Jackjack's group - closed (Page 14)

So my bike workout was cut extremely short this morning- I got a flat about 4 minutes out on the trail. Luckily I was still close to home, so I walked back and changed the tire- all on my own! If you don't know how to do this- I strongly recommend learning how. I learned at a women's bike maintenance clinic at a local bike shop. Many local bike shops offer these clinics at no to little cost, and at the one I went to they even had a raffle and I won a bike seat!
I'm a little bummed since I don't have time to get a workout in now, we have a road rally tonight- it's like a scavenger hunt race that my co-worker's parents host every other year- and the last one we won, so we need to defend our title! It's a ton of fun, and they have food and prizes at the last stop.
Hope everyone else has a great workout- at least to make up for mine!
Jenny

Hmm, pre race warm up.  Not a lot for me physically, more like moving around to get myself calm and right mentally.  For a run I will jog for a few minutes with a few pick ups.  For a tri I will make sure I get in the water to warm up first, but really for temperature acclimatisation -cos by the time my wave goes off I am usually cold again!  I'll also jog around with a few pickups but again as I said I think that is mental more than anything, particularly at a tri.

Jenny, sorry to hear about your flat tire. Bummer!  I agree, everyone should know how to change one.  I got so scared about having a flat tire when I was going out for longer training rides that I actually scheduled into my workout week "practice changing a tire" so I did it and became comfortable with it.  The scavenger hunt sounds like a lot of fun. Good luck defending your title

Oh another tip I was told to minimise chances of flat tires are to keep your tires up to pressure.  I check mine before every ride now.

Have a good weekend everyone.  One more week and then some of us are racing again

Jackie

Sorry - pick ups?

Jenny- How was the scavneger hunt? It sounds like fun!

Race decision- I signed up for a 5k on 6/20. It's in a nearby town, and the map of the race course was posted. So, I'm going to run the course at least once prior to race day. It's also for a really great cause- all proceeds go to the family of a 3 year old girl who is fighting leukemia.

I went swimmming this AM for the first time in over a week. I think I almost left a lung in the pool, with all the coughing I was doing.  It was the toughest 1000 yards I've done in forever!

Every one enjuoy the rest of the day.

-Heidi

Sorry .  Like strides really if you have heard of those but I like to consider pick ups more informal.  Basically  a few repeats of around 20secs (give or take) of a noticeably faster pace than you are doing.  Wakes up the fast twitch muscles and gets the blood moving (so I like to think!)

Morning everyone
How were your weekends?

According to my plan it is day off for me today.  It is taper week for the Sprint on Sunday.
Dee, I think you are racing this weekend too aren't you? (got a feeling it is Fri or sat).  - anyone else? 

This will be the first of the season for me.  It is an A race for me because it is my local towns race and people know me (I'll probably be racing their kids and wives and husbands!!!) but it is pretty low key.  There is a bigger race about an hour away that clashes with it this year and I think most of the "hardcore" local triathletes will be down at that one.
It is nice to race so locally (literally 10min drive) and be home by lunchtime to spend rest of day with family.

So, this week with training reduced I am planning to spend a lot of time in the garden pulling weeds and trying to tame it generally.

Good morning ladies. All last week I was traipsing around MA looking for an apartment, and this past Saturday I finally signed for one. Now I just have to move in, which will be a workout in itself seeing as it is a 3rd floor walk up.

I have been continuing to swim at 6 am w/ my new masters team. I love it! My coach is also helping to improve my stroke technique, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

In regards to pre race regimen. I make sure I eat really early and then bring snacks w/ me to the race. Once there I like to walk/jog around, generally from transition down to water and such in order to scope things out. Other than that I just stretch and try to stay calm.

How did you guys find which nutrition worked best for you in regards to gels and drinks? Did you just keep trying a bunch of different ones until you found one you liked? Are there any variety packs that let you try a bunch to help you figure it out? Also how often should you use them? Or for what length workouts? when do you know you need one?

So i failed at my goal of biking last week I'm planning to at least two times this week, but will be traveling again from Thursday until Tuesday again.

I seem to get focused on one sport and love it and really make sure I do that one religiously but sometimes, like right now, the others fall to the way side. Any thoughts on how to stay motivated w/ all three sports all the time?

have a wonderful day!
-rachel

Rachel

Good luck with your moving in!  Will you have to carry your bike up and down to the 3rd floor?

