend but I have not searched for much past that.  I was so excited about completing the olympic, I signed up for one of the sprints.  This time I will go all out and see if I have any speed in me.  If you read the posts in the Triathlon Talk forum, you will see that the majority of people who do their first tri, can't wait to do another.  It is amazingly addictive.