Jim Kelley's (Birkierunner) General and Long Course Group (OPEN) (Page 14)

Here is a good example why I would never...ever...ever recommend shoes pre-attached to pedals and flying mount to beginner triathletes.  Its not only dangerous for you, but you may take out a competitor as well.   Disclaimer - do not pay attention to the flying dismount photo in my avatar

Correct, no shoes in pedals for Ironman.  You must have your shoes in your T1 bag prior to the start of the race.  You will drop off your transition bags on Saturday and can put them in the bag then (recommended - prevents forgetting them), or during the short window of time on race morning when you can access your transition bags for any last minute items.

Wow...I didn't even know there was such thing as a flying mount or that you could put on bike shoes that were already in the pedals while on the move.  

The only Triathlon I have ever done was 7 years ago.  I never got in the pool once to train leading up to that event (or for several year previous for that matter).  I think that I took a few bike rides (5-8 miles) about 3 months out, but then decided to train with pure running.  

I opted to change out the pedals on the loaner bike that I borrowed for the race from the clip in type pedals (I didn't even have bike shoes and wasn't about to try them for the first time in a race) to standard pedals.  I figured that using the same shoes to cycle and run would save me 30 seconds in the transition zones.  I wondered why everyone else was getting out of the T1 in under a minute and I was over 2 minutes.  I have a lot to learn.  :-)

As far as race day questions go...I don't know enough about Triathlons to have formed many questions yet.  I guess any type of over view on how the logistics of a 70.3 Triathlon are different from running a Marathon would be helpful to me as well as an over view of how the 90 minutes before the race are typically spent (warm-ups, gear checks, fueling, potty breaks, mental preparations, etc)?  Also, how are aid station run.  Do volunteers hold paper cups out and say "water", "sport drink",  for people as they zip through at 20 mph on their bike? :-)  

Steve, glad you didn't run into any of those young great white sharks you mentioned to me.  Are you going with sleeveless purely from a comfort standpoint?  A full suit is always going to be faster in the water, especially for those of us that are swim-challenged.

That's interesting... I didn't know sleeved-suits are faster. How much of a difference are we talking for a 1:10 IM swimmer?

Steve, I have the cheapest Xterra sleeveless, and I've never swam in anything else, so I can't compare, but it's comfortable, and I've had it since 2010 and never had any issues. 

Steve, everything I have read says sleeved is faster.  One of our local elite  tri athletes that was on the Canadian National Swim Team (he had a 48 minute swim split at IM WI and qualified for Kona) put together this article comparing sleeved and sleeveless wetsuits.   Not as scientific as some others might demand, but it does have some interesting information.  I don't know anything about 2 piece suits so can't really provide any advice there.  I heart my Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit.

Happy Saturday!

I"m back from another trip- this was a meeting in Park City.  I actually worked out all three days I was there- that might be a record .  Just the hotel gym- 2 runs (1 hills, 1 intervals) and a 30 min spin bike (I was very happy they had a regular bike rather than a recumbent).  

Bike and weights today; long run (7 miles) tomorrow.

I have a question for the group about running- when you all are running, do you keep your core engaged the whole time?  I'm trying to work on this- I think my core is pretty lazy when I run, and I think it's contributing to my glute/ham injury.  

Thanks!  That is really a big help!!!

When I am running I focus on two things 1) Staying relaxed 2) Form.

I am still learning the forum lingo but assume that by "keeping your core engaged" you mean that your stomach is flexed or tight.  This is the opposite of what I would want to do.  Any muscles that you are using that you don't need to use is making you a less efficient runner.  You want your frame to support you when running not muscles.   If you keep your head up, you back upright, and your shoulders back you should find your sweet spot to where you are balanced and your core can relax.   If your head is down, your shoulder are rolled forward, and you are leaning over then that is usually a sign of fatigue.  A strong core can keep you going for a while but you will continue to ware out if you can't get back into good form. 

So...what is good form?  If you don't know, do some speed work and see what your body does.  You can't sprint with your body bent forward, with your hands down to your knees, or shoulders huddled in, etc.  As you progress from a jog to a sprint you will probably see your arms come up and your frame straighten out.  If you work on keeping you upper body closer to what it does in a sprint then you should be on the right track for running efficiently at longer distances.  

Again...stay relaxed.  Let the shoulders stay loose, let you face muscles stay loose (one coach even suggested that we let our tongue hanging out and lap like a dog), keep your hands and fore arms loose, etc.    