For the biking - get yourself a goal.  Enter a tri and then you know you'll have to get out on your bike. On a more practical level, schedule it in.  Put a couple of bike workouts on your calendar.  Find some kind of reward for yourself for doing them.  I know how you feel though - swimming usually goes the wayside for me - but that is cos it is a strength (distance wise any way)

For nutrition, I started off with Gatorade.  And that was because it was the most widely available thing here so was easy to buy, try flavors etc.  Then, when I started Ironman training our local grocery store stocked Gatorade
endurance formula so it was perfect for me. 
I only introduced myself to gels and bars when I started training for the ironman and nutrition was part of that training.  I started off with the free samples that I had got in tri goodie bags and then just picked up the odd different flavor at tri shop to try out.  Ultimately it was chocolate that did it for me.  Yep my favourite is chocolate gu - tastes just like chocolate pudding. Yum!  (actually the ultimate for me is mint chocolate which is only a seasonal flavour) I did swap to Powergel a few months before the Ironman BECAUSE that was what was what was provided on the course and I wanted to get used to it so i didn't have to carry loads of nutrition with me.  I still prefer, gu though.

You really should only need nutrition for workouts of over an hour or so.  If I have one of those scheduled I will either take sports drink and/or  gels with me. For running over an hour I will take a gel at 40mins and then every 30mins thereafter. This is really personal though.  I know some people who take them every 20mins.  I know I keep stressing it but you have to take plenty of water with gels so plan for that as well.  Some people say they feel a distinctive energy burst after 5-10mins from taking one.

Hopefully you will never get to the stage where you bonk but I remember vividly one long bike ride where I just began to feel so shaky and awful I just didn't want to pedal anymore. I had run out of carbohydrates (with hindsight) so I scoffed down what I had left and felt much better within 5-10mins.

Hope all this helps.  They do say you can actually do an Ironman on sports drink alone (personally I'd think you'd just slosh around on that) but it does go to show that it is not necessary to have solids (or semisolids) if you don't want to delve into the world of sports gels.

Jackie

The weather is mild today and my son wanted an outside run so after a quick swim at the gym we headed home for a run around the neighborhood.  I was disappointed with my pace whenever I looked at my watch, but I guess pushing 30 pounds of kid plus weight of stroller WILL be slower than the treadmill at the gym.  I did also walk about 2 tenths of the distance which lowered the overall pace too.  We'll see if my body notices a difference from the outdoor running.

I have Muddy Buddy this Sunday - right now the temperatures are predicted to be 74 for the high for the day.  Last year it was well above 74 at race start... I'm hopeful the weather will stay cool.  They ran out of water for the last racers last year and I think I'm in the 2nd to last wave this year.  Running out of water is just awful - especially for those stragglers who really need it!

As for "race warmup" last year I did nothing - besides dunking in the lake to get the shock of the chill over with before the starting bell.  That said, I have noticed that my swimming often gets smoother/easier after a warmup... but I'm not sure how to warmup for the lake swim without becoming a icicle waiting for my wave to go.

-Cynthia

If Muddy Buddy is anything like last year, I'll get a goody bag full of "nutrition."  last year I listed it in Classified under "pay it forward" and after a newbie sent me postage, i send him a sampler pack from my goodie bag.  Seems like most of the 5Ks around here also are littered with "nutrition" samples.  If I get a slew next weekend, want 'em?  maybe ask for samples on classifieds?  Others might have leftovers of "rejected" flavors/brands that they'd be happy to get out of a drawer and send to a someone who will use them.



Funny, for me, tri is the perfect "sport" because way back when I was "just" a runner, I'd get bored of running the same routes and the repetition would suck my mental energy.  Doing tri's allows me to train differently daily and keep the enthusiasm going.  No time to get bored of anything.  So my motivation *IS* the variety, nothing quite sucks me in.  Also, I follow a plan, so "have" to switch - are you following a plan that appeals to you and builds towards a goal?  I attempted to train for a 10K in the fall and using a plan helped keep me focussed on "just running" (until I got injured and sick and family challenges sucked me away).

-Cynthia

So today was NOT a good workout- I went to an open water swim at a local inland lake, and it did not go well AT ALL. I feel so comfortable swimming in the pool, but once I got into the open water, it was like I never swam before in my life. I managed to make it around the buoys once, so about 400yds, but it was definetely a struggle. I did backstroke for most of it. I started off good, but I couldn't get into my normal rhythm and then my heart rate went through the roof, and I couldn't breathe while swimming. It really really frustrated me. Any advice? I plan on going back and each time I want to swim one more lap than the last time, but I want to get past this mental block or whatever it is.

The road rally this weekend was a blast- we ended up taking third, but in our defense we had a 5th team member (my co-worker's wife is expecting). We had a great time and we took 3rd to another co-worker by only 20 seconds! So it was definetely a close one.

