jsnowash's Spring-into-action 2011 mentor group -- Full Up & Ready to go! (Page 11)

Sounds great, Todd! I'm gonna have to look around again and see if I can find a masters group that works with my schedule.....

I did more and better than I planned or expected last week, but now, I'm tired.  It was hard to get myself out of the house this morning.

The weather has been nicer, so I got on my road bike and rode my favorite loop from last summer.  FWIW, the wheat and rapeseed appears to be planted; I think the remaining fields are going to get corn.  There was a sangulier hunt in the local forest on Saturday, but fortunately, none of the beasties surprised me on the road.

I think this week, I will try to consolodate what I'm doing.  Try to run/jog M, W, F, and ride/swim on T, TH, but reduce the ride time/distance to 1 hour/20km.

- red

Is that a wild boar?  I definitely would not want to run into one of them on a bike!!  (And the only ones I've ever seen have been in a "zoo" type thing in Germany.

Good job on getting it done last week.  Nothing wrong with refiguring the plan after a tough week.

Edited by tribeagle 2011-02-14 1:20 PM

There was a sangulier hunt in the local forest on Saturday, but fortunately, none of the beasties surprised me on the road.

I think this week, I will try to consolodate what I'm doing.  Try to run/jog M, W, F, and ride/swim on T, TH, but reduce the ride time/distance to 1 hour/20km.

- red

Snow storms passed and 3 kids healthy - finally!  I have been reading posts but haven't taken the time to write anything myself.

I guess I should start by saying that running is my strong suit.  I race all year long and am part of a running club that has points races and an awards program at the end of the season.  I started biking last year due to an injury while preparing to run my 2nd marathon.  I also started swimming and pool running last year.  I bought a road bike from the local bike shop and have the clip pedals.  I am least comfortable in the water but that seems to get a little better each time I swim.  I would like to complete 2 tris this year - spring and fall.  I am planning on running 2 or 4 half marathons and 10-12 shorter running races.

Today starts half marathon training on top of tri training.  Plus, Saturday I raced a 5k which resulted in my worst 5k time ever - guess speedwork needs to be a priority too since my true love lies with racing 5ks competitively (for my age group mostly).  I seem to be struggling with a major lack of energy.  I am a vegetarian and had blood tests to determine if I am lacking something in my diet but I also am researching hormonal issues as well (blood tests not back yet).  Anyone else here have thoughts or comments on these two topics?  My 5k time was about 35 seconds slower per mile and I struggled to even run at the pace I did on Saturday.

Got myself up extra early this morning to do P90x legs and back as my right knee has been bothering me a bit and when I went thru physical therapy for this knee, it was determined that my right side core-wise is weaker than my left and lunges and squats would be beneficial.  Once I got the kids off to school and to my mother in law's, I went to the pool for what turned out to be a great swim.  Last week I focused on bilateral breathing and spent today on that too.  I normally breathe every right stroke but have found that bilat really improves my form and speed.  It is just so much harder for me.  Last week I used the pull buoy while bilat breathing and that was very helpful.  Today I swam my longest ever, 20 laps, with bilateral breathing and no aids.  I was tickled!!  I am actually looking forward to swimming again when I normal dread it!

Finished up the day with a 3 mile run.  The weather last week here (Indiana) was in the -20s and today we were up in the 40s.  Beautiful running weather and a perfect opportunity to do some hills.  Showed me how much work I have to do though!  I live in the country and refuse to run the country roads when they are snow covered and down to one lane.  I have been doing some speed and hills on the treadmill but obviously not enough to make a difference.

If we keep up this mild weather, I am considering taking my bike off the trainer and outside.  I am looking at 2 tris for my first and both are in April and have indoor swims.  I am most fearful of the bike because I cannot get myself to spend more than 40 minutes on the trainer.  To me it is worse than the treadmill!  Any thoughts or suggestions to making it thru longer rides on the trainer?  I seem to do better with drills but I think some long easier rides are probably necessary.  Am I correct in this?

Happy valentine's day to all.  My husband bought me the velcro strap for my Garmin.  We don't normally buy gifts so I was thrilled to receive the strap as I have been wanting it since my new Garmin has man straps.  Plus velcro will be much quicker to put on while transition between the swim and bike.

