jsnowash's Spring-into-action 2011 mentor group -- Full Up & Ready to go!

Wow - I'm feeling totally unloved, here! C'mon folks, I would love to see some of you join my mentor group! This will be my third time around as a mentor, and I really enjoy helping folks get started in the sport!

Still no takers?? Well, I guess I'll just start a conversation with myself!

I'm beginning to get back on the training band-wagon after taking a little bit of unstructured time off. I completed a marathon just before Thanksgiving, and more or less took the time between Thanksgiving and New Years to jusst lay low and take it easy. During that time I taught one or two spin classes per week, and did a few runs here and there as I felt like it. Now it's time to get back to business! I'm still trying to decide what my goals for this season are, though....

I teach a spin class this morning, and that will likely be about it for the day, since I have some other commitments later in the day. I'll probably try to get a run in sometime tomorrow.

My new resolution - to do a better job of updating my workout logs! Starting today! (I took time off from that - too!!)

Can I join? You have provided me with helpful advice in the TT forum, I would love to be in this group!

Hey jsnowash,

I am 52 and live in Atlanta.  I was a stay at home mom for 12 years and then went to graduate school so I could teach business ed since my first career was programming financial systems on mainframes.  I have started trainingfor my first sprint tri in March 28.  I swam the 1 mi chesapeake bay swim last may and I swim 800 meters twice a week.  I have a new fugi  tri bike that I  have used four times.  I started at 14 miles, the second time I did 16, the third 20 and I rubbed myself raw so the last time I did 14 miles at 15 miles an hour.  I have a treadmill and was running 1.25 miles at 5.2 but a friend of mine told me to start running 3 miles so I just started doing that at 5.0.  I have only done that twice.  I amworried about my run.  I ran a quarter mile after I was on my bike for 14 miles and I could barely do that. What can I do tohelp myself with my running besides just doing it?  I know I have to keep up the three miles. I am going to run three miles now!

I am sorta nervous about my first tri. I just want to complete it but I really wonder about those last three miles.

I am really lookingfor women to train with...I live in Sugar Hill GA! 

Ha, sorry...was in the middle of getting lunch for the kiddos, didn't read the instructions!

Not sure what info is needed, but I am a full time working mom of 2 ages 5yrs and 20 mos. I got into tri'ing last summer when I signed up for a mini sprint on a whim, had 3 weeks to prepare. The minute it was done, I wanted more and the rest is history!

I plan on racing the same mini sprint this year (can't wait to compare time differences from last year!) along with a couple regular sprints and possibly Redman 70.3 in Sept.

I think running is my biggest limiter as I am always getting injured, it seems even when I am not incorporating speed or distance. I love my bike as long as I am on the trainer, the open roads scare me to death. I also really enjoy spin classes 2 x a week. I have a love/hate relationship with swimming. Some days I get to the pool and dread the entire workout and others seem to fly by while I feel great.

Looking forward to "meeting" everyone in this group!

Welcome, KC Racer & Rosita! Glad to have you both!

If you're not already doing it, I would encourage you guys to begin using the BT training log to keep track of your training. That way, if you have questions about your training, other mentor group members and I can take a look at what you're doing and offer suggestions. If you limit access to your training log to "friends", make sure you add mentor group members to your BT friends list.

KC - I'm seriously considering an HIM in September too, so maybe we'll be following similar training plans!

Welcome aboard, Ladies - looking forward to getting to know you!

Jenny

Rosita - welcome! Sorry to say it, but there's really no way to get better at running other than to get out there and run.... I'm not sure I agree with your friend who told you to start out running 3 miles. If you have never run before, you should start out with a distance you can complete comfortably without feeling physically exhausted at the end. I think that running has the largest potential for injury of the three tri sports, so I tend to be cautious about increasing too quickly. How often are you running now? My suggestion would be to start gradually building up your run. One way you can start doing that is to do more frequent shorter runs. Can you give me some idea of how frequently you're running now, and either the time or distance you run for each of your runs? You might also consider using a run/walk strategy if you're just starting out (for example, run 3-5 minutes, walk 1-2 minutes, repeat - or whatever seems like the right balance for you right now).

