Athena/ Clydesdale Official Mentor Group (Page 19)

You should read this article:  http://beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=633

Thank you.  I will be the not so little fish in a very big pond hob-nobbing with pros and such. Hoping not to be DFL but you are right I qualified and my kids think it's really cool.

Keri - I have to agree with your kids on this, it is WAY cool that you've qualifed for the US Championships!!!!  Be very proud of your achievements this year, go out there and have as much fun as possible.  You very much deserve it and actually I think the pros are lucky to be hob-nobbing with you 

Really pushed my 5k run tonight.  Got it in sub 8 min pace which was awesome.  Last night did 5.5 miles around 8:40 and that felt good too.  It gets too dark too early now to go for a ride during the week.  I went Monday and it was not cool coming down some of those hills in the dark.

Also might have signed up for a half marathon today.  One week after my tri, so about 4 1/2 weeks away.  Not sure how it's going to go but my friend at work is going to do it with me.  I'm just going to add one longer run per week to my tri training and just go for it the day of the race.

seriously impressive running Jon, can I take some lesson?

Pretty excited, went for my first ever group run last night.  I was really worried that I would get dropped and then get lost or something, but it went well, stayed with a small group at the back and had a good run. I'm hoping to make it a new weekly routine if I can get out of work early enough.

Tonight went swimming and it went fairly well and I've been paying much closer attention to my diet so hopefully scale is nice tomorrow morning. So this has been a super solid workout week for me, now I just need to behave over the long weekend...

Ride - 9.64 miles - 47m 14s - 12.25 mph

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!   I had that new route licked!  It was going to be my longest ride to date, just over 14 miles.  I had just topped the biggest/steepest hill on the course and was going to shoot for my best pace ever to boot.  And then I flatted.  There has GOT to be something I can do to stop this.  I can't even get a race length ride in without flatting.  I am not a defeatist, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm just too fat for triathlon still.  Would hate to waste that registration fee.

Leatherneck - Just saw your post and I can x2 on the Armadillo tyres.  I had numerous flats with my hydridized mountain bike (now my regular commuting bike that I use every single day), as a result of tons of AZ desert plant spines washed into the road shoulders/bike lanes.  I opted for some hydrid Armadillos, extra thick inner tubes, plus my LBS put some green "Slime" into the inner tubes.  In the 2 years since I did this, I have NEVER had a flat tyre.  I no longer carry a pump, tyre repair kit, or inner tube when I'm commuting.  I've also got slightly reinforced tyres on my road bike, and touch wood, they've never flatted on me either.  Extra weight for sure, but worth it for the inconvenience (at least for me).  Good luck and happy cycling

Bike - 13.25 miles - 1h 7m 30s - 11.5 mph   AND NO FLATS!!

Well, I completed the new route, almost.  I made it all the way in and around the River Walk again.  I actually think I was going faster up the hill from Maynard St.  But I did not conquer the hill out of Duboistown.  I made it about 1/4 of the way up, to Cochrane Ave, but then I had absolutely nothing left and bailed out to walk the rest of the way up.  Once I topped the hill I saddled up and rode the rest of the way home, feeling like I was traveling fairly well.  I managed to spin most of the way up the last hill into Nisbet.

I am getting concerned however.  I have only spent two rides trying to ride hills and feel like I have failed.  Worse, I'm starting to question my cycling abilities.    I have compared the hills on my route to the ones on the Blueman route.  The two hills on Blueman are steeper and longer than what I have available, unless I get stupid crazy and try to ride up Route 654.  I know I can cruise the swim, and I'm already completing the walk in my goal time.  But with only 39 days to Blueman I am starting to wonder.

No flats - Woo Hoo!  Looks like the Armadillos are helping   Congrats on the ride and route too, hills are a bit of a killer, aren't they?  Don't worry too much about the hills during the event, as there is absolutely no reason why you can't walk your bike up the hills.  I was completely prepared to do this in my first Sprint, as I had a huge hill to tackle.  However, I amazed myself on race day, and even though I was in my lowest possible gear, a steady pace, adrenaline and swearing kept me going up that hill, and I even overtook 3 people and a bunch of people walking their bikes up.  Gravity was on my side doing downhill and I flew past people, which was a huge amount of fun

Walk - 3.69 miles - 59m 12s - 3.7 mph - AHR 132 - MHR 161

I know that two good workouts are not enough to indicate a trend, but they are headed in the right general direction.  And now I have a another measure to gauge my success against.  The last time I hit this route with the GT on my AHR was 133 and my MHR was 164.  Small drops, but drops none the less.