Tomorrow is a run day, and hopefully a night soccer game. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so the game might be cancelled, and if it is I might try to sneak in a bike ride.

On the nutrition- I tried different things in training until I found one that worked for me. The gel I use works great, it keeps me going and doesn't upset my stomach.

Jenny

Cynthia - that is a great idea about "nutrition swaps"

Jenny, glad you had a blast at the weekend.
Open water swimming.  First of all I'd say before you even try and swim in the lake, just get in and get completely acclimatised to it. The temperature, the movement of the water around you - just float around and get comfortable.  Look under the water so you know what it will look like when you swim.   When you decide you are ready and calm to swim focus on taking long smooth strokes and regular breaths.  You did EXACTLY the right thing by flipping onto your back.  If you feel uncomfortable do that, deep calming breaths, mental positive talk - just float and don't even try and swim if you need to do that to calm yourself. 
Getting in more and more will get you used to it. It is a common reaction even for strong pool swimmers so don't get disheartened.  Each time you go, note how you are making progress.

Jackie

Hi everyone!

So we did it this weekend- I climbed to the top of my first 14er of the year
La Plata Peak 14,336 feet. My friend and I slept in my truck the night before and were hiking at 5:30 am. Beautiful weather for most of the day - 9 hours roundtrip, so you can imagine how sore I am today. Here is the trip report. I hope you enjoy the snowy Colorado pictures.
http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=6037&cpgm=tripmai...

Racing... yes, I have my first triathlon of the season on Friday night. We have been having some pretty nasty weather in the afternoons for the past couple of weeks - rain/hail/lightning/thunder, and the race is a 6:00 pm start time. I am hoping they actually even have the race at this point.
This is the first year they are doing this race and the entrant list looks really small.
My plan for this race is to have fun and make sure all the parts are working together for my A-race in July.

Training.... all I have been doing the last 10 days is climbing 14ers with a few swim workouts thrown in mainly for recovery purposes. So my plan this week is make sure I get one of each done: swim, bike, and run-- and spend some time getting mentally ready for the race.

Nutrition... I think you have to experiment to find what works well for you. The only sports drinks I use right now are Hammer Heed and Hammer Perpetuem. As far as gels, Hammer Gel and Gu are the only ones I can stomach. I found this out when I was running alot a few years ago and needed calories on the run. I don't use anything if I am out less than 1 hour. After that, I will play around with sports drinks and gels up to the 4-5 hour mark. Any longer than 5 hours and I find myself needing real food.

I hope everyone's training goes well this week. I feel like I have slacked off on the triathlon-specific training, although my husband (2x Ironman finisher) keeps telling me that 9 hours of hiking is the equivalent of all the biking and running I would normally be doing.

What is on for this week??
Since it is pouring rain today, my plan is to go for a swim tonight - easy 30 minutes in the pool to stretch everything out with a few 25 yards surges thrown in to get myself moving at a faster pace.

Here is my week at a glance:
Tuesday- swim 30 minutes
Wednesday- short brick: bike 45 minutes plus 15 minute run
Thursday- rest
Friday- race day ! sprint distance
Saturday- hiking
Sunday- rest

What is on for today?

I flipped some things around on my training plan for the week.
I got out on my mountain bike last night for a one hour ride- recovery / easy pace to get my legs moving after my 14er hike this weekend. I think I did 16 miles or so.
This morning I swam 1050 in the pool, in between helping a friend of mine with her swim stroke. She is new to triathlons and was looking for some input on her swim.
Later today I'm going to head out for a 35 minute run and then relax until my race on Friday.

I'm a bit skeptical about the race happening as of right now due to all the nasty weather we have been a having. I swear it has been raining for 7 days straight and I may have to order my coffee by the bucketful pretty soon I am keeping my fingers crossed as I really want this race to happen!

QOTD: How do you feel at this point in your training? Are you doing enough? Not enough? Too much? Do you like your training plan? Have you added any new races? What are your goals?

It seems like a long time ago that we posted our goals for the season.
Let's really try to motivate each other every day to get our workouts done.
Post your goals and races. I think we could be pretty specific about our goals at this point in the season, so let's do it!
I think it is good to revisit your goals at least once a month so you can make any adjustments to your training.

For me:

- I did the first 4 weeks of this beginner Half Ironman program (after a 16-week base building period in the "winter"). I was feeling like I was not getting my bu#% kicked hard enough on the workouts so I started searching for a harder training plan. I finally found one yesterday on the TriFuel website for Intermediate HIM. The layout of the program is easy to follow and the hours/workouts are more in line with what I want at this point.