Allison

I'm reporting here to help keep me accountable.  My training went well last week.  2 runs, 2 swims, 2 strengths and 1 bike.  Off to a good start this week, I ran a 5K on the treadmill and then swam 800m.  I hope everyone is enjoying a good Valentine's Day.  Tim

Is that a wild boar?  I definitely would not want to run into one of them on a bike!!  (And the only ones I've ever seen have been in a "zoo" type thing in Germany.

Yup -  wild pig; not too big, but I hear they are pretty mean.  They are popular to hunt, and yummy to eat - they show up on restaurant menus, and in cans as rillettes, but I don't see it often in the butcher shops.  I have not seen one in the forest; just the effects.  Silly things make a mess. 

Here's to the snow melting in all those chilly places! I just know we're going to blink and it will be the the middle of summer, we'll be talking about getting up extra early to beat the heat and wishing there was a bank of snow to rest in...

I've been afraid to get out on my bike and have sequestered myself to my spin bike indoors. This weekend we got a wonderfully warm day and I FINALLY got out there. My bike (a hybrid) has been collecting dust in my garage for 2+ years now. I got a tune-up and took it out and it was awesome! I just ventured around town, discovered new parks, paths and neighborhoods everywhere! What a great way to explore.. I ended up going a bit over 10 miles and it really just felt like a relaxing ride..a nice transition back to a "real" bike.

I also got some new pedals with clips and shoes. I'm not brave enough to take them outside yet, but installed them on my spin bike and WOWIE what a difference in efficiency they make! A few more indoor rides with them and I'll head out on the road. Everyone tells me you fall at least once..

Quick question, what is the "add core 1, 2 or 3" at the bottom of the run workouts?  They are at the bottom of the comments on the planned workouts.

Thanks,
Marcus

Here they are: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...

Hrm snow this morning, warmed up to 50 for my 9 mile run, but there was that 40 to 50 mph gusting wind to make the run very interesting out here where there are no trees.  Glad I don't have a bike ride today.  The cold is a bit better, but still hanging on, blah.  Oh well got to go to a few meetings.

Hrm another 4 inches of snow this morning.. 8(.  I brought the yacktrax to work, we see how things look by noon.

Hrm, no one posting 8(.  12F this morning, more snow and hill charges on the schedule.... on icy roads, should be fun. 

You can keep the cold weather.  It's supposed to be 50F here today. 

Yeah... it has been a bit quiet - hasn't it?!? Myself included -- sorry, gang!

We've had a nice warm-up here this week - it's supposed to be up in the mid-60's tomorrow! Pretty amazing! But then after that we're supposed to return to more normal temperatures. But I'm enjoying the warm days while they're here!

I've been having a hard time trying to nail down my race schedule for this summer. I think it will be pretty light.... But not having a race on the calendar has had me feeling a little unfocused in my training - which was okay for a while, but now I'm feeling like I would like to get more focused again! I think my "A" race will be an HIM in September. I'm eyeing a couple of sprint & olympic distance races earlier in the season mainly for fun and/or as training races. I had hoped to do a longer running race at some point in the spring (10-miler to half-marathon range) but I'm having a hard time finding a race that works with my schedule, so I think that's gonna be out for this year.

In the mean time, since I seem to have a bit of time on my hands before I really need to ramp up training for the races I'm looking at, I've decided I would like to add some more strength training to my program. That's something I haven't done a lot of in the past few years since I started triathlon. I started attending a couple of classes at the gym this week that I think will be good, and will be a nice compliment to tri training, at least at this point in the season. One is a "bosu" class. If you don't know what bosu is, think of one of those big stability balls cut in half with a flat, hard plastic base. Here's a picture: http://www.bosu.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BOSU/itemdetl.html?i... At any rate, we do lots of exercises on the bosu. It's great for balance, and a fun way to get some strength training in. The other class I went to was a "bootcamp" class, which was also very good. It included lots of plyometric exercises, and some good run-specific strength work, like stair running and hill sprints. I think right now while I have the time to fit these in to the schedule, they will be a good addition to my training routine. But just let me say -- OMG -- I am SORE after doing these two classes on back to back days! I thought I was in pretty good shape, and I was able to keep up with the classes just fine - but I'm feelin' it! I guess that's good.....