I am going to change my workout pattern to M-W-F bike with a hard-medium-light workout and then Tu-Th-Sa walks the same way.  That way I'll hit my heaviest bike (where I need the most improvement) fresh after two days of relative rest.  I will have to create a couple of more routes so I can compare future results.

DOH!!!!!!

Peak week in training for me before my first Oly on 23rd September, and I had a bit of a "Doh" moment yesterday......  I decided to hop on my road bike/trainer for the required 27.5 miles session, and was expecting to get it done in 1 hour 30-40 minutes.  After my first hour I was getting a bit disheartened by my pace, and was getting downright despondent after my 2nd hour.  2 hours and 31 minutes later I finally finished, staggered off the bike, and was bemoaning my useless body etc

I took the bike off the trainer and the lightbulb suddenly went off.  I realised that I'd still got the additional 12 lb flywheel weight on my trainer, that I'd put on to do some heavy resistance training a few weeks ago.  So instead of shifting 6 lb (for my normal long rides), I had been moving 18 lb the whole time. I went from feeling so down, to so very up   I think I trained for the "headwind from Hell" yesterday!!!!

Woot Great Ride!

Well I am envious of you all. All I can manage on the bike at the moment is rides with the little princess in her buggy, on my old heavy mountain bike! At least I am getting out there, and it must be good for my leg strength, but boy is it slow. 

I am thinking of getting an indoor trainer, so that I can get on a "real" bike a little more often. What should I be looking for?

warthho, isn't it amazing how fast your mood can change from some little tidbit like that?  I know that before my GT I was pretty sure I was dogging it and not working hard enough.  You know what's been on my mind since then.  Although I still fear my performance on the hills.

Aah, now there's a question.  Tomorrow's ride is supposed to be a medium length ride.  At one point I will make a left and head back toward home, but I'll still have that WICKED hill in front of me.  I can cheat, turn up Cochrane Ave and do a longer, but less steep grind.  Or I can attack the HILL that has absolutely gotten in my head.  Since I'm knocking about four miles off from just before that hill, my gung-ho heart is saying GO FOR IT!.  I honestly won't know until tomorrow what I'll do.

Sounds like everyone is out there kicking butt.  I need to get a trainer too for this winter but I'm going to wait until I can't really ride outside anymore.

Today is an off day after Bike-run-run-run the last 4 days.  My wetsuit came in the mail today.  Holy crap are those tight.  Got a XXL and at least 5 times while putting it on I said there is no way this is going to make it on.  It's snug and range of motion doesn't feel great but I'm sure I'll get used to it.  I'm going to try and hit the beach this weekend to give it a test ride.

Welcome FlyBoy!!

This is the place where there are goddess's and the big horses run free!!

As long as your moving your making progress.

Keep up the good work!! 

FlyBoy, there are no strangers here, just athletes you haven't met yet.  You'll find it's a very supportive group, and tolerant too.(Hey, they put up with my almost daily bragging, whining, complaining, and questioning.  Not usually all in the same day!)

After all that deliberation about the route to ride today it turned out to be a moot question.  One of those times I got up in the middle of the night (us old guys do that a lot) as I put my weight on my left foot I felt something sort of "pop" inside my foot.  Now it feels like I'm walking on a marble, right behind the ball of my big toe.  Decided not to ride, let it rest.

The cool thing though is that I just got done examining the race route and my usual walk route in Peaksware.  I have decided to replace my medium workout with a "hill climb day".  The hills I'm currently walking beat anything on the race course.  They are comparable in grade, but much longer.   And they both constitute loop routes.  So I'm planning to climb the hill, rest as I coast back down to start, and then climb again.  Climb, rest, repeat, maybe about 5 times (~9 miles).  that should get me ready for the race!!