KiterChick's beginner friendly group - CLOSED (Page 11)

Sarah, my race is an Oly in GA. I ended up deciding to go with the sleeveless since the one with sleeves was back ordered in my size. I'm going to try to use it for the race (assuming I can get comfortable in it). I'm thinking I'll try to get a pool swim in before I head to GA. I think open water is still a little too cold here.

Melissa, good luck on Sunday!

Great job Melissa! Congrats!

I'm officially a biker: I fell over, managed to catch myself but my left ankle got raked against the big gear. Dug in pretty deep and I left a bit of blood out there. How long does it take others to get some balance on the bike? I felt all over the place, and was too nervous to use my drop downs, let alone take a hand off the bars.

Congrats Melissa!! I looked up your race info and you my friend are a Triathlete......again! So proud of you! 70.3 baby!! Nice work!

Edited by Hepcat09 2014-04-13 8:09 PM

Hi everyone! Got in my first outdoor ride of the season on Saturday. Overall, it was great and the weather turned out beautiful when they'd been calling for rain showers earlier in the week. The only downside was that I got a flat. I'd been meaning to swap in new tires, since my old ones were...well, old, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I'll definitely be doing it before my next ride though, especially since I noticed the tire was flat again the next day, suggesting that there's some small issue causing slow leaks, which is definitely not something I want. Just glad the new tube held up long enough to get me the final 10M home!

Melissa - Congratulations on finishing your race!!! I hope you had a blast and I can't wait to hear all about it when you get back. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your vacation. You've certainly earned it!

Kristina - Unfortunately, yes, it's definitely too cold around here to try out your wetsuit in open water for now. Hopefully, you'll get a chance to try it out somewhere before the race though.

Omne - Sorry about your fall, but at least it sounds like you made it out relatively unscathed. As for being comfortable on the bike, it'll come with time and practice. I don't remember it taking too long to get there, but it probably varies from person to person. At the very least, don't even think about the drops for now. You have a road bike, correct? Honestly, while I certainly get into the drops at times, a lot of your rides are going to be done with your hands in the hoods regardless so you should focus on getting comfortable with that first. Good luck!

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start! We're having an unusually warm day here before it cools down again in the middle of the week so I'm going to do my best to get out on a run this afternoon. Spring is finally here!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let all of you know that I'll be away on vacation for a week starting tomorrow. While I won't be completely cut off, my internet access will be limited, so I'll plan to catch up with everyone when I get back. Have a great week and happy training!

Thank you everyone for the encouragement! It was a tough and HOT day but I finished!! More details to come.

Great stuff Melissa - Looking forward to reading more

I'm two weeks out from the spring tri - all going ok so far...... haven't had time to practice transitions much so maybe having to Youtube for insight ! Open water swimming is better than I expected - I like that the wetsuit keeps me floating and my legs dont have to do as much !

I ran 12 miles Saturday - my 1/2 marathon is the weekend following the TRi - hoping to get one more long run in again this Saturday and hopefully another open water swim. Bike to run is ok - although I'm still trying to figure out the speed on the bike so that I have some legs left for the run..... maybe too much over analyising - I should just go with the flow

Pretty quiet around here, hope it's because everyone's too busy training to post!

My pool reopened, so I'm back to swimming a few days a week and feeling a bit more comfortable in the water. I've also gone out for some more bike rides, did a 60 minute ride last weekend. My running has definitely dropped off in volume; hard to maintain 4 days a week when swimming x3 and biking x2. Less than a month before my sprint!

Sunday is my first brick workout, looking forward to that!

UGH.... not such a good open water swim last night - somehow manage to have exercise induced asthma in the water Not good when some distance from the shallow water. Hoping it doesn't rain and the bay stays open over the weekend so I can try again - I'm hoping it was just nerves combined with restrictive clothing under the wetsuit - I couldn't even swim 100 yrds ... otherwise I may have to to the duathlon next weekend instead of the tri

On a more postive note - running and biking going well !

Melissa - thanks for sharing your race report! I just did my first olympic yesterday and though my race was shorter I could relate.

For me the swim was ok, I did veer off a little, but overall came out ok.