Hi Andre. That's awesome that you did your own half-iron!

momandmd (sorry I don't remember your name; I'm going to put mine in my signature to try to help with this) -- I don't know exactly what you mean by keeping your core engaged, but I am just about always thinking about my form. For running, I think of one string pulling me up from my crown and another pulling me forward from my pelvis. I suppose that engages my core. There was recently a short Endurance Nation podcast on running form, might be worth listening to on a run sometime.

Originally posted by Andrep Hi there, hopefully will fit one more, would be happy to join NAME: Andre AGE: 25 STORY: For starters, like to mention I´m from Estonia, which is a small country in Europe, just below Finland, found out about triathlons when I was in the army ( it´s mandatory here ! ) and we went to help out on a race as volunteers, giving out drinks or holding the traffic where needed. It seemed like such a challenge, so made a bet with friend that when the service is over, I´ll buy a bike and compete in one of those ! So started running again, cause that was the only option we had available and in may 2011 it was over and from the money I had put aside, bought a bike, hadn´t owned one for close to 8 years. My first race was an Olympic distance that I finished in 2:38:59 and I was hooked !!! After that I got a proper racing suit and did some sprints as well, and the next year did a HIM on my own with the help of my father, because we only get one change in a year to have a go at that distance and I was working ! But it was awesome, all by myself one a made up race course near my hometown and managed a 5h40min finish. Last year didn´t do any tris because of work and thought I´d travel while I´m still young and came to Australia for a year. Flew in to Cairns with a plan to work on a mango farm but didn´t get the job, because the farmer made just empty promises and places were already filled out. Started looking jobs in the city and found one just before christmas ( had been here for 3 weeks by that time ) and soon after that discovered the Cairns Ironman and it just clicked. When else then not now, still had 22 weeks till the race, so it looked promising FAMILY STATUS: Single CURRENT TRAINING: Still have 16 weeks till the A race, so full speed ahead, mostly going by a plan by the former New Zealand international triathlete John Newsom, that changeses a bit after every four weeks. 2015 RACES: Planning to find an olympic distance race near here somewhere in april. Ironman Cairns in june 14th Trismile triathlon in the beginning of august ( back in Estonia ) 1/100/10 km race SEB marathon ( EST ) in september WEIGHTLOSS: In this heat and humidity it´s actually hard to keep anything on, so trying to eat enough to stay around 70kg. WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: I´ll definetly have questions on the way and would really like some feedback from others, because I´m not only in a new city but on a big island where I´ve never set foot before, so really don´t know any athletes and pretty sure, it´s going to be a windy road, both mentaly and physically.

Welcome to the group Andre!!

Originally posted by marathongirl21 Jim, How did you injure your shoulder? Is your doc a sports medicine specialist? Not sure where you're located but I would definitely try to get the advice of a sports medicine doc about if doing your race is realistic or will it cause more long term damage? If you have surgery in March and race in june do you have 3 months? You may be recovered to do your race but not able to train much for the swim portion especially the first 6 wks post surgery sounds like? Can you transfer to a later IM with the insurance? I think Boulder is still open? ) Its not until August!

Originally posted by Birkierunner

Well, I went through the MRI process for my shoulder last Wed and went to the doctor on Friday to go over the results.  He barely even had the door closed and hadn't even sat down yet before blurting out "yeah, you've got a complete tear of the labrum".  The labrum is essentially fibrous tissue around the ball and socket joint of the shoulder.  I asked whether rehab alone would suffice and he wasn't very encouraging on that strategy and he recommended surgery.  Nice.  Due to my schedule and schedules of a couple surgeons I can't even get a consultation until March 2 so I'm guessing surgery will be in mid-March.  I've got a 50km x-c ski marathon in 2 weeks that I am definitely not going to miss (this will be my 18th year of doing that race) so I will see how I do with one good arm.  Its gonna be tough but I simply am not going to NOT do it.  This puts racing IM Couer d'Alene in June in jeopardy and I will have to wait and see.  I purchased the cancellation insurance (first time doing that ironically) so I assume that surgery would be a valid excuse to ask for the refund.  Luckily I can still run and ride the computrainer so its not a total loss but swimming is out for a while.  Recovery is supposed to be 6 weeks post-surgery and full recovery in 3-4 months.

There was no one traumatic event that caused the tear..it appears to be just overuse due to a lot of swimming and changing my stroke this winter I imagine.  The doctor is a sports medicine specialist so I trust him.  I don't think there's any way my swim will be competitive for a June Ironman.  That puts even more pressure on the bike and run to try to qualify for Kona.  I've already told my wife I want to transfer to IM Mont-Tremblant but it may take some more "negotiations" with the family schedule