Good luck, and again - welcome!

Just added you both to my friends list.

My logs are up to date, I have been pretty diligent about posting everything since I started this summer.

Hi there, I'd like to sign up. Been doing Sprint tris for 1.5 seasons, did 2 in 2009 and 5 with 9 off road sprints in 2010. Trying to get to the olympic and HIM this year. I too am 41 and day to day life limits how much I can do, but I am dedicated to making it to the Timberman HIM in August this year. My training log is up to date since January 2010. My biggest hurdle is distance running. My swim is slow, but I think I can do the distance, its the run that scares me. I live in CT under 3 feet of snow right now, so training is mostly indoors untill the sun comes out and cleans up this white mess. I hope I can offer some help from what I've experienced, and also get so training advice on what I should be focused on and when.Thanks for the time.

Welcome, Todd! Great to have you here! Sounds like we have at least two group members shooting for a first HIM sometime in the fall. It'll be nice for folks with similar goals to be able to encourage each other along the way!

It also sounds like all of you feel like running is your "weak link". I can sympathize, and perhaps offer some hope! I can definitely say that when I started out, running was definitely my weak link as well. I've worked pretty hard on improving my running over the past few years, and now feel like I am a pretty "well-balanced" triathlete, at least in terms of my performance in each of the 3 tri legs (I would say I pretty consistently place toward the front end of the "midddle of the pack" in each leg).

I can tell you guys what has worked for me, and maybe it will help you all as well. When I started out, I think I tried to incorporate running "speedwork" (intervals, etc.) too early, and sometimes that resulted in minor injuries that would set my training back. The best thing for me in terms of improving my run was increasing my running volume and frequency. I did this gradually, generally sticking to the "10 percent rule" of not adding more than 10% to my total running volume or the length of my long run per week. Over the past couple of years, I have generally maintained at least 4 runs per week, and have tried to maintain at least 20 miles per week total running - with most of the year being more in the 30-40 miles per week range, up to 50+ for full marathon training (but at that point my swim and bike training are minimal to non-existent). The VAST majority of that running is done at an EASY pace. I generally don't incorporate any kind of structured speedwork until I am about 3 months out from a target race. I might include some "easier" speedwork (I will expand on that a little more below) at other times, but I save those sessions where I am really pushing it until closer to race time because 1) those higher intensity run training sessions can lead to injury, especially without a well-established running "base", and 2) Speed gains from high intensity training are relatively short lived, so to me, it doesn't make sense to potentially risk injury by doing higher intensity training at a point in my training cycle where the speed gains won't have much impact on my race performance....

So, my advice for anyone looking to improve their running is pretty easy - run more.... Look at what your run training looks like right now. See if you can possibly add one more short, easy run per week. Remember that "short" is relative to where you are now, and will be different for everyone - it might be 1 mile, it might be 3 miles, it might be 5 miles, depending on what your run training looks like now. Try to build up to 4 or 5 easy runs per week of pretty equal distance. In the beginning, keep all running to an easy, conversational pace. It might feel really slow, but that's okay.... When you have built to 4 or 5 runs of equal distance, and those runs feel pretty comfortable to you, pick one run per week, and begin to stretch that out into your "long run". Remember to try and stick pretty closely to the 10% rule, and try not to extend that run by more than 10% per week (if your runs are 3 miles each, begin by making one of those runs 3.25 miles, then 3.5, then 3.75, etc). When you get one of those runs up to about 6 miles or an hour or so of running, pick a second run and begin to lengthen it to be your "mid-distance" run. Following a strategy like this, you can pretty quickly get to the point where you can consistently run 20 miles per week or more. When you get to that point, and running 20-25 miles per week at an easy pace feels pretty comfortable to you, you can begin adding some of that "easy" speedwork I mentioned above. What I mean by "easy" speedwork is things like including fartleks or strides in some of your runs. A fartlek is just a short pick up in speed during your run. They can be unstructured - you might be out on a run and say to yourself "I'm going to pick up the pace until I reach that tree (stop sign, mailbox, etc....) up ahead; or more structured "I'll pick up the pace for 30 seconds every five minutes". You could also include one "tempo" run per week, where you try to maintain a consistent pace slightly higher than your easy conversational pace for either the full duration of the run or some part of the run (but make sure you're well warmed up before you begin to try running faster than your "easy" pace). So, if your easy pace is, for example, 10:30 per mile, your tempo run might go something like this: 1 mile warm up at your easy pace, 2 miles attempting to maintain a 10:00 per mile pace, 1 mile easy cool down; or it could be 1 mile easy warm up, 1/2 mile at a 9:50 pace, 1/2 mile easy, repeat....

