Daffodil and JuniperJen’s New Parents Tri’ing Group - OPEN (Page 12)

Originally posted by Cseabrook

Thanks for the Welcome....

I was wondering what everyone does for training in a week( how often for swim/run/bike)?

I am real real new to this and have decided for now to try it on my own and then after I probably will join a club.

thanks in advance

Originally posted by Jhcolton

Defector! I was in another group but saw this new parents group and it is obviously for me.

Me: Forty something, ok 42 going on 43, vey happily married, 2.5 yr old son and daughter due in May.

About ten years ago I trained for my first marathon (after virtually no working out since college). It was a really special 6 or so months of training and a fantastic race (in Rome no less). I enjoyed the whole experience. Since then I have been an on again off again runner - probably 6 or so half marathons and a couple of other full marathons. Never as completely well trained as for the first - but generally very motivated with a goal like a marathon or half. Last year once I finally changed careers from a traveling consultant to now working 10 mins from home I decided to chase my Triathlon fascinations and see what I could do. Mind you I have never been and nor do not ever expect to be fast - I am just not built to be particularly great at these events. My fastest marathon is 4 hours and fastest 5k is about 23mins. So my motivation is really to better myself enjoy the process and enjoy getting into and staying in great shape.

Last year I went from couch in May to Sprint in October and Half Marathon in November. I put in a lot of good training - usually 6-7 aerobic workouts a week plus a little core and pull up/pushup work. The sprint was fun however outside of the swim (I admit I breast stroked quite a bit) I found the race was not really that challenging largely because the overall duration was very doable for me. Nevertheless I really enjoyed the discipline of working out almost every day and progressing so much by having better overall body fitness. I took most of December very low key and started up again in Jan - this time including weights.

So this year I am signed up for another sprint at the end of April and then an Olympic at the end of August. The later will be challenging because we are expecting our 2nd child in May - not quite sure if I'll be able to keep up the now ~10 workouts per week (6-7 aerobic, 2x weights, 1-2 core).
Whatever might come of my workout time constraints over the middle six months of the year I intend to keep progressing in Triathlon. I have the bug for sure - love the discipline and overall post work out feeling, not to mention learning more about my fitness/health and capabilities.

Ultimately I would like to do a full 140.3 - however since family is no 1 for me I am willing to be patient - earliest I could imagine would be in three years time but if the timing isnt right for another 6 years I'm cool with that too. In the mean time I am looking to progress to a all Olympic races next year, and then two years from now a half iron.

I've joined a local Tri Club which helps. However my family priorities mean I am rarely able to join organized workouts - I sneak in most of my works outs during lunch and after our current only child is asleep. So I'm sort of going it alone. Looking for a good place to learn and motivate. Hopefully this is a start.

Look forward to learning.

John

Originally posted by Cseabrook

Thanks for the Welcome....

I was wondering what everyone does for training in a week( how often for swim/run/bike)?

I am real real new to this and have decided for now to try it on my own and then after I probably will join a club.

thanks in advance

Originally posted by rydergal

Wondering if anyone on the forum is a non-bilateral breather while swimming? ( i guess that's unilateral, i think?? ) A friend of mine recently did an underwater video of her swimming with a triathlon coach and he convinced her to switch to breathing from only her right side. He had a bunch of reasons but I haven't been able to get all the details yet.....but she did say she wasn't rolling properly on the left and it was taking too much work for her. So far she finds she is much faster and not as tired from swimming. I think Laura you used to be a swim instructor? Any input? Anyone else?

When i first started swimming breathed only on my right side- but then all the books i read and watching people i switched as it seemed to be the 'proper' way....but now i'm starting to question if i should go back to it as I know I roll too far on my left side.....Thinking it might be the change I need to break my 3:00/100m that i'm stuck at...... Also especially with open water- sometimes it's necessary to only breath on one side if there is someone right beside you or the waves....so maybe it's not a bad thing for triathletes??

Originally posted by smithat05

Welcome Chris,

busy busy busy just like all of you I know.

Got a great swim in today, was 400 WU 500swim, 500 kick, 500 pull, 500 Swim

Ran 16 miles yesterday, farthest I have ever ran, Feel pretty good today considering,

Tues-Fri crazy busy this week so probably no workouts. I travel around all day in a big truck so a few times now I have taken running stuff and changed in my truck, ran then changed back into work clothes, It works ok, not going to be able to do this in the hot summer.

Originally posted by Techdiver



500 kicking you are my hero. I hardly kick. I can't seem to kick worth a crap and I am luck to get in 2 x 50. I keep trying and even after all these years it is tough. I think it is because I have such large quads and calves. I would die trying to kick 500 m. now swim 2000 m no problem but I am lucky to kick 8 times per 50

Originally posted by smithat05

Got home early about 4:30 ish Went for a quick 10k before dinner with the dog. Finished in 44 mins. Guess a PR stand alone 10 k time. says my garmin so yay me and my dog.

15+ hr workday tomrrow -wed-thursday so I will possibly run Wed or Thursday depending on time but probably not.

Friday spose to be 45ish degrees sorry i dont know the conversion to Celcius for all my friends up north.

Ohh and Chris my pool is Yards not Meters

Us americans like to be different and be the only country to not use the Metric System

Originally posted by chapfallen

Hi. Thought I'd pop in and apologise for my long absence. I slightly fell off the BT planet for a little while there. I was signed off work by my GP for 4 weeks due to fatigue, and was also trying to prepare for an exam through it all, so everything else pretty much got put on hold while I tried to get through that. The good news is the exam is over (have to wait another month for the result!) and I'm generally feeling a lot better. I started back at work last week, although I'm still on reduced hours while I get back into things.

