jsiegs and slornow's Train Hard and Have Fun group - CLOSED for Training (Page 14)

Snacking:  I find that I need to have a plan otherwise when I get that hungry I make really bad choices and overeat.  I keep some healthier options prepared and ready to grab (most days).

Swimming:  My husband got me a waterproof MP3 player a few months ago.  Love it!!!

I wrote on my twitter feed this morning (no joke): "Poor planning for the week = poor spending and nutrition. Lesson learned."

You are soooo right!

Thanks for all the snack ideas.  I just need to do a better job at planning ahead. 

My swim last night was 6x500.  It's what my plan said to do.  Tomorrow is 12x100.  A little better.  I don't mind the long swims, but yesterday was just not my day.  I have a waterproof ipod case, so I had music.  I would have quit if it wasn't for that.

I haven't done any training today.  I did a ton of yard work and chased my son around Home Depot.  That has to count as something.  On a totally non-tri related note.....I bought my son his first bike!!  I'm so excited.  (I'll post a picture later )

Christy 

Good morning!

I have a 2 hour run today and a lot of yard work.  Unfortunately my run has to be on the treadmill.  I have a babysitter tomorrow, so I can go for a ride outside.  I'm really excited about that.  

My son LOVES his bike.  He woke up this morning screaming "bike". (He doesn't talk much).  I'm going to try to teach him how to pedal today.  My back is killing me from bending over and pushing him. 

Christy

Give him a few years and you'll have a riding buddy!

Good luck with the two hours on the treadmill.  For some reason I can't do treadmill like I can do bike trainer workouts.

Hey all,

I'll be out for a few days in Indiana for work.  I'll just be on my phone so not much access to BT for a little bit.  I expect great things will happen while I'm gone though!

Still rainy here in Rowlett. Have a graduation party Sat. and tri Sunday. Hope the weather gets better! My younger son is graduating from SMU Law School and passed his bar in Feb. Yea!

My body is SOOOOOO sore. I think I may be overdoing it, but looking at my workouts, shouldn't be the case. I have a strength training session (arms) this morning and then swim. I'm still struggling with my form/technique and 2B kicks. Since I am training myself to swim, I don't know if I am doing this stuff correctly.

Will take a break Friday and Sat. and hope to be ok for tri.

Christy-so much fun teaching your son to ride his bike! I remember the days and get to experience them again with my grandbabies.

Joe-have a safe trip.

Nick-Good luck on your HIM! Wow!

Funny you said this.  I couldn't make myself do it.  I found out that my favorite spin instructor was teaching this morning.  I did a spin class and a short run.  I'll try the 2 hour run later in the week. 

slornow - 2011-05-11 10:36 AM I'll throw out a topic/question for the group:

What is your long range goal in triathlon?

For some it may be early as they are just completing their first few races.  Others may have longstanding goals that may take years to achieve.  It could be that single "bucket list" goal or several milestones you hope to hit.

Some examples might be: losing ? pounds; qualifying for Kona; finishing an IM or specific distance race; achieving a specific time in a local race.........................I'm sure we each have little and big goals we dream of and hope to meet.

I'll have to think on this...maybe during my swim today.

Any takers????

Randy

Off the top of my head, I'd say to finish an IM distance race.  This has been a goal of mine for many years.  I NEVER thought it was possible.  As I've been training for a HIM, I feel like it might be possible.  I think it will be a couple years away.  Once my kids are in school, I might have more time to train . 

I'd also like to finish the Columbia Triathlon in under 3 hours.  This is the race I'm doing in 2 weeks.  Last year I finished in 3:22.  As much as I'd like to think I could reach my goal this year, I don't think it's going to happen. 

I'm looking foward to seeing everyones goals.  Great question.

Do you want the whole list, or the short list!!

Goal #1 accomplished - finish a Triathlon!

I have 13 weeks until my next Tri - so in that time I hope to accomplish the following:

I would like to lose 10-15 lbs - that is my absolute goal weight, anything more than that people think I look sick. So 175 it is - I'm 5'11... I'm not going for the anorexic model look!

