Slornow's and Wannabefaster's Summer Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 11)

Numb fingers and toes could be related to your fit.  I get numb toes a fair bit and I'm pretty sure it's my saddle.  I'm hoping the new saddle on my new bike will resolve that problem.  Have you had a proper bike fit done?  It's well worth it.

As for the wetsuit, how far over the cutoff point are you for the weight?  If it's not much, I'd go with the medium.  You want your wetsuit to be pretty tight (it should be hard work getting it on), and hopefully if things go well you'll be dropping some weight anyway.  I'm now in the position that the wetsuit I bought two years ago is potentially too loose.  That's not a good thing - a) it doesn't work as well to keep warm and b) there's a lot of potential for rubbing, which led to a bit of skin loss last year!

Most important thing with the wetsuit is make sure you can return it if it doesn't fit.  My experience with Wiggle is that they're pretty reasonable about stuff like that.  Just make sure you're very careful when you try it on as it's easy to damage the neoprene, and obviously they won't accent damaged returns.

I get it a little bit in my left foot, but if I stand up, sit down, move around a bit etc... I can get it to go away. Have you been fitted on your bike? If not, that could also be a problem. An improper bike fit could cause the numbness.

I would suggest finding a local shop that sells wetsuits so you can actually try it on, but I know from my experience trying to find one around here, not a lot of shops carry them. 

Day is done! Swim this morning and an 8 mile run at lunch. The run was awful.  My HR was way higher than normal for the pace I was keeping. Anyone know what might cause that?

My guesses are:

• Run was only about 4 hours after my swim and I didn't refuel enough after that
• Too much coffee in the office before the run
• On Wednesday I did a 20 minute power threshold test on the bike and I'm still recovering from that? But I did fine on my Z2 bike and swim yesterday, so I'm not sure.
• The run today was in weather that was hotter than what I've been training in the past 4 months. Probably the hottest run since last fall at 81 degrees.

Nate-I suspect the high HR is a combination of the factors you listed.  Accumulated fatigue, higher temps all cause the HR to be higher than usual. Good luck to you and Jamie tomorrow!

Was able to get my swim in by waiting for a break in the thunderstorms. Plan was for 5X500 on :15-30 rest. But given the uncertain weather I just kept swimming to get in as much as I could. Ended up doing 2000 straight and then an easy 500 to finish it off. I rarely do long straight swims but think its good to do one every so often to help with the mental aspect of uninterrupted swimming. Still uncertain about tomorrow's weather for the bike and run. 

I agree it is good to get that practice of riding in inclement weather, but will opt for the CT if it is too cold and raining (like it was today) or if there is a chance of lightening/thunder/tornados.  I do have plenty of friends who ride almost exclusively indoors due to time constraints, bad traffic,etc.  but for me I see a big difference in my performance when I get outside as much as possible.

One thing that my coach does is trim a ride by about 20% when done on the CT because you literally have no downtime like you do when riding outside (e.g. coasting or stopping for stop signs).  That came in handy today!

My first bigger SBR training day went well despite being forced downstairs on the CT due to 37F temps and rain.  I redeemed myself outdoors on the run and was a popsicle at the end!  Looking forward to an easy recovery swim tomorrow!

Good luck racing fools!  Smile at the end no matter how much it hurts.

Jim I don't do much in intentional ankle flexibility.  However, I do a lot of work to keep my Achilles tendonitis at bay that I think helps a lot.

I do eccentric heel drops 3x/day, and heel raises two ways, standing and seated.  The other thing I do all the time, almost subconsciously, is simple toe point stretching.  Even as I am sitting here unable to do any exercise I am pulling my toes toward me and then pointing them away from me as far as I can.  I must do it 50 times a day without even thinking about it.  Drives my wife nuts!   It helps that when I am home I am always barefoot.  A residual effect from swimming too much when I was younger.

I am

ind of glad I haven't had to deal with wet suits! They sound so complicated.

Swim went well. 500 warm up, 500 with pull buoy (which popped out of the water and slammed me in the face at one point), 500 cool down, then I attempted the Xterra bike course and dealt with this:

Took me almost 2 hours to ride 5 miles. did a lot of pushing through mud. ICK!

Tomorrow is long run day, but first we have going in what's called a cyclofemme ride for all the lady riders! 10+ miles with fellow female riders to celebrate the sisterhood of cyclists. Not that it's my 1st sport, but I like to get involved with anything that encourages women to get out and get some exercise!

Hope your weekends are going great. Happy training! 

Blanda-it would be easier to ride the bike if it didn't have that yummy chocolate coating on it Can't imagine trying to slog through those types of conditions.

Wetsuit issue-would it be possible to try it out in a pool or somewhere? If you try it in a pool be careful about overheating.

I headed outside for my bike/run. Hourly forecast on the weather channel looks good. Radar looks not so good. I'm going to risk it. Will check in later. Everyone be careful out there! 