Okay, I'm afraid this is getting too long winded and complicated, so I'm going to leave it there for now....

So what does everybody have on tap this week??

On tap for me today - I'm teaching back to back spin classes tonight, so that will probably be it for me today....

Hi Jenny,
My name is Shelly I'm 43 and I really want to accomplish my goals this year. I have done 2 sprints but I have also signed up for a couple this year. I would love to take it up a notch and be the true athlete I know I can be. I have a tendency to self sabatoge so I'm working on that. I've run pleny of half marathons never any full ones. I did train for Boston but did not get a number the longest run for me was 20 miles. I don't like to run that far anymore because things start to hurt. I do have arthritis in my ankle which acts up here and there. I want to devote my time into training. I'm single no kids so I don't have any excuses except for being lazy. I would like to start working on my swimming which is a strong point for me. The bike would be my worst event not that crazy about it. I'm glad I found this because I'm not having any luck with finding anybody to train with. I hope you can help me. Thanks

Welcome Shelly! Glad to have you aboard!

Hi Jenny, Could I join your group? I love your enthusiasm!

NAME:

?STORY: I did 3 sprint tris back in the 1990s, then 2 sprints in 2009, & last year a full season of 6 tris: 3 sprints, 2 Olys, and the Augusta Half Ironman. I wouldn't have moved up to HIM so quickly except that I'm from Augusta and it killed me to sit and watch the first year (2009)! I also did a half marathon for full after the tri season ended. I'm 47 years old. During my teens I was a competitive swimmer and ran cross country and track. Last year's season made it clear that I am a HORRIBLE cyclist, or to put it more diplomatically I have a big opportunity to improve in cycling this year ;-). I do better at sprints than other types of races. What I love about tri is the cross training and the excitement of what will happen when transitioning from 1 sport to the next. There are always new adventures to be had in tri and that keeps me motivated.

FAMILY STATUS: Married with 2 girls, ages 8 and 6. My husband doesn't swim or run but actually did complete a sprint tri last year! He plans to do a sprint this year w/snorkel since he read it's within the rules. Just last year I left my job and long commute, so I finally had time to work out more. Tri's given me something to do besides the humdrum of daily routine.  
 
CURRENT TRAINING: Not much since October, but I'm motivated to get back to it again. In general, I do 4-6 hours per week: 1 hour of strength training per week w/a trainer, 1 & 1/2 hours of "gentle stretch" yoga, plus 1 day of running, 2 days of cycling and 2 days of swimming.

THIS YEAR'S RACES: 3 sprint tris, 2 Olys, 1 HIM and a half marathon: Dundedin Rotary sprint, Jekyll Island Turtle Sprint, Mistletoe Sprint, Festival of Flowers and Richard B. Russell Olympics, Augusta HIM, the Augusta Half Marathon.
 
