swbkrun's group - FULL (Page 2)

Good question Tracy... I was wondering the same and also thinking about purchasing one in the near future.  How much does one need to spend to get a decent one?

Also, I just joined a new health club that offers VO2 Max testing.  Has anyone done this and is it worth it?  I believe I have a discount for being a new member so I may take advantage of it since it is not cheap.

The HR monitor is a neccesity but the one that you chose depends on your goals. Are you a First timer or experienced triathlete?

As a newbie to the sport I bought a basic polar RS100 watch which gives you HR, stop watch and Lap times (also cals burned)etc. These are the things that are needed initially. I love the watch and have recommended it to others. (and they have loved it to) It costs about $100ish dollars here in NYC. While initally training for your first or second events, my feeling is that you just want to keep an eye on your HR as it pertains to your  perceived effort  as well as clocking your overall/minute mile time.  

Now, I am in my second year of training and looking to get into the more technical stuff that goes along with it. However although I have a more upgraded model... I still love my basic watch and will continue to use it until it dies. (along with the upgraded model)

I hope this is somewhat helpful..... 

i ordered a heart rate monitor as just a means to see how much effort i was putting out during my workouts.  it's nice when you are running and trying to get into a nice comfortable pace......you can just look at your HR and it's another way of letting you know how hard your body is working.  i haven't used it for the technical zone type workouts but maybe i will once i get into longer distance races.

i've got a good question for the group.  i am doing my first ows in 3 weeks.  the rest of my races this year will be ows, so i am in the market for a wetsuit.  a couple of friends have promotion sleeveless suits and are very happy with them.  does anyone have any insight into this brand and whether or not i should go with sleeves or not?   i live in texas and most of the races i will do are in low 70's water temps.  nothing that cold.  any advice would be appreciated.

Following Steve's lead.  Here's me at the Pike's Peek 10k in Rockville, MD. Clock times are disheartening, until you remember that you actually went off 1:30 or so after the Elites

Hey Dale,

No coach here, and here's my reasoning:

The plans available on BT in the paid section are more than adequate to get you into the gym/on-the-road/etc. and take care of the first difficult part of doing triathlons -- getting out and training.

If you can follow one of the fairly specific plans here, with your own tweaks based on your schedule, ability, needs, I think you can get away without having a coach.

Where I feel a coach definitely helps is once you have the base and the basic knowledge, then they can work with you to meet your new needs ("be faster," "be more aero," "better endurance off the bike," etc.) and really customize a plan that will work on your weaknesses while bolstering your strengths.

Not at all to say that a coach won't be beneficial, and if it gives you the motivation/support needed to reach your potential, go for it. But it isn't a silver bullet.

Good luck!

I ordered a HRM today.  I've never used one, but it was on woot.com for $20 so it seemed like a reasonable price to try one out.  I've seen posts refering to workouts in various HR zones.  How does one establish their zones?

I also picked up some new running shoes today.  I've had some issues with mild PF and then some hip pain - both of which I think were caused by inadequate running shoes.  So I hit up the LRS today and got properly outfitted.  I ran up and down the block in so many different shoes that I joked w/ my wife that I was going to have to log it as a work out.  The best thing is, my hip actually felt better when I left, after running in the different shoes, than it did when I got there.  I sure hope I've solved my problem and can resume running again.

Thanks, for some reason I was under the impression it was more complicated than that.