jsnowash's training group - FULL!! (Page 17)

Great job, Cat! So nice of you to help folks out along the way.... I'm sure Karma will smile on you!

Yup, you read it right!  Thanks for the congrats! I'm very early on.  I'm due in January.  My husband and I are super excited!!  I've been trying to dial back on the intensity heart rate wise without abandoning training.  I don't feel like I'm working very hard when I keep the heart rate low, but I suppose any movement is better than no movement.    I haven't found a good resource for aqua-exercise yet, but I did find a place I can swim laps. 

That's such great news, Elise! Congratulations!!! I can see how that might change your tri plans for the summer ! You're smart to keep exercising, though - you'll want to be in good shape for that very important endurance event coming up in January!

CONGRATULATIONS! How exciting. Good for you keeping up with training. I wish I had so long ago. I would imagine aqua-exercise would be wonderful, low stress, low intensity, plus it just feels good.

That means every time you train a particular discipline you are doing a Dual-athlon (i.e.: to athletes - one run)....just kidding .  Congratulations!!!!. I have never been in labor, but among other things I put in Epidurals for soon to be moms. I haven't seen science back up my next comment, but in my personal experience, active ladies do better...maybe it is the learning to cope with the torture of that last hilly mile....delayed gratification, I'm a big advocate.
Fernando 

Degrease and lube bike: check. Get my gear ready: check. Mental readiness for race: hummmmm, we'll see.
Went out for a casual bike ride with my kids (did I mention they are both doing IronKids in about a month down in NC...we are all psyched!!!). Then I did a little run brick. Legs felt good.
Other than that I cut the grass, hit some golf balls, and then sat in my patio with my wife and a Miller Lite (or two) and just enjoyed the beautiful afternoon as it went by. Tomorrow I just plan to chill.
PS: In case you are wondering, I do work for a living. My day just starts at ungodly early hours!
 

I have been sick at home the last couple days. Today I decided to get out for a swim and short run.

Today instead of doing week 2, I did week 3. I wanted to do week 4 but I was sick for a few days so I dialed back.

2 x 50 warmup swim
400 yards... swim
200 yards... swim
4 x 100 yards...swim - ONLY DID 3 SETS
4 x 50 yards ...DIDNT COMPLETE
total: 1200 yards .. only DID 1000 yards

My shoulders were stiff and my left shoulder twinged at the beginning whenever I pulled my arm back. I stopped and stretched it out and it eased as I moved on and then stopped. I think I need to do extra stretching.

I am following the Swim 0 to 1650 in Six Weeks program. Technically, I am in week two but at the end of week one (last week), I went from swimming 4x100s to swimming 500 yards nonstop. I felt good and just kept going. Today I moved into week 3 workout. My workout got shortened because the pool closed and I got kicked out.

Am I overtraining? Is my shoulder just need time to get use to all the nonstop swimming?

Lovey

Hello everyone!!!

Elise - Congrats!!!! Great news for you!!

Lovey - Girl you are kicking butt!!!

Sorry I've been MIA..I didn't realize how the time has flown! I was nursing a shin splint last week. Still ran Tuesday and felt it again and was starting to get a little anxious considering Eagleman is just over 3 weeks away!! But tonight I wore the sneakers I save for racing with my orthotics..SHOCKER..no shin splint! So, I'm not too far out to exhaust the miles on my sneakers/orthotics that I shouldn't be able to use them more often.

Picking up the swim but because I had a few sick days this week didn't sign up for the Master's swim like I had hoped just to fine tune my stroke more.

I feel like I'm short on my training and putting the time in but I also know that my mind is set and I'm built for endurance so as long as I keep it up I know I can do it! Too bad my friend is dropping out! She's still coming to cheer me on..so that's nice!

I'll be getting in a couple of runs Saturday..splitting it up because of time. I've got a 22 mile ride scheduled then a USAT Officials clinic because my friend talked me into becoming a race official! Cool beans! So Sunday I'll be officiating the Columbia Triathlon...Tim DeBoom, Natascha Badmann, Desiree Ficker, the Wassner twins....quite a professional showing..should be a great experience!!

How's everybody doing this week? It's been a light week for me as I rest up a bit for my first tri of the season this weekend, which I'm really looking forward to!

So who else is racing this weekend? I know Fernando is (we're doing the same race - Good Luck, Fernando!). I didn't see any other races listed in anyone's training logs for this weekend. Is anyone else racing?


