Todd's Tri Turtles 3 (Beginner, Sprint, 5K, 10K) Basically Closed (Page 19)

Everyone I've talked to about the wetsuits has said if I plan on continuing to do tris, I should get one, and so I ordered one yesterday! I should have it in time to do a couple swims and use it in my next tri. thanks fort he advice!

Congrats on the purchase. If you don't mind let everyone one know what you got and a review after a couple swims in it. Also don't be embarrassed or hesitate about using it at the pool to get use to it. It is different swimming in one and practice in it only helps. Just make sure to rinse it well both inside and out after ever swim. Heck I think it best to do it after ever swim no matter where.

Edited by Hunting Triathlete 2014-08-14 10:17 PM

Nancy, I ordered a sleeveless suit Tuesday night, they shipped it the next morning and I received it today. A vortex 3, from xterra, with the BT discount, was only $128. I haven't tried it on, but there is a 30 day guarantee, so I'm not worried.

oh, cool! I got the full sleeve one, and it's supposed to arrive Tuesday. We'll see- it's in CT right now. I paid $159, I think it was a facebook discount. I'm glad they have such a decent window for returns- I'm kind of ont he edge of two sizes, so I'm going to get a couple swims in before I make a final decision about fit.


can't wait!

I love those estimates. For me, they would never work since I'm so slow! But I just adjust.

To each his own but in my opinion 21 hours a week for a half is over kill to say the least. That kind of training time is way more in line with a full.

Yep, I did both of mine with 7 - 10 hours a week. Most weeks it was 1 hr M - F, and then 3-5 hours on the weekend. Like i said I just don't agree with what he told you for anything over an Olympic distance because a sprint with two hour goal would be 4-6 and an Olympic at 3:30 would be 7-14 with the 14 even being ridiculous. The other think here and this defends what he or she is saying is if you are really working to podium / qualify, but for fun and to finish with a respectable time it's just overkill.

What you suggested makes perfect sense. I appreciate your insight into this! In fact, daughter #2 had expressed interest in training for a tri next year. We sold her mountain bike on craigslist and went bike shopping last week. We ended up ordering a felt z100 from a LBS for her. So *hopefully* we'll get some good time on the bikes!

She should really enjoy the z100. I bought a z95 this April, and really like it for the price. I plan on using it next season and possibly hanging on to it if I do upgrade, its a great entry level bike, well built, rugged, and taken care of will perform great every time.

Well tomorrow I finally get to see an ENT and find out what the heck is going on with my ear. I have had an ear infection / drainage in one ear for over twenty days now. I have gone through 2 cycles of antibiotics and it's still clogged and leaking (sorry for graphic). I have not really done anything other than a charity softball tourney this past weekend out of fear of it becoming worse or fully infected again. All of this really sucks because just prior to this I had picked back up and put over 150 miles on the bike the 3 weeks leading up to all this garbage. I sure hope he can do something or at least tell me to get back to my normal life because this junk is driving me crazy. I am also looking for some answers because based off of what he says I have come to the conclusion that I do want to race IM Texas. Fingers crossed that it's nothing major and he can get me back to normal in a hurry. I guess I should have prefaced all of this by saying that at birth I was essentially legally deaf until a little after my 5th birthday (hearing came little by little), I had tubes in both ears three times and constant ear infections until around the age of twelve. I had only been getting one or so a year since but have never had anything like this that I could remember so it has worried me a bit. Based off my childhood I just sometimes think that as slowly as my hearing improved it is going to decrease as I get older so junk like this just worries me. But then again even the scenario of becoming deaf pales in comparison to so many other ailments that people suffer from.

Hi Turtles

Just back from taking a short holiday touring around some regional towns of Victoria. I took my gym / running gear with me but it stayed in the car for a week. I did manage to do a few bush walks though. I'm off to a boot camp session tonight to resume my training.

I just finished reading the recent posts and want to congratulate Nancy & Matt on completing their first events. Well Done.

Anna, all the best for the weekend's race. Look forward to reading your report.

Rod

Hey Todd, hope you get some answers about your ear soon.

Got some good and bad news from the ENT. Bad news is that my ear drum is ruptured. Good news is that I can go back to working out, and it "should" just take some drops and around 3 weeks to heal.

Well, I got to go out and try my new wetsuit today! (Xterra, Vortex, full sleeves). First of all, getting into it carefully so as not to rip it was a trick. I got some Trispray (I think it is called that) and put it on my shins and forearms. I think I"ll use a little more next time. It was hard/tight to get up over my legs, but I kept tugging and pulling and got it up around my waist. Put the sleeves on, then more tugging and pulling. A workout before I even got in the water! The neck felt a little tight, but I got used to it.

Swimming it definitely helps you float. I felt like my kicking was actually enough out of the water it was kind of ineffective. I still did it out of habit, but much less force. I did my full half mile swim for the tri in a couple weeks (not the same lake as the race). I could finish it and didn't feel completely tired out. Plenty of movement in my arm/shoulder area. I think next time, I'll tuck the string in somewhere, it was bugging me a little. I can get used to this.

It did still feel like I didn't have it pulled up all the way around my legs and waist. and after I was done I could feel water squishing around while I was still in the water.

Ok Nancy, so here is my wetsuit tip. Get the inside of the suit wet before you put it on! What I do is put body glide on any and all rub area first. Then get the inside of the suit totally wet. Then start at the legs putting it on making sure the legs then the waist are all the way up before moving on. You will find that doing this will make it much easier to put on and will be much less tight around the neck when you get to that point. Like i said before, you will get use to the different feel when swimming in it!