I've managed to get a little training in, which is great, although my training log is massively behind. At most I've been managing one each swim/bike/run per week, with the bike being the flakiest because I've become a massive wuss about riding on the road, can't really manage the position on the tri bike any more, and haven't got my road bike set up for the turbo. Hopefully that will be next week's achievement. I'm also working on getting my slowest 5km times ever at the weekly parkrun. 3 weeks ago I topped 45 minutes! I've never been a particularly fast runner, but considering that last summer I was running at the same HR for 16 miles at sub-10min/mile the 15min/mile is officially slow! However, my husband has finally realised that it's hurtful to make fun of me for being slow, and everyone else is really supportive. To try to give myself some motivation to keep active I have set myself a goal to get my parkrun 50 T-shirt before I go back to work at the end of my maternity leave. I've done 12 so far, so it's very do-able. I'm going to keep "running" for as long as my knees let me (I don't think they like running so slowly) and then walk them. And after the baby comes I'll try to build it back up to jogging/running again. Quite a few people do it with jogging strollers, so that's an option I'm considering. I'm feeling quite good about having a goal.

In general news I'm now 16 weeks pregnant and things seem to be going fine. I'm starting to get a bit of a bump although you'd be forgiven for thinking I'm just really flabby round the middle. I'm managing to eat more healthy food, which is good as I'd turned into a complete glutton for starchy stuff and was finding fruit and veg just didn't satisfy me. I managed to have a salad for lunch today, which is another step on the road to feeling more like myself.

To all the new people in the group - welcome! I'm gradually catching up on things and will try to be more active in the group again from now on.

Originally posted by Cseabrook

As it stands right now I am unable to get outside to ride much but with wishful thinking the weather will improve soon. Having said all that I get on the spinning bike at least 2 times a week and I mix up the session with hills, intervals and active rest and it seems to always equal out to be about 25 miles per session ( I am soaked at the end).

I am not a swimmer ...YET. I am getting into my local YMCA pool 1-2 times a week to do lengths and I end up with 600 - 800 meters each session. the swim will certainly be my weakest link. I am really focusing in on having a relaxed but steady pace. I also am building endurance with these swims always trying to rest less and swim more.

I have the most experience with running and I get about 3 runs in a week. Right now they are about 5-6km each but I find I can easily bump them up to 9-10km runs when I get the chance to get out side.


I am preparing for a try-a-tri so the distances are no where near what everyone else is training for but I figure that everyone started somewhere....

I am contemplating joining the local triathlon club in the next few weeks as I know how a club with a qualified instructor can really make a difference

thanks again for any suggestions and feed back

Originally posted by Catob

Hey Daffodil et al,

Nope daylight savings is coming up, but not quite here yet. I'm living in NE France tho and the sun is up by the time I get my son fed and ready for kindergarten, so the earlier starts are working well.

Hubby hubster is being quite supportive at the mo - we worked out a timetable for drop-off and pick-up so we're each doing 50-50 with the childcare, which allows him to go climbing a couple of times a week and me to get my training in, and that's working out really well.

Am now doing one long run and one fast run a week, plus an hour's running training with a club - mostly fartleks, which I hate: I'm built for comfort rather than speed. I'm taking my big clunky heavy road bike( the only bike I have) to work and back twice a week, once on a swimming day and once on a runnig day - 14kms each way - and doing a better time in the evenings than first thing in the morning, when my muscles and the weather are still pretty cold. I'm swimming twice a week, doing 500-750metres one day, as fast as possible, and 250metres on the other day with the rest of the time working on mastering tumble turns - I know I don't need them for a triathlon but it'd help me to swim faster in training and it's a psychological thing as I had a pretty awful fear of putting my head under the water until just a few years ago, so I'd like to master that. I have two lunchtime sessions in the gym for weight training planned but haven't actually been yet - watch this space. Then I have an evenings yoga just to stretch it all out again.

I'm finding it difficult to fit in the runs though and as a result have missed several sessions. Had to squeeze in a 20 minute run yesterday as work ran over (happens a lot) and hadn't run in a week, apart from the fartleks evening session. Thought I was going quite quickly but was disappointed to learn I'd only 2.5kms - my usual speed is about 5kms in 30minutes or so, so that's ultra slow, even for me. I think this is due to weight gain over the last few months. I could do with losing about 20kgs but I'm eating healthily and working out almost every day so I'm hoping that will take care of itself.

Apart from the fartleks, does anyone have any toptips for running faster? My shoes are good - a pair of saucony and a pair of Mizuno, which I prefer, for when the others get wet - and quite recent so I don't think it's that - maybe my music isn't fast enough Does anyone know any good sites for downloading running playlists, so I don't have to stay online while I'm running, albeit very slowly.

Have a new date for my first Sprint: 19/09, so theoretically I have enough time to train up, tho I suspect I will look back on this post and laugh in August.

Originally posted by chapfallen



I'm going to advise caution in trying to run faster. It may sound strange, but my running got faster when I stopped trying to force it. I started doing my long runs to the Maffetone method, which involves running to heart rate. When I first started doing it I had to slow my pace by nearly 2min/mile to keep my HR down low enough. However, after sticking with it consistently I gradually found that I was running faster at the same HR, and over about 18months I took 20 minutes off my half marathon time. I find that by using a method that controls the paces you are running at there is more benefit than just trying to run faster. On the track we use the Jack Daniels method, where you do a time trial and then calculate the paces from there. I have used the training paces and also the race paces for the last couple of years and really see the benefit of doing it. But it means that the only time I ever run "all out" is in the time trial (which is 2 miles).

Of course you need to bare in mind that I'm not a great runner, so others may have better advice.