Lovey - Sorry to hear you've been sick - I hope your feeling better! Re: your shoulder pain - it could be lack of swim conditioning. If so, it might be wise to back off a little bit until your shoulder muscles adapt. It could also have something to do with your swim form. I know when I get sloppy, and especially if I'm under-rotating when I swim, I get twinges of shoulder pain. I think it has something to do with either the angle of the pull causing too much torque on the joint, or maybe just that it takes more force to pull myself through the stroke when I'm not rotating enough, and am therefore less streamlined in the water. It might not be a bad idea to include some swimming drills in your swim training to help work on form. You could just substitue a few hundred yards of drills for some of the swimming called for in your plan.

Kiwi - The USAT officiating course sounds cool! What will your role be at Columbia?

Ok so does anyone else ever have days where training is the last thing on your mind? I have been doing so well but the last 2 days I haven't felt like doing anything I can think of every excuse in the book especially since I need to swim. I keep telling my self I'll swim next week in open water thats what I really need right????
Did anyone ever find that OWS is better than the pool?
Anyway good luck to all those racing this weekend.

.

Thanks Jenny, I really needed to hear that. Even though I have swam up to 1500 yards, its been drills with short nonstop swims. I definitely think that a lack of swim conditioning is part of it. I will see if I can work in some of those drills into my yardage. I was (still am) so worried that I wouldn't be able to go the distance. I was suppose to do my third swim of the week today but I decided to give my shoulder a rest and head back to the pool on Sunday afternoon.

Lovey

Don't worry, Amy, I think we all have days like that. In fact, with swimming, I had about 6 months of it this year!! I didn't see the pool between last September and this march March! Not that I'm recommending that approach...

A few days off won't kill your training, just don't take TOO many days off! When I feel that way, it usually means I NEED a day off. After taking a needed rest day, I usually feel much better and ready to get back to training.

And personally, I enjoy open water swimming MUCH more than laps in the pool!! Trouble is there isn't really anyplace nearby where I live to do it on a regular basis I wish there was!

Well, I THOROUGHLY enjoyed my first tri of the season yesterday! Really nice race... I can definitely see myself doing this one again! I felt like I had a pretty solid race given where my training is at this point in the year. I lost a little bit of time to sloppy transitions and I dropped my chain at one point on the bike - but I don't think it cost me a huge amount of time....

Split results are not posted yet, but I finished 6th in my age group (there were some FAST people in my age group! The 1st & 2nd overall female winners were in my AG - 45-49 year old women! I thought that was pretty cool!!). Interestingly, the timing company posted "age graded" results for the race. In the age-graded results, I placed in the top 15 for Masters Women, and top 20 for Women overall, so I felt pretty good about that.... without age grading I placed in the top 50 women (out of 200 +). All in all, a most enjoyable race!

Fernando, how did it go for you??

I had a blast, and at the same time this being my first tri, it was a great learning experience.
So where you Wave 2 then Jenny? I was Wave 10, and in my mind we would start not far from each other. When I say you coming back from the run while I was just starting I thought..."man, I knew she would kick my butt, but not that bad!!!"
Where did you see the times posted? My family wanted to get out of there, so I really didn't stay for prices or anything. I am just going by what my watch says. I think I might have messed up my lap timing, but my total was around 1:38. My goal was to beat 1:45, and I think I did it.
The swim was pretty strong, sub 10 I think. It kinda makes sense, since a bunch of guys in my age group passed me both during bike and run segments. T1 was uneventful, I think there is room for improvement. 
The Bike went great. I was passed by many "serious" competitors in fancy tri bikes, but at the same time I passed many stragglers from younger age groups. That kept the juices flowing. Did the climbs fine, and gave it all I could. Bike computer clocked me @ 58 minutes (>16 mph) which is my best time.
No problems on T2. The run is different story though. I had done many bricks, but this was rough. From the get-go  I felt I was going to cramp (right calf). I slowed down to what I thought was a trot. After about a mile felt strong again, and as I try to push it I felt like my left hamstring was going to cramp. Thankfully nothing happened, but it forced me to run at a much slower pace that I was capable of. Maybe 8 or 10 age groupers passed me then which was very frustrating, but I didn't want to finish the race walking, so I forced myself to go slow.
I don't know if I did a poor job at hydrating, or overdid the bike, or just basically need more training, but this was a great experience. Met a lot people; some really, really fit, others nervous as myself; but everybody friendly, and just having a blast.
Can't wait for the next one (which is a flat bike course ) 

Fernando - I had to hunt for the race results! But I found them here: http://www.compuscore.com/cs2010/may/index.htm

Great job on your race! It takes some time get accustomed to running off the bike, but it gets better with more training! I know my whole first season every time I started the run my legs felt like I was dragging two stumps, and I would say to myself "Why do I do this to myself again??" But with more bike and run training, and more experience, it does get easier (and maybe hold back a little on the bike to save some for the run might help, too....).

p.s. And yes, I was in wave 2 which was GREAT! I love starting early like that! I finished around 1:35, so I wasn't really that much faster than you.....