Anna, I just wanted to send you some well wishes for your Half Ironman Race this weekend. You have worked very hard for the past year and a half and more than deserve to toe the line. I know that you will do great and remember to smile when you cross the finish line.

The only thing you can do is race the course they put in front of you. You have prepared for a Half and are ready to complete one, so even if it's a little short you are still a Half finisher. I thought about Lake Placid this year when I read your post, around half of the people were not allowed to start their second swim loop because of lightning and were sent to the bike. I still consider each and every one an Ironman that finished, and so does ironman. They prepared, could have done it, and did not quit or have control over that decision.

I know you will do Awesome.

Here's my race report: http://beginnertriathlete.com/RaceLog/races-view-container.asp?race...

This was my third official tri, and my hardest. The swim was too congested, and getting swam over is not fun. I tried to talk myself out of the panic but had to turn over and catch my breathe while back stroking, as breathing on every left side wasn't enough. I haven't been doing enough swimming and it showed.

The bike was beautiful, but we had 3 large bridges to cross. My slowest I noticed ascending pace was 7.4mph, and descending my fastest rate was 31mph. FUN! My daughter had planned to race and didn't feel well, and decided on the ride to the race to just sleep in the car. I was most worried about her doing the bike portion because of the hills, so this was not on my mind after all.

The run was half on the soft sand and half on the road. I ended up doing walk/run intervals. My time was ok for me, but looking at 90% of the people finished before me-ugh, I need more practice. I'm sure it's not the first year doing tri's for most of these people, but still. I feel good and know what I need to work on more for my final tri this season, in October. Good news is, I will have a chance to use my wet suit, I hope.

BTW, as my daughter and I checked in for the packet pick up yesterday, the bike shop had a kona ironman video playing on the tv, and my daughter was so interested and watched it as I shopped. As we drove home, she told me that she wants to do an ironman in her lifetime.

I roped my friend, Jenny, into completing our first triathlon together - The W.I.L.D Hodag in beautiful Rhinelander, Wisco. Jenny has an extensive bucket list, and thankfully finishing a triathlon was one of those items. Doing something new and slightly scary is so much better with an accomplice! This is the second year for the race: 300 yard swim, 10K mountain bike and 5K trail run. The course was a bit surprising and lived up to it's name - WILD!

SWIM:
I thought the swim would be the most difficult part for me, but I actually felt really good on the swim. Jenny's wave went out 6 minutes before mine, so I was watching her progress. She was most concerned about the swim and felt really under-trained. She was slow, but I could see she was getting it done. While waiting for my wave to start, I got in and soaked until I was acclimated. That proved to be a good thing since many people commented on how the cold temps made them start hyperventilating (Jenny told me after the race that she was panicked for the first 150 yards). Only one person wore a wetsuit. The race was very small, so there were maybe 8 people in my wave. I knew from my training swims that I struggled with my face in the water, so I didn't even try that. I just front stroked with my head up. I flipped onto my back and backstroked for 3 short periods just to mix it up. I completed the swim in around 7 minutes. I don't know my exact time because the transition times were included with each event time. Some people had a towel and tennis shoes waiting at the beach, which in retrospect would have been a good move if I was truly competing, because we had to run from the beach to the transition area over a rough road.

BIKE:
I wasn't sure what to expect on the bike since a large portion of it was off road mountain biking. I didn't train off road, so I went in knowing this was going to be different. The 10K bike was rough by my rookie standards. It was double-track with a big hump in the middle, roots and rocks, troughs of mud. Oh, and mosquitoes! I didn't even bring bug spray. We've had a lot of rain and high humidity, so picture a tropical jungle kind of feeling. My arms and legs are peppered with bites and itching something fierce. I didn't even feel them when I was on the bike - I was completely focused on what was in front of my bike. The sides of the trail were overgrown, so my body was being whacked by wet weeds and grass. I was more soaked after the bike than the swim! I caught up with Jenny near the end of the bike. She was riding her daughter's mountain bike, which was too small for her. Otherwise, I don't think I would have caught up to her. I know of at least one person who crashed on the course, but was unhurt. I finished the bike in 37 minutes. I was happy with that considering that I had not trained off road. I was most thrilled to have not crashed!

RUN:
Running *used to* be my thing. I was least intimidated by the run portion. I spent more time run-walking than anything else in preparation for this race. I broke my hip in April 2013 during the London Marathon and have been through two surgeries on it - one to put hardware in and another to take the hardware out. This tri was my first race since the accident/injury; I was calling it my comeback race. The course started with a half mile on rough trails - tree roots galore and twisting through the woods. I had to watch my feet and take it easy. Jenny caught up to me here and offered words of encouragement, like, "Take it easy, Jen! Don't get hurt. It's not worth it!" I had to keep telling myself that it was okay to walk and rest, but that is a new mentality for me.

We then had about a mile of pavement before turning off into the woods again. I grabbed a water at the aid station and was told by a volunteer, "This portion of the course was described as sadistic by one of the other athletes." Oh, awesome! It was another winding trail with a lot of steep ups and downs. Due to the rain, the leaf-covered trail was slippery. I was caught and passed by several people here. I had to embrace the idea that finishing uninjured was the goal. It was a relief to see pavement again; I knew I only had about a mile to the finish line. My 5K run time was 41:08 - much slower than my run/walk training times, but I didn't fall and I ran the last mile continuously, which is the longest distance I have run (without walking) since the accident. My total time for the race was 1:27:28.

The race was a success! We both finished uninjured and with smiles on our faces. Jenny and I both said we would come back next year and do the race again. For me, completing this race signifies that my body has healed and I can put that injury behind me.

Great race report, thanks!