I was doing pretty well on the bike and was finally getting comfortable on my rental bike when I got flat tire about a mile and a half from the end of the bike course! Thankfully the bike support truck drove by and was able to fix my flat for me, cause I was a frustrated mess. Lol

By the time I made it to the transition area to start running there were a lot of people already done and packing up their equipment. I started my run running, but was frustrated and tired, so I bearly made it a mile before I was walking. By the time I finished they had more or less closed down the finish line and started the award ceremony for the sprint triathlon. I was pretty frusterated that they didn't even have anyone at the finish line! But I made it to the award ceremony and got 3rd in my age group. (I saw one woman behind me and maybe 6 people total, so pretty sure there were only 3 in my age group, lol) Total time was 4hr 5min

Hi everyone! I'm back from vacation. I started off the week being good and running and swimming a bit, but I kind of slacked off towards the end. We did get out and snorkel a lot though, so I wasn't a complete couch potato. We saw sea turtles, which was really cool! Unfortunately, the weather back home is still miserable, so instead of riding outside yesterday (it was drizzly and in the 40s), I hopped on the trainer for a couple of hours. I was planning on swimming today, but surprise, surprise, even though the pool was supposed to reopen late last week, it's still closed for all of this week. Guess it will be back on the trainer again for me tonight, then hopefully running tomorrow morning...

Melissa - Congratulations on finishing your first HIM! Your race report was great. Sorry you had some issues, but that makes you that much tougher for fighting through them to finish. That's cool you're already signed up for the Cedar Point HIM too. I did the full in 2012 and it was a decent course. Let me know if you have any questions about it or any of the other logistics surrounding that race.

Jan - Sorry your second OWS didn't go as well as the first. It's great that wetsuits are buoyant, but they're definitely constrictive as well. Hopefully, you'll get another chance to work on getting more comfortable in it before your race.

Omne - How did the brick workout go?

Kristina -Sorry you got a flat on the bike, that's definitely a bummer! Congratulations on the third place finish in your AG though. Even if there were only three people in it, it's still an accomplishment and shows that you finished. Just think of all the people that were sitting at home on their couches all day doing nothing while you were out finishing an Olympic distance triathlon!

My brick went well; 30 minutes on the bike, 15 minute run. Started off the run way too fast for me, but got it in check after a few minutes. I should have done it all outside, but the storm was approaching and I didn't want to get caught it in (like I did Monday!).

I'm in crunch phase, three weeks of training left. I did a decent trainer ride and a run yesterday, swam 1150 yards this morning. Hope it all pays off! Still nervous I haven't swam the actual distance yet, though my plan has me doing that next week.

Yeah - first sprint tri done and dusted ! So much fun - lets do that again

Despite the previous bad open water swim, I managed to get two more sessions in bay last week....... so this morning was more confident. Swim went well although I was super slow, just wanted to keep my stroke long and breathing under control - I was really happy with it but time did look like a Sunday afternoon summer dip, Transitions was quick. I made up a lot of places on the bike being my strongest discipline - I could have gone faster but wanted to save my legs for the run, I know for next time. Run was good, no heavy legs and probably still had too much energy at the end..... Happy, happy.

Next tri is June - plenty of time to improve the swim. Auckland (NZ) 70.3 opens soon - I'm keen !

Next weekend is my 1st 1/2 marathon, hoping it goes as well as today !

Hi everyone! I've been really busy lately, so it's been difficult to get in all my workouts (especially since the pool was closed all last week - again!), but I at least managed to get in quite a bit of cycling last week. This week is looking pretty stressful at work, so I hope I can get in most of my workouts, but that remains to be seen. I have my first sprint of the season on Sunday too. As of Friday, the water temperature there was 55. Brrrr!

Omne - Glad the brick went well! It's pretty common to go out too fast on the run. Nice that you were aware of it though and able to reign it in.

Jan - Way to go with your first sprint, it sounds like it went well! Something to keep in mind for future sprints, especially since you noted that you felt like you could have gone harder on the bike, is that there is a study that showed that the fastest combined bike/run times for sprints are achieved by going as hard as possible on the bike then running to the best of your ability after that. The study did find that run times were slightly increased overall, but that the decrease in the bike time made up for it. Of course this should not be the strategy for your 70.3, this just applies to sprints.