Edited by jsnowash 2010-05-23 7:30 AM

Congratulations to the both of you on your race and to everyone else who finished. I hope it was awsome for everybody.

Congratulations Jenny and Fernando! Sounds like it was a great race!

Race report is up: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

Finally have a racing picture to share. Cameras and me don't get along that great, but my wife took a bunch of pictures. I will try to upload some more in the album section.
Time now to start training for next challenge/race. I think I have built a decent aerobic base, so I will start adding interval training more often. See if we can get the speed up a bit.
I am also planning on mixing it up a bit. Add some Body Pump and Power Yoga classes. I need to tone all that flaccidity around my anatomy after considerable weight loss.

Wow, it seems like everybody is keeping good with training!!! Except me   I've been so busy with the boys and all their stuff that I've been doing my races and that's about it.  But football is over, baseball is in it's last week and school is almost done!!!  We are taking a family vacation in 2 weeks and driving to Colorado. So my race this coming weekend will be my last for a month or two.  hoplefully I'll get it gear and get back to training after our vacation!

I know what you mean about pictures.... I always feel like my race photos are pretty un-flattering... I have a few good ones, but the majority are just horrid!!

I'll just offer my 2 cents on interval training.... My opinion (based on my personal experience and reading on training...) is that until you have a very solid base for RUNNING (by that I mean an average of somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 miles per week of running for at least a couple of months) it's probably best not to push running speedwork too much... Running in particular requires a good deal of physiological adaptation. Pushing speed without a solid base is where a lot of people end up getting injured. I would suggest for now maybe just adding in a few strides/fartleks to some of your runs - short bursts of higher speed/intensity running, and maybe some tempo training, where you push yourself to sustain a slightly higher pace/effort than your easy training pace for some period of time during maybe one run per week (5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.). If you seem to be able to handle that okay, then maybe begin to work in some intervals. For swimming and biking, I think most people can take higher intensity interval training without the same injury risk that comes with pushing speed on the run, so definitely work in some intervals there (just keep swimming to a pace that does not cause your form to break down).

Like you, I'm planning to mix it up a bit, too! I just got a set of P90X DVD's and plan to begin using them for some strength training. I'm hoping it will help me lean out/tone up a bit....

Great advice. Last thing I need is an injury. I guess I still have the picture in my mind of all those people passing me.
Question though.... what do you consider interval levels? For some reason I thought it was Zone 3, which I have done a few times. Is it higher than that?

That's part of the problem.... the language means different things to different people... intervals can be done at different lengths, and at different levels of effort. To me, intervals would be shorter distances, and at a pace faster than my 5K pace. I would consider zone 3 running more like tempo work, and I think it's probably okay to include some of that on less of a running base.

Here's a good link for general guidance on pace for different types of runs:

http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm

Love the new avatar, Fernando!


Kinda quiet around here lately! How's everybody been doing? I started P90X along with my tri training yesterday. I didn't feel like the workout was super hard - but must admit I'm a little sore this morning!

I think my husband is going to do a tri with me at the end of the summer! Yay! I think that will be fun! I helped him train to run his first 5K in March (one I help organize - a colon cancer fund-raiser - I lost both my mom & brother to colon cancer....). He hasn't run much since then, but we ran together yesterday morning, and it sounds like he's ready to get back into it again. I'm pretty excited that he wants to do this!

Hi all-
Congrats Jenny and Fernando on your great races!  I love hearing other people's experiences here, and in the race reports. 

It's been a not great past several days.  Not feeling well, and not much time to rest, plus I have the mini-sprint this weekend.  Trying to balance being prepared and not overdoing.  I also took the advice of many folks on BT and did a mock tri at my in-laws this past weekend to prcatice my transitions and get the feel of my wetsuit in actual water.  I definitely learned a few things, so it was a worthwhile exercise.  

My swim is still meh, but I am hopefully starting with a coach next week.  That's my status report.  How is everyone else doing this week?