- New races: I added a sprint triathlon in September.

My races for the year:
this Friday: sprint triathlon (880 swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run) .
my goals: have fun, relax in the water (first time in OW this season), get my bike speed up to 18 mph average and pull in that 3 mile run at a 9:30 pace.

July 12th: Boulder Peak olympic (1500 swim, 28 mile bike, 10k run).
my goals: beat my time from last year (would like my swim to be between 30 and 35 minutes; bike speed 18+ average on the flats/dowhills and do that 6 mile hill with a 15 mph avg; run pace 10 minute mile) . I have to acclimate to the heat for this run.

September 19: Crescent Moon sprint (800 swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run).
my goals: beat my time from last year - try to get my bike speed near that 20 mph average and run at a sub 9:00 minute mile

September 26: 8 hours triathlon solo (course: .24 mile swim, 11.2 mile bike. 2.62 mile run).. bag as many complete triathlons as you can in 8 hours. Goal: Half Ironman distance or more

Other goals:
Lots of hiking and camping with my family - we love to camp!!!
Take my older son up a 14er with me this summer.
Find more yummy vegetarian dishes to make (my hubby frowns at this idea, but the kids and I like it)

Have a wonderful day!
Dee

A morning...  I had a good swim but then discovered I forgot my socks for running. fine, I'll bike.  Then my MP3 player will not play.  It needed a new battery yesterday so the new batt might be a dead one too... but I also dropped it on the treadie so maybe I killed it.  argh.  And then I realized I needed to go to the bank for a cashier's check so... I biked for only 15 mins and hope to hop on my new-to-me trainer i found at a garage sale.

I need to think about what workouts to do these next couple days as to go to Muddy Buddy with fresh legs.  At the same time I (mistakenly) stepped on the scale this AM and want to trim some pounds.  And May was such a shabby workout month with travel and illness.  ARGH!

OK, glass half full:
I have a RACE this weekend!  with my friend!  we'll have fun!
I found us great matching RED tech tank tops to wear. 
I have a bike trainer I scored for $30.  I get to play with it!
I have a summer vacation week planned for end June/start July (the reason for bank trip).  It does not interfere with races!
I have a new recipe to try for dinner tonight.

That's better!  Focus on the positives!

-Cynthia

Cynthia- Congrats on scoring the bike trainer! I picked one up from CL last fall and it kept me going this past winter.

Also, great suggestion about looking at goals and races. I've been struggling with this for a little while. I've been planning to do an OLY in the beginning of August. Unfortunately, my training volume is not where it out to be for this. So I've been re-evaluating.

I looked at some of the sprint distance training plans and I seem to be more in line with those. So, it makes sense to plan for a Sprint distance. That's also probably wise, since I haven't completed an official SPrint anyway. And, I don't have a road bike yet, so the sprint distance ride is more practical from the bike perspective.

With all that being said, there is a local sprint tri in August that I'm looking at doing. There are some pretty serious hills on the bike course, so I'll have to get there and practice them.

I also signed up for a 5k on June 20.

That's all I have for now.

Morning everyone

Cynthia -good luck with that race this weekend.  That's the way to go - think positive!

Dee - hope you are taking it easy today. Good luck for tomorrow

I am looking forward to my first tri of the year - this Sunday.  It is one of my favourites.  It is a sprint.  I have been battling with myself these last few months about what to do this year.  Since becoming more "serious" or consistent with my training a few years ago I have always had targets of longer than sprint distance.  But I do lose a bit of motivation over the summer when I find it hard to get out and train with the kids home all day.   Plus being from UK means we have visitors over the summer who stay for weeks rather than days and it is sometimes (most of the time!) hard to get out and train  when they have no comprehension why I am doing this (quote from mother in law a couple of weeks ago "you're getting older now so you can't keep doing these"!  My reply of course was that I could and there were much older people than me competing (like the 50 something year old who came 2nd female in the oly distance finger lakes tri last year near here!)).  I think I will just have to get up early in the morning and train before hubby leaves for work - when he is in town anyway - he travels a fair bit which also complicates things. OK think positive!
Anyway I am doing this sprint and another sprint in September.  There is a duathlon that I want to do in October.  The gap is the summer.  My inlaws arrive for 3 weeks mid June so I don't want to plan anything then.  The beauty of sprints is that if I just get out and do something I can always complete a sprint happily without worrying about volume of training.  So that's what I'll probably do.  We have a few around here in July and August.  They're fun too!  I hope they're not all on Sundays because I am running a "beginner triathlete training course" on Sunday mornings from end June to mid September (target a sept race).

