Dominion's Sprint/Oly Focus Group - OPEN (Page 10)

June 2014
S: 14560 yds 5:40.10
B: 135.52 m 8:39.57
R: 40.22 m 6:20.04
Strength: 2:50

Almost 24 total hours - that's pretty good!

I do have a bike and my swimming is hurting right now, but I swam for years so I am sure I will be back into it here within the next few weeks. I am looking at the HIM in Nov at lake because in AZ. That gives me 4 + months I planning on signing up for either the sprint or Oly depending on where I am sitting at the end of the month.

June totals:

S: 15,030 yards
B: 301.04 miles
R: 25.34 miles

Big month for me! I crammed in as much training as I could fit because I will be attending two back-to-back music and art festivals in July, limiting my bike and swim training time. The gates are locked at these festivals, so there’s no leaving once you come in, unless you’re leaving for good as re-entry is not permitted. Pretty much my July schedule is triathlon, festival, festival, triathlon! I am a little concerned about the impact this will have on my training, especially with a triathlon coming up just six days after I get home. However, I’m hoping if I run every day while I’m gone, that will help. And then when I get back to civilization, do some easy swims and bike rides that week leading up to it. This will be my “A” event, so I really, really want to do well.

So I have my first mountain bike triathlon this Saturday. I think I’ve improved a bit on my speed; working all the hills has really helped. (There’s not much flat around here!) Plus, I’ve been riding longer distances, trying to do two 25-mile rides a week, in addition to a couple of shorter rides. My only concern is because of all the rain, I have had very little opportunity to practice off road. On the other hand, I found a YouTube video where someone rode the course wearing a helmet cam, and it doesn’t look very difficult. It’s nothing like the XTERRA courses, so I should be OK. And, since it’s in the desert, it should be dry. It looks like a pretty good field with 133 people registered, with a men:women ratio of about 4:1.

I have decided to tack another triathlon to my schedule, this one on August 17 (West Plains WunderWoman). It’s not a USAT-sanctioned event, so I debated doing this one or another the weekend before. What makes this one attractive is it’s the exact same course as my first triathlon, so it will be a great way to see where I’ve improved in the eleven weeks. Also, it’s a women-only event, which will be kind of cool. The women-only events usually draw huge fields of competitors; this one is capped at 700, which will be a HUGE change from my first triathlon, which had a total 64 competitors in the Sprint race.

Edited by burner2 2014-07-01 1:33 AM

Swim: 3650 meters (I don't record the overall time of my swim workouts)
Bike: 2h 36m 50s - 35.4 Mi
Run: 4h 29m 50s - 27.78 M

It was a tough month. I barely trained for the first half and finally started making a push during the 2nd half. Between a one week vacation, getting a cold while on vacation, getting our house ready to go on the market, and the fantastic blister I got on the back of my heel, I'm surprised I trained at all! LOL It's crunch time now. My event is less than 6 weeks away, which in reality means probably only 5 weeks left to train.

Swim: 1h 30m - 2800 Yd
Bike: 58m - 12 Mi
Run: 1h 29m - 6.25 Mi

My June totals are pretty sad. I had my race on the 15th, and for some reason, I didn't log any of my workouts in the two weeks leading up to the event. Don't know what is up with that....oh, well. In June, I have been out of town more than I have been at home, so training has been a challenge, combined with a chest and head cold I can't seem to shake.
I had hoped to do another sprint tri in August, but if I can't shake this cold, I don't think I'll be ready in time, and may have to focus efforts on my October event instead. It sucks, but I don't know what else to do. Ugh.
Happy training, everyone!

For the blister on your heel, have you ever used NewSkin? Rowers use it on their hands in the early part of the season before our callouses get built up. Don't use it on an open wound that is fresh (will burn like hell), but if there is a layer of skin on the blister, put about three layers of New Skin on it and see if it helps. Good luck!!

Thanks for the tip, but it wasn't from my training. I went out to mow my lawn and was too lazy to put socks on. The shoes that I wore when mowing the lawn must have been rubbing in just the right spot because it only took me about 30 minutes. Note to self, always wear socks when mowing the lawn! LOL

My swim and bike numbers are way low for an Oly coming up in 12 days! Yikes. This weekend will be spent in the lake ensuring I remember how to swim and that I can still swim that far come race day. Biking will also take place with a short run afterwards and as next week progresses through I'll kinda fake a taper. Eesh, this race is sneaking up on me...


Swim: 1 hr 8 min
Bike: 2 Hrs 18 min 35.3 miles
Run: 9 Hrs 24 min 82.88 miles

Can ya'll tell what my favorite discipline is? lol

Scott

Thanks for all the input ya'll. It is helpful knowing that it's not just tough for me to get the training in with kids, but ya'll find a way to do it anyway! Ever since my son was born (second child) motivation has been very elusive. I'm gonna look at changing a few things up. If I can't get out on the rode to ride, I can set up my trainer and get in a 30-45 minute ride on that vs nothing at all. Swimming, I'm gonna just have to suck it up and find away to get myself up in the mornings and get to the pool. This weekend I will be on lakefront property for a few days so I can at least get a few decent "confidence" swims in before race day. I'm not sure which I dislike more, the treadmill, bike trainer, or endless pool. Hmmm...

