Ontherun's Group -Full, off and running :)

Ladies, let me start off by saying I am flattered that you would like to be in my group, WELCOME! I am looking forward to chatting with you and helping in anyways that I can. Please feel free to ask as many questions (the only stupid qustion is the one unasked), as you would like. I will keep an eye on your training and look in regularly. Feel free to post on this thread, but also in my blogs. If you have a personal question, and you do not feel comfortable asking it in a pubic forum/blog, feel free to PM me instead.

In the mean time get your last workout in for the year, and Happy New Year if I do not get back on the computer again today

Happy New Year ladies, and welcome to anyone who is willing to make a commitment to themselves to getting healtier. Welcome to our group.

ooops, sorry about the confusion desty

First off I would like to welcome Helen and Crazy to our group. We should all be having lots of fun "together" soon. I have one request of all of you. Please make an entry into your blog, preferably every day, even if there is no workout. This will help me see what is going on in your life besides Swim, Bike and Run. I plan on checking in on all of you regularly, and hope you decide to do the same to the others in our cozy little group.

I will also take the time to ansure a question posed to me earlier today in a PM. The question was do I use a HRM, and $$ came up as an issue. The short ansure is Yes I do use on. I do not use it regularly anymore. I did however find it very useful when I started to train to help find a sustainable pace in my workouts. As for the $$ issue, Polar makes a few bare bones modles for around $40. The nice ones go above $300, but that is a great tri geek toy for a begginer. I would recomend a cheep Polar modle though. They last a long time (three years so far for mine) and give a good starting point on workouts. Word of caution. They work in the water, but tend to move around and give false readings. Also I have heard women complain about finding a good spot to have the chest strap so it will stay put and give a good reading.

Feel free to fire back any questions you may have. I will get back to them as soon as I can. As always I will give my opinion on anything asked, and try to send you in the right direction for more comprehesive ansures if I am not sure.

have fun training

If you get a chance, could you all let me know a few things. I am looking to know what you have for equipment. Pertinant info would be type of bike (mt, road, tri will do), if you have a drainer  ( trainer for the bike), dreadmill (treadmill) or a stationary bike available. I would also like to know what kind of access you have to a pool at this time of year. I for one take most of the winter off and wait until spring to swim again. My personal best oppertunity to swim is open water at a nearby lake, but it is frozen

Crazy's current equipment

A heavy MT bike, which needs work, considering getting a new one. I currently use a stationary bike at the Y, set at Hill interval work out level 7.

Run out side when possible, but use a dread mill when I can't (boreing)

Pool access, again I use the Y, It is a small pool only 45 long.

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This is a good start. Feel free to ask as many questions as you would like about buying a bike if you choose this route. I would also recomend checking out my article about buying bikes.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=688

Well, let me see if I can help on the bike delema. Shipping bikes is an expensive propostion.I believe you start at about $200 before you buy a container to ship it in. Plus you need to be able to put it all back together.

Anouther important point will be when do you plan on racing? If your first race will not until you are back on the left coast that would lean me twards waiting until then. If somehow money is not a real issue in buying a bike, I believe it is Richie who makes a bike that is race worthy and folds to be shipped as check in luggage. Problem is they start at over $3000.

low cost options for racing are beg, borrow or rent. The rentals would be sad racers, but would do if all you want to do is have some fun racing. Somehow, I am sure someone on campus has a bike they might loan out for a day or two to race with, espcialy if there was a pizza with it when returned

When it comes to times from dreadmills, track and measured route, I tend to take the times as all being relative. A dreadmill may or may not be accurate as to distance or rate. So I try to use the times as a guide, not gosple. Track and measured routes can vary also. It depends on who measured the route and if there are hills and such. So I try to vary my workouts and use certain routes for PR attempts and to gauge progress.

As for bikes, when it is all said and done, any bike that is safe will work. To go fast is relative to the engine and the bike. I rode on a touring bike for about 6 years before I got a racing bike for long rides. Had that bike for 15+ years before I replaced it last March. Could ride any of them if I had no other choices, but the older bikes are due for major meltdowns soon, so I only use them on my drainer and spring rides now.

Anouther good choice for a cheep bike is check the local PD. The ones in my area do a few different things. Some "auction" them off for a donation of $5-$25 depending on condition. Others toss them in a dumpster. So if you are looking for a very cheep ride consider asking the local PD what happens to the bikes. Mind you a good tune up will cost you, so you should try to get a good PD bike or due the service yourself. A solid bare bones bike at a good bike shop will start around $ 350 and could be flipped on e-bay when you are ready to move on. Also check Local Bike Shops (LBS) to see if they have some solid trades you could look at.

Ok, I am not trying to burst any bubles but I have seen lots of IM Kona hopes latley on BT. I am one of them. Just keep in mind, only a few people get blessed with that oppertunity. Ways I know you can get into Kona.

1) Qualify-means geting one of 80 slots at a IM quailifying IM or 1/2 IM event. these tend to go to the first 3 to 5 finsihers in each AG. They can trickle down to the first person in each AG who wants to go, so there is always a chance if you finish well.

2) Loto spot-BT had a loto spot winner last year, and maybe more than one, I just know of one. My local tri club had one also. Sign up each year, and maybe the gods will smile on you

3) Charety Auction-I believe there are 5 spots autioned off each year on a site, maybe E-bay. At last check they go for about $30,000 each for the last few years. The first winner tends to be less expensive than the last

4) Find a way to get NBC to foot the bill-If you watched the 2006 IM coverage, you saw Rick, Dick and Jason Hoyt. Rick and Dick have been racing for years. I belive NBC extended an invite to Jason to help encourgage Rick and Dick to come back for one more try. I am not sure of all the logistics, but it seems to gel with why the Blazeman got his entry changed from IM Florida to Kona. Blaze's training partner for IMF wrote to NBC to suggest the ALS angle as a great human interest story, and the rest is history.

Again, I am not trying to discoruage IM Kona as a goal. I for one am planning on going to IM Lake Placid in about 2 years. This also requires signing up within 2 hours of regestraion opneing the day after the previous race is finished. Best bet is to voulenteer the at the year befores race so you are on property when reg. opens. IM branded races fill very fast.

An alternative to IM branded Iron distance races are held by other race directors.There are many fine Iron distance races, I just have not boned up on them yet

Good luch and good training.

the issues involved with overtraining are hotly debated. Where we are right now getting ready for a first tri are a slightly different story. A few good places to start are as follows. First is the 10% rule. You should NEVER up your milage/time more than 10% from the previous weeks workouts. Jumping up more than that dose not allow your body to adapt to the stresses being put on it.

Anouther realy good place to start is to import a training program from BT. They have the 10% rule built in with benifits. One of the added benifits is three weeks of build with the forth week as a recovery week. This allows your body to build up for three weeks then rest and recover. Normaly the milage/time increases are something like +5%,+5%,+5%,-10%.

The biggest issues with over training boil down to basicly too much too fast, and too long with no rest. BTW, make sure you make time to sleep. Without enough, your body will not rebuild properly between workouts.

As always keep the qustions comming.