David Gillen's Group - FULL (Page 14)

Your employers tri sounds perfect for you, timing and distance wise!  I bet you'll do well.  

For pretty much any triathlon short of an Ironman, you don't want to waste time changing shorts or any other clothes in transition.  Thus, I'd recommend you get a pair of "tri-shorts".  They have a quick drying chamois that will provide minimal padding on the bike.  You swim, bike, and run in these.  You only need one pair as you'll primarily be using these to race, not train in.  However if all my normal swimming suit or bike shorts are dirty, I sometimes wear my tri shorts for a workout.

First of all, enjoy your success a bit and try to make the post race buzz last as long as possible.  Don't rush into training right after a race.  I know you don't have your kids this week, so you'll be tempted to train a bunch this week.  Don't over do it though.

Secondly, now that your A sprint race is over, you can focus on preparing for your next A event, your century on Sept 2nd.  This will obviously mean prioritizing your weekly long rides.  Try not to miss any of these long rides.  If you need to skip a workout, make it a run or a swim.   As I mentioned in the spreadsheet, I'd shoot for 3-4 rides a week.  1 short (10-15 mi), 1 or 2 medium rides (15-25), and a longer ride of 30+ miles.  These distances will increase slowly each week with the short and medium rides probably never going over 30 miles while your long ride building up to 70-80 miles.

Keep most of these rides at an easy Z2 pace.  If you go harder or faster than this, you risk over-training and injury because your body does not like it when you increase duration and intensity at the same time. 

Obviously, you should continue to swim and run.  What I like to do is to try to fit my long run in mid week (say Wed AM) and this permits me to do 2 rides on the weekend when I have more time.  I'll do my longest ride on Sat. AM, and then do a medium ride on Sun at nice easy pace.  This could work well for you too if you could schedule it.

Does this help at all?   

Dave, glad you're back and I hope you had a good time with your son. 

That's a funny story about your wetsuit.  Obviously, the best way to determine the fit is to give it a try in a lake or even a pool (if you want to look silly!)  I know it's really hot here in North Texas, but you could still do a short 10-20 minute trial swim in it at a lake some morning before it gets in the 90s!

Be sure it's not too tight or too loose in the neck area.  Mine is too tight and it actually rubs my skin raw even with a ton of BodyGlide on.  (I've resorted to a nice big waterproof bandage over my neck, and that actually worked pretty good at Alcatraz)  

Also, you don't want it too tight in the shoulder area as this will restrict your arm movement and tire you out quicker.  Unfortunately, mine is this way also.  I can minimize this effect by being sure to pull the suit up as high as I can; a good idea in general I think.

In case you didn't know, wetsuits are designed to allow a minimal amount of water inside and then your body will heat that water and it will insulate you from the colder water outside the suit.

See you at the Total Triathlon Night at REI on Thursday.  I'll probably be showing off wearing my red Alcatraz visor.

David 

That's awesome that you made the sports page of your newspaper.  You should definitely keep that for posterity sake. 

I'm assuming you meant the "Going Long" book for Ironman training right? Here is the AddAll search results for this book.

You'll find some overlap between Going Long and the bible book.  Both are good however.  Obviously, Going Long is targeted specifically towards people training for IMs, but once you understand some of the basic principles (you already do, Pene) then you can apply it to any distance race.  I haven't read his Paleo Diet book, but I'm sure it's good too.  I'm familiar with the basics of the Paleo Diet and it seems pretty sound.  Here is a short article I found on it.

First of all, I'll tell you up front that I'm a hypocrite b/c I struggle to follow this advice, but I believe its important and I try my best to do it.

Some of the basic advice you hear everywhere is valid for triathletes as well.  Obviously, you should minimize "bad" fat (saturated and trans fat).  Eat lots of veggies and fruit.  Minimize processed foods and refined sugar.  Eat 5-6 small meals instead of 2-3 big ones.  Don't skip breakfast.

However, as endurance athletes, we need even more carbohydrates that a sedentary person.  I've seen recommendations as high as 50-60% (instead of the normal 40%) of all our calories should come from carbs.   I wouldn't worry about the exact percentage, just be sure to to go on a low carb diet while your training!  We need energy!

Also, it is VERY important to know that all carbohydrates are not created equal.  High Glycemic Index (GI) carbs should primarly be consumed right after a tough workout when they are most likely to replenish the depleted glycogen in the muscles and not stored as fat.  If you consume high GI carbs at other times, the resulting spike in insulin often results in the carbs being stored as fat instead of in the muscles or liver.  Thus, most of your carbs should be low GI.  One of the best articles I've found on this is here

Pene, I sometimes have difficulty eating enough protein also.  I try to supplement my protein intake with shakes made with whey protein powder.  Protein is very important for muscle rebuilding, for helping you feel full, and for "time releasing" carbs as mentioned in the above article.

This is probably more than enough for now, but let's keep talking about nutrition b/c its so important!

I'm not an expert either, but I'll give my 2 cents:

There definitely is a difference and Ken stated it: 200s are a sprint where 400s are a little more controlled. I'd prefer 400s for sprint triathlon training b/c despite the name, you'll probably never actually be sprinting (at anywhere close to 200 pace) in a sprint triathlon! Also, since 400s are done at close to your lactate threshold pace, you'll be improving your lactate tolerance and buffering which is important in shorter triathlons.

This article explains it better than I can.