Scott

Thanks Chris. Definitely plan on increasing my long run toward 8 miles over the next month. I will have a little more than a month between my last Tri and the HM so I would work on more volume then. Aiming for quality now. I have been trying to do long, interval and tempo, and will definately add the brick run in after bikes. Hoping that with the new bike I have a new found motivation to ride! Pretty sure its a regular tri top, but I have no clue what the difference is so. Will just try it.

My June totals
Swim: 12,320y - 4h28m41s
Bike: 115m - 6h39m21s
Run: 39.9 - 5h44m46s

Scouting out a race for July 19th. Who is racing this Month?

HI
Bike 154.5 miles 10hr 37
Swim 2.4 miles 2 hr 15
Run 116 miles 18 hr

Good to have this perspective. Looked up some HIM training plans. Would need closer to 8 hrs SWIM per month, 24 hrs on BIKE, 8 hrs RUN.

I think I could have gotten more swim and run miles in. Pretty happy with my bike improvement. Went out with the TRI group this week. 26 miles on the bike (barefoot) followed by 1.6 mile run. Just found out about a Sprint that I can fit into schedule next week. Hopefully that goes well as a practice for OLY.

Edited by BF JEFF 2014-07-01 11:25 PM

Did my first brick run in quite some time last night before it got dark. Everything seemed to go well on the bike until I got to my turn around and my left calf started cramping. I chugged down some Gatorade and let up some and it eventually went away. I've had this happen on just plain rides too. Is it more from a lack of hydration or could it be more from bike fit? It seems almost to be from a lack of hydration as it went away shortly after I drank half a bottle I had with me. Not used to cramping on the bike. It's been awhile since that's happened. The run portion went great. It felt like I was putting along only to find my pace much faster than anticipated.

It's funny you say that about the run after a bike ride. I've experienced a similar phenomenon. On the few bricks that I've done, when I have done the run portion I feel like my legs are fatigued and so I'm just chugging along at what I think is a slow pace, not trying to push it too hard or risk injury. But when I get done with my run and look at my pace, I'm amazed to see that I did much better than I thought I was doing. I don't typically check my pace until I'm done, so it always comes as a surprise to me. Maybe this is a byproduct of having done so much of my training on a treadmill? Maybe I'm just not used to feeling my pace when I run outside? I don't know, it's strange. But in a good way!

I had a PR run time in my super sprint. I think for me, I was so tired at the end that any running felt slow because I was so tired. Therefore I pushed myself harder, trying not to have the slowest run split on the course. Does that make any sense at all? Brick runs feel so different to me than straight runs that it's hard for me to even try to pace myself.

Hey Chris,
I am interested in the sprint distance Tri's and would like to join your group.

My name is Matt and I am a 30 year old just getting into Triathlon. I have been training since about March. I am training for Sprint Distance Tri's that start in late October.

At the start of Jan/Feb
I could not swim 300m freestyle with out resorting to breast stroke (Possibly the only Australian who cant swim)
5 km was 30 mins
20km bike was a tick over 40 mins


Since I started doing some training:
I can now swim 750 m in.... don't laugh 17mins (In a pool but also incorporate some open water swims in my training)
5km run is down to low 22 mins and high 22s after the 20km ride
mid 37 mins on the bike

My 2 ultimate goals would be sub 20 mins for 5km run off the bike and a sprint Tri in under 1:15. (6- 12 month goals)
6'1 and body weight is 81kg

Let me know
Matt

Welcome, Matt! You've made great improvements so far, good job - especially on the run, wow! I think you'll be able to pull decent times in a sprint no problem, especially with a little more swim practice in.

I am also racing July 19, btw - there's a local race not listed on BT that is my team's "home race", so I signed up to join them. Full sprint with a 500m OWS - my first in a race (I've had quite a bit of non-race practice).

I have an off-road triathlon this Saturday, the Righteous Richland Sprint Tri. It's a half-mile swim in the Columbia River, a 12-mile mountain-bike only ride, and a 5K run. I'm a little concerned about my time for this event because I'm a lot slower on my mountain bike. But, hopefully, the swim will be downriver, so the current will assist me This is a pretty small event as only 133 people have registered, about which 33 are women.

I also have my "A" event, the Coeur d'Alene Race the River Sprint Tri, on July 27. This is a pretty big triathlon, with probably more than 500 competitors. Cd'A seems to be a hotspot for triathlons; they seem to have one about every other weekend.

In response to the folks that run faster after a bike ride: I have also experienced this, and a local tri coach here explained that it's because your "slow twitch" muscles are already primed and ready to go from being on the bike. Which is good because slow twitch muscles are key in endurance activities.
And there's your fun factoid for July 4th. . Enjoy!