Baowolf,
I know, the postings have quieted down.  I'm treading lightly because I have ramped up the amount of training that I have been doing and I am keeping my fingers crossed that I don't crash-n-burn, kinda not rock'in the boat.  I'm starting to feel the drain on the body, even took last night off so I could swim hard this morning.  I wish there was more time in the day.

I did get a cool flier in the mail yesterday, a compay call agonswim.com and they will custom die/print a whole range of sportsware with any graphic you can come up with on a variety of different materials for a very reasonable cost.  From swim caps to tri suits, to golf shirts.  What a great technology to be that flexiable in design and a great oppertunity for teams/schools.

Anyway, I'm waiting for a Dolphin MP3 player to help take the mental agony of swimming 1,000's of laps.  I'll let you know how it works after I try it out.

Update : I missed my training on Monday so I went to the gym and spent 32 minutes on the dreadmill and then swam 20 minutes in the pool using arms only.  I love the shoulder workout!

I missed my training again on Wednesday so this morning I biked 8 miles (37 minutes) and then transitioned and ran 2 miles (25:06).  Is this a mini brick?

Keep in mind that I am new, I am a clydesdale and I worked graveyard shift  (7pm-7:30am) in the ER last night  I am happy with the accomplishment!   I feel like I can start being competitive with myself now that I am logging my training and have metrics to look at.

Now I'm headed to bed.

Thanks for all your support!  I love having a support group to get me ready for my first Sprint tri in 5 years.  (4/16/11)

Mike

Todd, do you have one of the Apple Mp3 players?  We bought a waterproof case and headphones for ours through h20audio.com and really love it!

I do but it is my work phone and I'd get shot if I left the zip-loc unsealed and drowned the phone, so since I don't like being shot, I broke down and bought the Dolphin on eBay for $60.00.

I did see a guy at the pool with one of those bags and his iPod strapped to his back, says he had it for 20 years.  Not the iPod, but the bag and he used a cassett player (Sony Walkman days) prior to MP3's.  Seems like a proven method.

K so I don't like offside breathing on the swim even more with the weak left shoulder from the collar bone break.  I am not back to full flexibility yet either.  But lastnight I did a few sets of 200 at 50 yards right, 50 yards left x 2, x2, and then did some at 25 right 25 left.... And then after 4 x (800 yards) I was loving my medeiocre right side breathing again.  It is stil hard to have your sprint 100 yard speed be what your warmup speed used to be 8(.  

I went out in the yaks at noon, but I took them off after the first hill as the road was melted enough.  I find that 6x 300 yard hill repeats are not so much fun either and they chew your legs up.  

I have a 20 to 25 mile bike planned on the drainer this evening, time to pay up for dropping this workout last week when I was sick..er.  

Sprint tri's are nice and short, I just have a hard time justifying driving 12 hours for a 90 min race.  If I am going to drive more than 150 miles the race is going to kick my butt.  

Glad folks are back and posting I was about to have to start replying to myself.   

I've had to back off a little with training this week because I think I've got some kind of muscular or alignment problem. Started with a hamstring strain but now the hip, itband, low back and sacrum are involved usually after only 3 miles of treadmill running without any incline.  I'm fine with bike and swim but feel the tightness in my hips, hams,and itband all the time. Massage therapist thinks it is more than tightness. So I'll see a physical therapist. Don't want to do any more damage so my running training is going to suffer for now but I've still got about 2 months til my half marathon.  The weather improved in MN but the wind is howling now as a cold front comes in. When I can run again, it's probably back to the treadmill.

I try to do weak side breathing but it fills my ear with water. Weird because it doesn't do it on my strong side. 

great brick workout, Mike!

The kids have a 4-day weekend for President's day + hubby is still swamped at work = not as much training time as I might like this weekend. Oh well....

Taught a spinning class this morning, which will be about it for me today. My legs are a bit fried from the bootcamp class yesterday! I have another class to teach tomorrow, and will maybe try to get a run in at some point during the day if it works out...

It's supposed to be near 70 degrees here later today - crazy!! It's kinda gray and gloomy looking out, though... It's supposed to be back to the 40's over the weekend - which is still pretty nice compared to the colder weather pattern we seemed to be stuck in for most of Jan/Feb. Spring is just around the corner!