Artemis's Mentor Group - FULL! (Page 2)

For the swim, I usually try to pull and only kick as much as I have to to keep my legs up.  I think lots of kicking will make it harder to get on the bike than lots of pulling since you won't have to use your arms very much.  You probably don't want to sprint like you were just doing a swim race, but you can usually push it a little harder than when you do fast sets in practice.

My problem is usually pushing too hard on the bike - especially up hills - and not having enough left for the run.  Doing bricks will help you get a better sense of how that works. 

Does that help? 

I would probably wait about 2 weeks between tris.  I've done them one weekend after another, but that is really draining and I was a lot slower for the second one.  I think most people need a few days to recover, but it's nice to give yourself a whole week just in case. 

Thanks Jen, that helps alot!  And, makes total sense (I often try to add logic).

Being a distance swimmer, kicking was never really high on my list...so this will work well for me & totally justifies not using my legs.

Thanks, have a great weekend! 

Hi everyone,

What types of training programs are you using? I am getting ready to start the Olympic balanced 2x this evening and didn't know if any of you have had any experience with that one or others that you prefer.

~L

I'm currently using the Olympic 16 week run focused plan.

As far as being a member, I'm a bronze member which isn't much for a year.  I do like having the planned workouts show up in my log.  They also get emailed to me the night before.  

Memberships also give discounts to some of the tri stores online and access to training chats and more articles.  

In my opinion, it's been worth it, but I definitely waited about 6 months after I started posting on the site to make sure I was going to stick with tris and to see if I thought the additional features were worth it. 

Today I got in a 3 mile run.  So far so good for following my training plan - sticking to the plan is a goal for me. 

Tomorrow I'm going to an OWS camp.  It's been delayed for two weeks because the river level has been too high.  Water is around 65 degrees, so it's not bad with a wetsuit. 

Hey all, hope everyone is having a great week!

Have to share, bought a new bike yesterday.  I am excited to ride something other than my 12 yr old, 60 lb mountain bike.  However, seems my new bike is pretty popular -  another girl was in the place at the same time buying the same bike.  Got me to thinking (ok, here's a dead give away I know nothing about this biking stuff)  is there a "rule" of marking your bike or doing something to be sure you pick up yours, don't mix up, etc.? 

Now, couldn't get in a ride today and wouldn't you know it we are getting in a real good storm tonight that will carry through mid-day tomorrow.  So, with all the kids stuff going on I will finally get to ride on Mother's Day.  So, it sits in our guest room (no way is it going out in the dirty garage)  until Sunday

Congratulations on the new bike!

As far as marking it, I think you can usually tell the difference once you put on bags, water bottles, etc.  I have a pretty common bike, but I can always tell mine.  If you are at a tri, you can put a towel or something over the handlebars to help distinguish your bike from the ones around it. 

Did everyone have a good weekend and a good Mother's Day? 

I got in a long bike ride on Saturday and took a rest day on Sunday.  The weather has been not so great this weekend, so it's been a little frustrating to get out and train.  Hopefully the weather will be better this week. 

We had a nice mothers day. For my grandma we let her go to bingo (she was easy to take care of). And we made an afternoon tea lunch for our mom. Nice day.

Alright. So I haven't signed up yet but I am really looking at an OWS 1.2 miles in July. With a sprint tri on August 20th or so. I am not worried about my swim (haven't been in a pool yet this year...working on that). I can definitely bike more than 11 miles (need to get out and practice some hills). The run is my only concern. I am currently building up my no jogging history one baby step at a time. Do you think it is possible to get up to jogging at least 3 miles in 3 months? I am going to be positive and say yes...but I want an experienced vision.

And of course looking at up coming tri's in  my area I keep saying "i want to do this one, and this one and this one." If I can survive the august one, i am looking at ones in september and maybe even november. One happens to be on my birthday so that might be fun. 

I think you can get to running 3 miles in 3 months.  Start slowly and work up to running.  It's ok if you run and walk when you are doing it, too.

I did a tri on my birthday last year.  It was one of the most fun races I did.  One of the volunteers put "It's my birthday!" on my calf and I had a lot of people wishing me happy birthday during the whole race.  It was a lot of fun.

OWS races are fun, too.  I'm planning on doing a mile long swim race in June. 

Just two cents from this peanut gallery....three miles is very doable in three months.   Heck I honestly believe the desire to do it is 75% of the work.  So, by my math you are well on your way!  Train smart and have fun!!!   

So.... My first triathlon is coming up this weekend! It is the Nelson Bay Challenge in Sea Level, NC and will have an open water swim in the bay. I'm excited but also a little nervous because I have completely dropped the ball on training in the past week or so. Life has been getting in the way and I haven't had the time to squeeze anything in or to be completely honest I've been choosing sleep over training lately

At this point, I'm not sure if I should hop back on my training plan or do a little of each: swim- bike- run so I'll be rested for the race. Since this is my first triathlon I'm limiting my expectations to purely finishing but it is hard not to get caught up in the competitive spirit of the event despite the fact that I'm not the fastest in any of the three sections. We are going down on Thursday night so we can check out the race course on Friday and do a short swim in the bay where the open water swim is planned.

If they have waves by cap color, they will give you one.  They are usually the cheap latex kind.  You can wear a silicone one underneath and that will help prevent the hair pulling.  I wear the latex ones, but get the cap and my hair wet first.  That usually gets rid of most of the pulling problems. 

Hey best of luck with your first tri!!!.....can't wait to read all about it!  Wish I had some magical tip for you, but I don't since my first isn't until the end of June.  I will probably learn alot from your report.    

Have a great time!

Hi guys. I made a table that has links to everyone's logs in it. You can put it in your training log by doing the following:

1) Click on 'quote' in this message.
2) Check the 'Disable HTML' box.
3) Click 'preview'
4) Copy the HTML code from the message
5) Go to your training log's control panel (on the left side of your training log).
6) Go to the goals section and paste the HTML code
7) Click apply.

Sometimes it just shows up as HTML code in your log. If that happens, I have to go back to goals and click apply again. It usually works then.

How are you feeling about it today?  

I wouldn't worry too much about missing some training in the last week.  A lot of people do a lot less training in the week (or two depending on length) before a race.  Just tell everyone you're tapering. 

I think your plan for before the race is good.  Make sure you get in the water and get comfortable in it the morning of the race.  That helps the shock of going in for the first time when the race starts.