OK I have a run and a swim scheduled for today. Then tomorrow off, some short sessions on Saturday and then race day

have a good day everyone.

Jackie

Edited by jackjack 2009-06-04 6:12 AM

I need help with how to train for this:

Here is the link to the race site. About half way down is the graph for elevation of the bike and run portions. I tried to copy and paste it to here, but it wouldn't work.

I am completely inexperienced with reading these types of graphs for biking purposes. So, my questions are: How bad are these hills in reference to most tri's? How do I train for these hills? I can ride the course a couple of times before the race, but how do I train the rest of the week.

Keep in mind, I do not have a road bike. I have a "Flat Bar Street Performance" It's fairly heavy, and I think that will make the hills harder for me than they are for most people. (Or am I fooling myself on that?)

Thanks ladies.

Heidi

Hi Heidi,
I don't see a link for the race.
What is the name of the event? I will google it and take a look.

As far as getting ready to ride hills, I think that the saying "to ride strong on hills you have to train on hills" holds true. However, not every workout needs to be done on a hilly course. If you go out once a week and ride the course, that is the best way to be prepared for the race. You will know exactly where the big hills are, where you can push a faster pace, and where to recover.

If you are riding 3x a week, you could do this:
1. Ride the course one day
2. Do a longer endurance ride one day (is this a sprint or olympic?)
3. ?
Jackie, what do you think for the 3rd ride? Most plans have a long easy endurance ride, a ride with some rolling hills, and a faster ride day.

Another thing that can make a big difference on your bike endurance is weight training.
Something to think about....

Dee

Sorry- I spazzed out with the link. Here it is:  http://www.cdtriclub.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=0af670dd3a3b80c55103710240252349;www

Thanks for the suggestions you've already given me.

I ran an hour today

OK, I walked a couple times for a smidge, but mostly ran the thing.  Give me some kudos!

tomorrow a swim and Saturday a rest before muddy buddy. 

Sunday...sweat and dust and mud.  I'll tell you about it later!

Heidi,
I'm not sure which race you are talking about. Is it the Crystal lake one?  If so, that looks like quite a hilly course.  But that's nothing to be frightened of - if you train properly for it then you will probably be at an advantage to many others

Dee gave good advice.  You need to ride hills or simulate them on the trainer.  This is where you will develop your leg strength.
So, with a 3 a week I would echo Dee
1. Endurance ride - get out there, keep it relatively easy and work up to (my personal suggestion) 1.5x the distance of the course (or the time you think it will take you).  If you get there easily enough feel free to go further. All endurance time in saddle is good.  If it's a sprint maybe more to the 2x
2.  Hills.  You need to hit those hills.  Riding the course would be ideal.  If not close enough find a hilly (rolling is OK it doesn't need to be exactly the same) route or a route with a significant couple of bigger hills (you can vary each week) and ride it.  Once you are used to it then you can think more about focusing and pushing yourself a little bit harder on the uphills, using the downhills and flats as recovery.  Try and do as much as you can seated (develops hip strength) and don't drop your cadence too low (asks for injury).  You  can simulate this on indoor trainer by doing intervals of a lower harder gear that  you can pedal at a lower cadence (60-70 is ideal).  Start with repetitions of  a few minutes and work up to 10-20 mins at a time.  Be careful here - no knee injuries allowed!
3.  For your third ride I'd probably suggest just getting out there and riding.  All time in the saddle with the pedals going round is good for the bike.  As you get fitter then maybe add some speed/ efficiency work.    You can do this by intervals (start short) where you either (a) increase cadence for a time (b) increase heart rate/effort for a time (c) sprint for 20-30seconds with plenty recovery between.   You can change it each week and if you feel tired then this can become an easy recovery ride - the important thing is getting out there.

But I think the 2 key things are (1) get out there and ride (2) make sure you are riding some hills at least once a week.

Make sense?  I don't want to make it sound too scary cos this is supposed to be fun!  Come do our Finger Lakes Tri in Canandaigua in September

Lots of kudos to you Cynthia!

Jackie-That was great advise! Thanks- clear and a great explenation of what to do and why! I feel like I can move forward now. Much of this bike route is the road I take to get to my parents house. Their road actually intersects near the turn around. It is quite hilly, but I didn't know if that's just my perspective, or if it's the reality.

It is the Crystal Lake Tri that I'm looking at. I do have comperable hills near my hose to practice on too! So, I'll get to work.

Cynthia- great job on the hour long run!