If the pounds don't come off, I definitely want to tone. I have no idea what my true body fat percentage is, but I know it needs to come down. I still have some baby weight to lose.

I want to improve my running... BIG TIME! I don't know what it is about running, but it just does not work for me!! I may never run a 10 min mile, but I want to RUN a 5K without stopping to walk. I mean really... is it that hard?!?! I have tried the C25K program three times, and I find it boring so I give up and just do my own thing. so if you have any suggestions on how to improve... tell me, please!

I would like to do an Oly one day. I do plan on getting pregnant again at the end of this year, so only time will tell what happens with my new found love of Triathlons! Hopefully I can keep it up and get to an Oly... one day.

Short term goal: I would like to finish the next tri under 1:30. I may smash that, I really have no idea what my pace will be... but today, that is my goal

I'm sure I'll have more to add later!

And, who doesn't want to go to Kona?! They need volunteers... right?!

I don't really have a true long-term tri goal, oddly enough. My tri life is sort of one-day-at-a-time approach. 

As a runner, I would like to run a marathon one day, I know that. Triathlons have just sort of come up as a way to keep my fitness during running injuries (which are all too often in my life). A sprint tri seemed really far at first, but after finishing 2 of them I just thought, meh, why not step it up? And that's what I'm doing. Ironman and Half Ironman seem words away; heck, I can't even get through a half-marathon. But who knows, maybe my body will be ready to take on that challenge one day. It will let me know when I can step up. I don't yet have a glimmer of desire in my soul to do a HIM yet. I'm not itching to do it in the same way I am a marathon.

Oddly, maybe that's why I enjoy triathlons so much - it's nice NOT to have long-term goals and to just do them because I enjoy them. 

My main short-term goal for the Olympic Tri in July is just to finish, even if I come in last place. Based on that performance I'll see whether I want to do attempt the distance again, step it up, or whether I should just stick to sprints.

Pops head out of cave: http://www.usatriathlon.org/member-services/rankings

Retreats back into cave.

Am struggling with a popliteal injury plus just sprained my ankle on a trail race so am staying away from things that tempt me into working out.

Spin class tonite....supporting my trainer who is new to classes.

Ok. Goals. Hmmmm. I would LOVE to run a 9:30 5k in ANY Tri.

Would LOVE to swim anything faster than 9 min. on the 300 m. tris.

Want to enter a couple of Tris that are longer than the 300 meter swim then on to the Oly!

Continue to be healthy and motivated enough to keep traveling this road....just rolled over to the 55-59 age group so lots of room to improve.

Goals

Short Term
1. Finish HIM in October
2. Be consistent in my training. (swim 2x, bike 3x, run 3x per week) This would mean getting up early and training.
3. Sub 18 min 5K
4. Sub 42 min 10K

Long Term
1. Complete IM distance race
2. Compile enough times to apply for and make the Air Force Triathlon Team

Dreams
1. Kona Qualify in my AG

I am still new and havn't completed many races. So I am sure over the next few years these will be adjusted and I will get a better idea of times that I would like to achieve. A question I have is

In las vegas the bike leg tends to be hilly and windy which effects your time. How do you translate that time to times on courses that are flat? I am trying to get an idea of how much I need to improve to get to certain goals. 

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay in my post-race report. I wanted to be able to dedicate a little bit of time to put some thought into this post, more-so than the average post.

I am putting alot of this same information in a race log, so sorry if the information is the same.

Event: Beaches Fine Arts Sprint Triathlon (Event #1) Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Pre-Event: After a (seemingly) short nights sleep, my alarm rang at 4:00 am, I went downstairs grabbed my coffee and my smoothie (that I made the night before). I was remarkably calm/focused, and started to get "in the zone" by listening to music. After I got dressed, and put some warm-up clothes on (it was somewhat chilly in the AM) I was out the door. The drive was the longest 12 mile drive I have ever experienced. Upon arrival, I was surprised by how many people were already there. I had to park across the street, and walk over with all my stuff. After waiting in line to get body-marked, and chipped I walked over to the transition area. Upon arrival I found my worst nightmare, 7 bikes needing to go on a very small area. Many of the guys on the rack had spaced their bikes, not being very respectful of the rest (me and another guy) who had to put their bikes on the rack. After some moving the bikes around, I got my bike in and started to set transition up. Unfortunately, the guy who was right next to me, decided to put his towel behind his bike (it was a a two sided bike rack) which to me made no sense, he would have to walk around the rack or go under the rack to get his bike out. Regardless, I claimed my rightful area next to my bike. Next time I will be there immediately when the transition area opens at 5:30am (I arrived to transition around 6:15). Sorry for the rant...

