triOK's Group - FULL

Welcome to BT Kirk!  Sounds like you are off to a great start with your training!  From what you have posted, you should do great in your first tri this season.  I will see what I can find for you in race wise so that we can nail down a goal for you.

Personally, nothing motivates me more than a race.  I'll have to get back to you on that one though.

In the mean time, check out www.trifind.com.  On the left, click NY and it should take you to all of the races NY has to offer.

It took me a bit to catch on, but you are a fellow Giant rider!  Very cool!  I love mine... Giant TCR 2.  And she's RED!  I call her "SuperFly." 

How's the swimming coming along?  If you haven't checked out the Challenges forum yet, now is a great time to get in on a swimming challenge for the month of February.  I have found in the past that the challenges there are a great way to increase your volume and give you a little extra push in your training.  The swim challenge this month is an individual challenge, but in the past, they have done team challenges that are a lot of fun... tons of trash talking in the forum, but all in the spirit of friendly competition.  In the end, everyone benefits.

I have pledged to swim 3x a week (which might not be a lot to some, but with my schedule, that is all I can handle right now) for an hour.

Anyway, its something to think about....

Hey Brian!  Welcome to the group!  I am glad to see that you are off to such a great start! 

Playing soccer will give you some huge benefits in training for triathlon;  the bursts of speed help to develop your speed skills and anaerobic endurance immensely.  But since there are 3 different disciplines that must be mastered here, you need to work on building a strong "base" for each them.  Endurance, not necessarily speed, is the key.  Speed comes later.  What good will it do you to be fast if you can't make the distance?  Play soccer all you want, just don't count it as a tri workout. 

Read up all you can about how to build a good base (which really means, you need to train your body to be able to exercise non-stop for and hour or two).  Concentrate more on volume (time spent training rather than distance or speed).  Increase your volume slowly (no more than 10% per week) to avoid injury and burn-out.  This is VERY important.  Burn-out, IMO, is more detrimental than injury.  If you burn-out, you might never come back.

Since you are new to swimming, and relatively confident in the other two disciplines, I would say that you need to spend most of your training time in the pool.  I would also recommend getting a copy of Total Immersion  (TI) and reading up on how to improve your swim stroke.  There are some that don't like TI, but I personally think its great.  When I started swimming a lot last year, I could barely swim a few laps without stopping.  After I started TI, I could swim 1.2 miles with no problem.  I use the technique and I think it works.

I know that is a lot to unload on you, but you are already off to a good start.  Train smart and more importantly, have fun!

I am just going to give you an opinion here... I am not an expert, so you might want to get a second opinion.

I think that in training sessions, you need to concentrate on improving your stroke, making it more efficient, and therefore, faster and more conservative.  Its really important in triathlon that you don't waste all of your energy in the swim.  Relatively speaking, you spend the least amount of time in the water in the race, but if you don't swim efficiently, you will zap your energy for the bike and run.

At first, do your workouts until you feel fatigued.  Then stop and rest.  When the recovery time isn't working anymore, its time to call it a day.  More specifically, your workout should have a purpose (and that goes for all workouts, not just swimming).  There should be an objective that you are working on.  When you are first starting out, your objective is endurance.  That means being able to go the distance.  If you are having trouble swimming 100 yds, without stopping, then trying to crank out a 500 yd swim isn't going to help much.  Break it down into 50 or 25 yd increments, until you can do them without trouble.  The next workout try to up that number a bit.  Personally, I have a hard time with long workouts of just swimming laps.  There are tons of swim workouts out there that could spice up your time in the pool and add a sense of purpose to your workout.  I have a copy of a set of pool workouts that a fellow BTer sent me.  I haven't looked through all of it yet, but it looks fun.  Let me know if you would like me to send you a copy.

Hi Aaron!  Welcome to the group! 

Let me answer your questions in parts:

Q:  Do you think it is ok to train inside for the next month and still be on track for June 10th.

A:  June 10th is a long way away...especially since you are in good shape already.  If swimming is your limiter, then swim, swim, swim.  You will be shocked at how much it can take out of you so early in the race.  Training indoors is fine; boring as hell, but completely fine.  Just work on building up your base.  Don't worry about dropping your times.  Endurance!