2011 RACES:  I'm definitely doing the Augusta HIM, plus some sprints and olys. Not completely planned out yet.

WEIGHTLOSS: I'm average height and weight. But after 2 babies and the energy zap/time crunch that goes along w/being a parent, I got flabby. Last year I lost a total of 22 inches (off abs, hips, thighs, arms) working w/a trainer on strength training--no real diet changes--except that I cut down on wine and chips after leaving my stressful job . I actually gained weight during the tri season despite losing inches but thanks to the off season I'm down about 8 pounds. I was drinking protein shakes and really hungry from the HIM training load. If I lost a few more pounds I'm sure I could run faster!

GOALS: Last year I made some improvement in cycling but I'd like to make much more. I just feel pretty uncomfortable on the bike although I have been fitted several times by my bike shop. I made no improvement in swimming times last year because I only swam 1-2x per month, mostly in races. My run times have steadily improved, but I'm worried about injury so I don't want to run super long. I do want to speed up, but probably won't run much til the season starts. I enjoy the motivation of mentoring groups (did one last summer) and looking forward to getting to know you all!

Beth

Wow, really bonked topnight - first time! I made the mistake of training all weekend, swimming Monday morning befpre work, aet a bad lunch, then went to ride the stationary bike right after work on the way home. At 15 miles I crashed, legs wouldn't go at all, could hardly walk down the gym stairsm. What a bad feeling. I ate dinner, crashed and fell asleep - what a mess that made of the routine. Total train wreck. This made me think of a few nutrition questions I'll ask later, but I can't believe how your body can shut down like that. During an event longer than 2 hours, how do you figure out when to start adding fuel back into your system?

Welcome aboard, Beth!!

Question for you - when you say you're uncomfortable on the bike, do you mean that you're physically uncomfortable, or that riding on the roads makes you feel nervous/anxious?

Hey Todd,

It sounds like maybe you just pushed a little too hard the past couple of days and weren't adequately recovered for your workout last night. It happens sometimes.... While your nutrition might have played into it to some extent, running out of fuel probably wasn't the primary culprit in what happened last night. Depending on the intensity of exercise, your body generally has sufficient carbohydrate (in the form of glycogen) stores to fuel exercise for 30 minutes (high intensity training) to 90 minutes (general aerobic training). Your glycogen stores could have been a little low if as you said you ate a poor lunch, and that could have contributed, but I think you should look at whether you pushed too hard the past couple of days, too. Maybe take a day off, or just do a light workout today and let yourself recover a bit.

You bring up an important question, though, about nutrition for longer events. I know we have several group members looking at longer distance races this season (half-iron), and nutrition for those longer events is an important consideration. In the two half-iron distance races I have done, my general goal has to try and consume somewhere around 250 calories per hour on the bike in the form of sports drink/gels/etc., and somewhat less than that on the run. You should plan to experiment with some nutrition options in training and find a fuel source (or sources) that work well for you both for longer training and for higher intensity efforts.

Hope you're feeling better today!

Thanks jsnowash for the advice, I feel much better today, did a slow swim this morning and will leave it at that for the day.  I have been training a bit more over the last 2 or 3 months, but no one thing seemed excessive, but like a billion snowflakes, I think the fatigue accumulated un-noticed untill I just couldn't handle it any more.  So I'll take this into consideration moving forward.  This did get me thinking about sustaining energy during an event.  The Hxxxxr website has a lot of clinical information (that must be considered with a slight tint of marketing mixed in) in the technical sections.  One thing I found interesting was that a persons body can only really process 240 to 280 calories per hour even if it is depleating them at a much higher rate.  The delta is managed by burning up the fatty acids in your body, which contain in excess of 100,000 calories.  But in order to do so, you need to supplement the buring of fatty acids with a small intake with the right balance of carbs, salts, protiens, etc.

So I then thought about what products do the people here use to supplement their nutrition during a longer event (+2 hours) and not get sick? 

The "Nutrition" forum was all over the map with peoples opinions.  Some things work well for one person and not the other.  Some products are good if you take them with in a few hours of mixing and go bad in the sun/heat.  It's really trial and error I guess.  I'd like to see what people have to say....