Swim (1/4 mi.): The swim was in the Atlantic ocean, and was a beach start. The water was slow to warm up, and in years past the first race (May) has been wetsuit legal sometimes, and other times it has not. This year, it was wetsuit legal and unfortunately the tri wetsuit I had ordered was back ordered. I wore a high-end surfing wetsuit (very flexible material, but not the same anatomical design). I was plenty warm, and was glad I decided to wear it, it was somewhat cool.

The race had 5 waves: 1) under 39, 2) over 40, 3) Women, 4) Athena, Clydesdale, Uniform, Fat-tire, and team, 5) Novice (first-timer).

Standing on the beach after I did a slight warm up (not near enough, I was rather rushed I felt), and swam in the water rather quickly.

Fast forward to race start, I looked at the guys in my wave. Wow...I was not expecting the level of competition from these guys (I started to notice then when looking at the insane bike set-ups...DROOL).

I placed myself on the outside of the pack, as I did not want to spend the time weaving in and out of people. The gun goes off and we all start running out to the water. It was rather shallow (less than 2-3 feet), so it was either run with high knees or dive through repetitively. I chose a mixture of the two. I had trouble getting into a decent rhythm for my breathing and stroke, partially due to my nerves, other because it was rather rough (about 2-3 foot waves, and somewhat choppy). The course was a point to point...from the beach to the buoy turn to go along shore, then finally turn in towards shore (perpendicular). As I approached the first buoy I noticed two guys somewhat to the side of me. I made my turn and I got passed by the first guy, and he started to drift in front of me. I stayed on his feet for a little bit (not really on purpose), and next thing I remember is a thump on the back of my head. I had been kicked by the guy right on the back of the head. My ears started to ring, and vision was somewhat blurry. I somewhat panicked for a little, and turned on my back and looked up at the sky trying to control my breathing (and nerves). I finally got calmed down, and turned back to my chest. I tried to get back into my groove, but I could not put my head down in the water as it caused some serious head pain. I swam the rest of the distance with my head out water, and was still passing people.

Swim Stage Time: 13:00, AG Rank 13

T1: After I got out of the water, I started the insane run to T1 (at least 750m) through soft sand and on concrete (ouch!). I peeled off my wetsuit, grabbed my water bottle to rinse off my feet and was off. My shoes were on my pedals already, and got on my bike without a hitch

T1 Time: 3:01 (quickest in AG was 1:57), have something to work on, but was not a slow transition by any means. Partial slow down was due to guy who had his towel behind the rack (read above), but I was somewhat rude and made myself at home and got my bike.

Bike (13.8 miles): I got on the bike, and got my shoes on pretty easily. Glad I practiced this a bunch. The bike course was an out and back with a decent sized bridge (read climb) in the middle of the course. I got probably about 3-4 miles in, and finally started to get my legs underneath me. Then came the bridge. This is where my lack of bridge/hill training killed me, I didn't know what gear to keep it in. I finally got over it, and coasted down (I was going fast...almost too fast...ha). The whole time my bike was shifting somewhat weird, taking a long time to finally get locked into the gear.

I made the turn, and felt pretty good. Made it back over the bridge, and made it back to the transition area, and felt fresh. Not too happy with my bike time, and know I can gain at least 4-5 minutes with the bike time, but now I have a baseline.