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

Jan - Way to go with your first sprint, it sounds like it went well! Something to keep in mind for future sprints, especially since you noted that you felt like you could have gone harder on the bike, is that there is a study that showed that the fastest combined bike/run times for sprints are achieved by going as hard as possible on the bike then running to the best of your ability after that. The study did find that run times were slightly increased overall, but that the decrease in the bike time made up for it. Of course this should not be the strategy for your 70.3, this just applies to sprints.

Hi Sarah -

Thanks for your note :0) can you explain what you mean in the above ? for Sprints should I go faster on the bike and just take the run as is Or save the legs on the legs on bike for the run ?

Thanks

Jan

Hi Jan, according to the study, you should push yourself as hard as possible on the bike, then use what energy you have remaining to run as fast as you're able to at that point. To give you an idea of what they were looking at, they noted an average cycle-run (CR) combined time of 62:40 when the bike was done at an intensity of 81-85% and an average CR time of 56:37 when cycling at 96-100%. The run times themselves only varied by a minute or two between the groups.

All that being said, the sample size of the experiment was not very large (8 total, with 5 men and 3 women) and they were all clearly very experienced athletes, as their average run times for a 5K were all around 20 min. As a result, I'd approach your next race however you feel comfortable. I just thought I'd point it out since it's interesting and because you mentioned having leftover energy after the run. If you're worried you're going to burn out though, just bike at a pace you feel comfortable with. You should be having fun too!

Last weekend of workouts before my sprint next weekend. I've been nailing some of my workouts too, not missing a single one since late April. Even my swimming feels comfortable right now. The weather looks like no rain and relatively cool for Memphis in May (high 70s, low 50s). One thing that does suck is that with cooler weather, the lake won't be as warm. I don't own a wetsuit, don't want to rent one and use it for the first time at the race, so now I may freeze to death in the water.

Hi Sarah,

thanks - I understand now - I have a few weeks until the next sprint tri so will put it into to practice ! Sorry that spring hasn't arrived with you yet - hope it improves soon. I see that you are a Soas Ambassador ! Great product I cycle with Stephanie's step mum a lot - such stylish cycling wear

I did my first 1/2 marathon Saturday - super stoked with my time of 2.07 and even more with the knowledge I can run 13.1 miles ! 7 weeks to the next Tri so back to training after next weekend off !

Omne - good luck with the Tri this weekend Hope the water isn't too cold !

It's kind of quiet on here nowadays

Hi everyone! I Things have definitely been busy around here. My training for my upcoming HIM has been ramping up. The biking and running have been going well, but I've admittedly not been swimming much at all. Hoping to finally make my way over to the pool this afternoon to start turning that around though. Otherwise, I had my first race of the season on Sunday. It went pretty well! Water was cold, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I think my wetsuit being quite tight due to the few extra pounds I've been carrying around was the bigger issue!

Omne - Hope your final weekend of training went well! Have you gotten any updates on what the water temp is expected to be for your race? It was 58 at my race, but I had a wetsuit, so it wasn't too bad. If you can, it might not hurt to get in to practice a bit when you get there. Then, you won't be as shocked when you get in to start the race.

Jan - That's cool you know Stephanie's mom. Small world! I'd liked SOAS on FB awhile ago and decided to send in an application when they posted about looking for ambassadors. It's been fun to be a part of a team of people from all over the country and the world. Congratulations on your HM too, it sounds like it went well!

Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

I keep checking the website, but no updates. It's been 50/50 in years past whether it's wetsuit legal or not; I was banking on not, but with overnight lows in the 50s and daytime highs in the 60s (race day low: 54; race day high: 72) it doesn't look good. I plan to get in a practice swim the morning of the race, just to see how bad it really is. The pool at the YMCA is usually in the low 80s, so it'll be quite a shock to the system to be in the low 70s.

I've been training pretty hard, so I think I'm good to go. I may have turned a corner in swimming: did 600 yards straight, followed by 300 yards, 4x100 and then 4x50 with almost no break in between, and wasn't dead tired afterwards. 400m should be nothing.

Well, we've been archived. Given that things slowed down quite a bit by the end and since I have a busy summer coming up, I wasn't planning on reforming the group for the next segment. It's been great chatting with all of you and I wish you the best of luck in your upcoming races! Also, if you do have any other questions for me, feel free to PM me and we can stay in touch.