Q:  My toughest part is consistant breathing and keeping my hips from sinking. Any suggestions?

A:  Yes, get a copy of "Total Immersion"  It has helped me tremendously!  It will teach you to be balanced in the water and how to propel yourself forward like a fish, rather bulldoze your way through the water.

Q:  If I (we) intend on doing a tri in June, when should I (we) start our brick workouts. The program does not show brick workouts until the final 2 weeks of training.

A:  Do them whenever you think you can handle it.  Just don't injure yourself.  If you feel fatigued, you need to stop.  Injuries are very common in tris... pushing yourself too hard on a workout is not worth sitting out your entire tri season.

One last bit of advice that might help:  If you train inside (treadmill, bike trainer, pool), make sure you are switching up your workouts.  If you are on the treadmill, be sure to throw in some hills.  Bike trainer - ride the big ring for 5-10 min.  Push yourself, then back off and recover.  Not only does it improve your fitness, but it also will keep the boredom at bay.  Also, get an iPod... they are essential in indoor training!

Hi Robyn,

My name is Erik and I live in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. I was a pretty good athlete in High school, but got out of shape in college. I got back in shape after I graduated, but stopped exercising when my daughter was born 5 years ago so that I could spend more time with family. After hurricane katrina hit, I got fed up with the high gas prices, and I wanted to get back in shape, so I decided to start biking to work. It's close to a 15 mile round trip. After doing that for a while, I decided to start meeting a friend to run twice a week before work. With the exception of one masters swim meet 5 or 6 years ago, I haven't competed in anything since high school, but I always wanted to do a triathlon. So, I decided to sign up for one in April. I've never done a tri before, so I've been doing tons of online research. I think I'm going to have tons of questions.  Thanks for being a mentor!  I hope it's not too late to join your group.

-Erik 

WOW you guys... I left for a few days and look what happens!   Sorry about that, I didn't mean to abandon you.

Well, we have a full group now!  And what a great group!  It sounds like everyone has got a pretty good athletic background and a great start to their training programs.  There were some questions asked that I need to answer and I will get to them one at a time.

First, make sure that everyone here adds the other members of the group to their "friends" list.  We are all family now!  There really is nothing better than to wake up in the morning at 5:30 to see that someone has already left you an inspire for the day.  And nothing makes me feel worse than if one of my friends notices I skipped my morning run.   Here is our "family"

gator22

stretchdew

firstriguy

TyroneNYC

Kepler57

KbKay

eriellum

yubi

triOK

Hi Ty!  Welcome to our group!

So you have a marathon under your belt?  Great!  Since your running fitness is obviously okay, I would definitely suggest major pool time.  In a triathlon, you can use any stroke you want that gets you out of the water.  But since our goal here is to get you out of the water quickly and fired up for the bike, I suggest working your freestyle until you do it in your sleep.  I learned the hard way just how difficult it is to come off of an exhausting swim and try to crank out 20 miles at 20 mph with people chasing you down.  Nail that swim.... I can't stress that enough.

Hi Parker!  Welcome to BT!  Becareful with that injury!  Too much too soon and you will regret it.  Keep us posted on how it feels and what your training is like.  We all hate to be on the injured list...

In the meantime, keep up the great work!

OK... I don't know if I got to everyone, but I will catch up the next few days.  Be sure to do your homework and inspire everyone in the group sometime over the next few days.

Also, everyone should have a race picked out by now that they are training for.  If you need some help finding one, let me know!  There are some cool races out there and its not hard to track them down.

Anyone who has questions about anything, fire away.  I guarantee that if you are asking, them someone else is wondering about it too.

BTW, Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!  I hope you stuck to your tri diets!

Ok, I've got a couple questions for you. The tri I'm doing has a pool swim, and I was wondering if it's possible to leave a towel or chamois or something near the pool area so I could grab it and dry off a little as I'm running to the transition area. Obviously, we want to take as little time in the transition area as possible, but I figured it might be a little chilly riding a bike soaking wet in April. What do people normally do?

Also, I've read that it's a good idea to get a running belt to attach your race number. Do you only wear the number in the running part, or is it also worn during the bike stage? It seems like it would be flopping around like crazy from the wind during the bike.

Thanks!

-Erik