My workout yesterday involved a long day of teaching...was at school from 6:45 a.m. until 9:30 p.m.  Workout #1 consisted of 45 minutes of "shaking my moneymaker" at the 8th grade dance and showing the kiddos that I teach that 42 years of age isn't too old to dance gangham style.  I also showed them my mad dance skills by demonstrating how to "Mr. Miyagi" (you know, wax on/wax off, paint the fence and 'the crane'). 

By the time I got home at 10:00, I was exhausted, but lo and behold, my new 2XU wetsuit had arrived.  Of course, I had to try it on.

After wrestling into that bad boy, I was dripping in sweat and I'm sure that maximum heart rate had been achieved when I was pulling that thing up over my 'womanly' thighs and hips.  Once on, though, I'm pretty sure it actually fit.  I felt like a sausage in a sausage casing, but could move my arms around quite easily like I was swimming.  I'm going to do a short open water swim later this week with some of the local tri girls to make sure that what is 'sausage casing' on land will translate to proper wetsuit fit in water.

Have a great weekend everyone.  I'm going on a three hour tour with the local bike shop this morning.

Nancy

OMG Nancy - too funny!

Blanda - you have some mud on your rear wheel - might want to wash that off

Good luck to all the racers this weekend!

Just got back from the gym - 5mi on the treadmill.  BORING AS HELL but my longest run since my triumphant return to running!  YAY!

If you didn't see the earlier thread, make sure to soak the suit for 24 hours before wearing it!

Recovery swim done which means I am free for the rest of the day!

Enjoy your workouts!

Suzy...thanks for that reminder.  I shall soak starting tonight.

Blanda...that doesn't look like very much fun.

Lots of good work going on in the group!

Had a really good workout this morning! It did start raining about an hour into the bike but since I was already wet I just kept at it. Temp was about 70 so pretty comfortable even when wet. Rain continued for about 1.5 hours. So, last hour or so on the bike and the run were pretty nice. Ended up with 75 miles @ what will be approx HIM power and 4 mile run with 2 miles faster than HIM run pace. Struggled with a similar workout last Saturday but hit all my intervals today. Really pleased.

Tomorrow is busy with HS graduation related activities but should be able to get in 1.5 hour run. Going to watch a DVD with the wife and relax a bit this afternoon!  

Blanda - That's some serious mud!  We've had similar rides here in the snow, so I feel your pain!  Way to gut it out.

Nancy - your dancing sounds great.  Now if only you had video....?  Sounds like your wetsuit is a good fit.

I did my hill run this morning, then the tri club swim session this evening.  Managed the whole swim session in lane one (the "fish" lane), which was great.  I'm not really fast enough, but too fast for lane two, so I'm trying to get faster...

And the day is over! 

Race Report: The last time I put the link for it, some people couldn't read it, for some reason, so if you want to read it, just check out my Race Log. 

Short and Sweet version: I crushed it.  I basically PRed every part of it: a fast swim (for me), a solid bike averaging 20mph, and then my fastest 5k run time of 22:23. I got 5th in my AG, which I'm thrilled about. The 3rd place guy was 3 minutes ahead of me, so I don't have to feel bad about that because 3 minutes faster wasn't happening! It's nice to have a solid race after a week of hard training! Oh, and here's a testament to volume and consistency: This was my first race ever last year, the one I picked out when I started triathlon-training; check out the year-to-year comparison:

2012: Swim-20:00 (2'40"/100), Bike-40:12 (16.42mph), Run-26:11 (8'25"/mile)

2013: Swim-14:38 (1'57"/100), Bike-33:00 (20mph), Run-22:23 (7'12"/mile)

I really didn't know what to expect going into the race, so in my head I was tempering expectations and told myself I'd be happy with shaving 5 minutes off last year's time...I looked at my watch when I get out of the water and realized that I'd already done it. It's great to see progress! 

After the race, it was still a training day  So, Nate and I ate some Chipotle with his fiancee, and then headed out for a 4-hour ride. Well, it was a new course we'd never done before, so it ended up being 5 1/2 hours and about 76 miles. Tired does not begin to describe how I felt afterward. Oh, and my Garmin says we gained 4,600 feet. I am going to sleep very well tonight...

A good day!

Great race, Jamie!! I am tired just thinking about your long day!

Y'all are very chatty, I'm having a hard time keeping up, lol! I've been ridiculously busy all week - I've been battling this head cold, we are getting a dog tomorrow so I've been back and forth between home and the rescue shelter, I'm remodeling a room and my furniture came in so I've been assembling that... and i have a race tomorrow. Sigh.

I've never been so unprepared for a race in my life, so instead I'm calling it my workout of the day! I'm ready to kickstart my training program and jump on board here

I'll chime in tomorrow with my pitiful results, now.. I'm off to bed!

Karla