I think you're right that it's a lot of trial and error..... I will say this, though.... If you look at the main ingredient of most sports nutrition products, you will see that it is Maltodextrin - an easily digested complex carb. I started experimenting with making my own sports nutrition drinks and gels using bulk maltodextrin (which is very cheap compared to standard sports nutrition products). It has very little taste, so you can mix up a high calorie bottle and it's not over-whelming in it's flavoring. I add a little un-sweetened kool-aid, some liquid sea salt, a few amino acids, and sometimes a bit of agave nectar for a bit more sweetness, and it works great for me..... It takes a willingness to experiment if you want to go the mix-your-own route, though. One thing I like about it is now that I have a good sense of how much nutrition I need for a given type of workout, it's easy for me to mix up a bottle with the appropriate number of calories & electrolytes, and then I can adjust the flavoring to suit my taste. With off-the-shelf products, sometimes if you try to concentrate them so you have a higher calorie content, the flavoring can be a little over-whelming. Another option you might consider is Infinit - you can order custom blends from them, specifying how many calories, electrolytes, protein, etc. you want in your blend.

BTW, if you take the Beginner Tri Survey (in red at the top of your screen) you'll get a code for $20 off an Infinit order. I ordered the lemon lime recovery drink. It was 39.99, plus 10 shipping, less 20, $30.00 total for a good size bag. FYI I was at the Performance bike store/outlet in Atlanta and they had a buy one, get one free on drink powders (I use HEED) not too long ago, but this deal wasn't offered on line.

Here's my 2 cents for what it's worth, but people's needs do vary so much beyond fluid ounce levels. I don't get nausea, but my stomach ROARS with hunger on the bike. Also, when I drink a lot I have to stop in that green box too often. My HIM was in Sept, down south which can be very hot, so I planned for maximum salt/electrolyte replacement. I had the advantage of being able to ride the course a few times and plan my nutrition that way. It turned out to be raining the whole bike loop and not that hot, so here's what I did.
Note: I'm a 142 pound female, 5'5".

30 mins before swim, 1/2 espresso gel w/caffeine
ON BIKE--20 oz Accelerade Hydro in 1 hour, 20 oz H20 in 2nd hour, about 10 oz Accelerade Hydro and 10 ounces H20 in 3rd hour. I took about 4 endurolytes in the 2nd hour. 
During the 3 1/2 hours/56 miles, I ate 4 pnut butter saltines, 10 or so almonds, and 1 PowerBar chopped into 8 pieces for easy popping. With 5 miles to go I ate a gel to prep me for run.
RUN--I drank a 2-3 ounce cup of water or flat coke at each of 6 stops. I ate an orange slice at every stop + somewhere in the first hour I ate a gel. This was sorta the take a small sip, but drink often method and it worked for me. Normally I don't drink soda, flat coke sounds gross, but it hit the spot! (Also I used wet sponges to help me stay cool--and they worked).
Pnut butter saltines, flat coke, orange slices--they really hit the spot.

I prefer real food but replacement drinks and gels are really a must IMHO on long events like HIM. My fav drink is Accelerade Hydro lemonade because the flavor's not too strong and I can get the reduced calorie version. I like endurolytes, but you have to take them with a lot of water to avoid tummy upset. I do not like to chew on bike or run, but I get stomach growls on Olys so I knew I needed some sort of solid food. I think an Oly can be a good gauge to help you determine what makes you sick or what your food needs are AND long rides can help you plan your food too.

Todd, HIM was the best adventure I'd had in a long time, so much better than I thought it would be. Good luck in your training and you'll be there before you know it!

One more thing, re: your hitting the wall the other day in training. For what it's worth, I trained much less than my BT HIM program said to train, I sub yoga for some of the sports workouts and I still completed my HIM much faster than my goal time. If you've got a good base or a good general level of fitness I don't think you've got to do as much as programs ask...anybody else feel this or is it just me being old, busy, and unwilling to do more...?