Bike Time: 41:04, AG Rank 13

T2: I ran past my bike just a little, but quickly found it, racked my bike, and slipped on my race belt, shoes, and grabbed my hat to put on while running. Time: 1:20

Run (3.1 Mile): I started off with a decent pace. Nothing too fast, but wanted to try and tame my body down a bit and push the last 1-2 miles. I started off with a 8:30 mile for the first mile, and started to pick up towards the end. Nothing really to write about with the time, other than that I can definitely push it harder next time.

Time: 24:56, AG Rank 13

Overall Time: 1:23:19, Overall rank 122/305, AG Rank 14/19

Not too happy, about my time but when looking at the novice division, I would of placed 3rd (out of 45 novices), so I felt a little bit better. A lot of positives from the race. I felt fresh the whole time, I am definitely going to push it the next race.

Nutrition/Water wise: I had two bottles on my bike. 1 with Endurox, and 1 with water. I will only be taking 1 bottle with me next time with a diluted Endurox mix.

Other than that, I am really focusing on my running the next few weeks, as well as my biking. Swim is feeling amazing (aside from getting kicked in the head). Sorry for the long post!

Nick-Sounds like a good race.  I'm sorry you're not happy with it. 

I'm going for a bike ride this morning.  I'm really excited to be able to get outside.  I"m going to do the loop for the race i'm doing next week.  I'd REALLY like to be able do it much faster than I have in the past.  I'm worried to even say a time, because I don't want to be dissapointed.   Last night I looked at my times from a race I did in 2005.  I did my bike at 17.9 mph.  Now, 6 years later, I can't get much above 16 mph.  I have a MUCH nicer bike, I weigh about the same, maybe a little less and I feel like I'm stronger and in better shape.  Why am I so much slower?  It is really getting to me. 

Sorry for the rant.

Christy

Hey all,

Just got done with a nice strength training session. Knocked out 2600m in the pool yesterday, and did a 45 minute run last night. Pretty funny, I didn't feel motivated at all to get out and run last night, but I am glad I did. Felt really good after I finished. Sometimes all you need is a little kick in the rear end. I thought of our discussion on motivation while running, and thought it was kind of ironic. Any-who, looking forward to a long ride tomorrow (hopefully around 60 miles). Haven't been on the bike since Saturday, so I am anxiously looking forward to riding. Have a great day all.

By the way, I didn't mean to sound so displeased with my time. It was my first race, and on only 2-3 months of training I was happy. I just know that I can make significant improvement on all three areas, and I am actually glad the race unfolded as it did. I am extremely motivated to train hard, and improve my time significantly by the end of the series (July 9th).

@Nick: Great race! Congrats on finishing and thank you for sharing your experience. Can't believe you got kicked so hard in the head. At the ladies' races I've done, we get kicked but usually it's only a few seconds of hurt and then back to normal. I will have to keep this in mind for the race I'm doing (with guys) in July!

@Christy: My race bike times are always much faster than my average training times, like multiple minutes. I bet on race day the competitive spirit will put some wind in your sails!

I have a question for the group: my tri swim distance is 1.5K, which I believe is around 1,600 yards (please confirm!). I train in a pool. Right now my longest workouts are sets involving 300 meters (3x300 is the most I've done) (I've only been swim training for about a month). What long distance should I be working up to in month 2? Should I be aiming for 3x600, or double the distance of my first month? 

(ps. before you point it out, I know I'm supposed to do some OWS before the big race but I'm not sure it's going to happen. The only OW near me is lake michigan and it's freezing! I'm less worried mentally about the OWS concept because I grew up swimming in lakes, more concerned about making the distance. Pleased to learn that there will be places to rest along the route.) 

Nicole-I hope you're right!  That's what I was thinking too.  Between the taper and the race day adrenaline, I think I'll be faster.  I did the sprint loop today because I didn't have enough time to do the oly loop.  I averaged 16.2.  I looked at my race splits from last year and my bike on the same course was 15.1.  So...at least i'm getting faster .   When I was almost finished with my ride I started pushing my foot more forward, not straight down.  I felt like i was getting more of a push with each pedal.  Is this how I should be pedaling?  I feel silly even asking.  You'd think I'd know how to ride a bike by now.

Christy