Chris' Group - Closed (Page 2)

Hi Chris -

I would like to join your group if there is still room.  I hope you will be accepting of all sorts of newbie questions!

NAME: tri_trying  --- Arin

STORY: I'm 35 years old and am very new at Triathlon's (ie. never done one.)  Actually, I've never competed in any running or swimming events but I do have a lot of time in on a mountain bike. Last Ocotber I was told about cyclocross. I was hooked just at the description and quickly bought my first 'road bike'. After only logging a few miles on the road bike, I set my sites further: Triathlon. As I tried to train last fall, it became evident that I had shoulder problems. In November I had full rotator cuff repair. And, because I really like to have a challenge, I figured I'd just get my bad toe fixed a few months later. As I've been 'training' the past month (my version of training), I am finding the shoulder is doing great, but my foot is going to be the hang up.  I'm still not able to run on it.  Running, which is my nemisis anyway, is what I'm dreading.

FAMILY STATUS: Married, two boys (2 and 4).

CURRENT TRAINING: I don't have a set schedule for training. Working full time, kids, etc., so I train any time I can fit it in. Generally I work out 4-5 of my lunches each week (one hour each) and would like to get a good 2+ hour work out each weekend.

THIS YEAR'S RACES: We have a local Tri on June 11th. As the date approaches, I'm think this is an ambitious goal considering my foot issues. More Tri's to follow if this one goes well.

WEIGHTLOSS: Although I didn't gain any weight this winter after my surgeries, my muscle I had built last fall has certainly been replaced by a less desirable mass.

I hope to learn a lot from you and the group!

Arin

Hey Arin,

Welcome to the group!  Sounds like you have a challenge or two.   Running isn't my best event either, so I can sympathize.  And training for me is always catch as catch can.  How long has it been since you had your toe worked over?  Did the doctor give you a time frame for when you could start back to running?

I think you're right about June being ambitious, especially with a fussy foot!  Work hard to get there, but, if it comes down to it and you're not where you need to be, don't injure yourself to do the race.  There are always more races. 

Ask all the newbie questions you can think of and I'll try my best to answer.  I may point you to other sources such as books, articles, etc. since I don't (and never will) have all the answers.  

Tootle-loo,

Chris

Hey there, I'm joining up too!

I'm a 39yo married mother of 3 girls (14, 11, 8) and I work full time as a mental health therapist (I'm a social worker). I've run 8 HMs and lots of 5 and 10k's. I'm currently training for my first tri, which I hope to be in June. I would also like to run my first marathon this year but I have some chronic health issues which seem to get in the way every time I've tried training for a full M. For some reason, triathlon training seems to be gentler on my system. But I haven't given up hope on a full this fall.

Basically, I'm a slow BOP runner who thought "I suck at running, I can't swim and I'm scared of my bike. I should try triathlon!" 

I've been working on swimming 2-3 times a week since October. My pool workouts are up to 1000m and I've swum 500m freestyle without rest breaks one time (last weekend!!). I've been on my bike trainer through the winter and still haven't gotten outside with it yet, and am anxious to get going. I live in Eastern Canada, and spring is just thinking about starting sometime soon. 

I'm aiming for 4 runs, 3 bikes and 3 swims a week, knowing full well I will likely miss one or two sessions a week.

Thanks for having me Chris.

I am three months out from my foot surgery. Technically I can start running on it this week, however I'm not feeling ready. What I was really hoping to do is go overboard on my other training, and hopefully I'll do a run/walk (if need be) on my sprint Tri (3 mile run).  What do you think? I'm not trying to break any records with my times. My only goal with this Tri is to finish. 

Also, my first question. Everything I've read indicates you don't want to increase more than 10% each week for your work out. I typically ride about 13-15 miles a ride on my bike. In fact it has been years and years since I've broken this 15 mile mark - time is limiting! This weekend I would like to ride from the nearest town to my home, about 32 miles. Would this be wise? Or am I setting myself up for some problems?

I think I've got my blog figured out to add trainings.  I have to admit, I'm not finding this site extremely user friendly. I'll work on adding friends this evening.

Hey Christie (?)

You'll fit right in here! I love your reasoning for triathlon!   I'm a slow runner too, and slow at the other stuff too.  It's okay, it's all about the fun anyway.  And the post-race beer. 

Sounds like you're coming right along with your swim and that's great!  I think you'll learn to love your bike a whole lot after you're able to get outdoors with it. 

That's a pretty ambitious schedule!  Make sure you are monitoring yourself carefully for signs of over-training.  Sometimes in our enthusiasm we embark on a routine that our bodies aren't geared up for.  Make sure you pay attention to your resting pulse rate - if it starts a climb, you'll need to back off a bit. 

Glad to have you join us! 

Hey Arin,

I actually think biking is probably the best alternative for you for running.  I think it has the most cross-training benefits to running, basically because of the leg turnover.  I read somewhere that keeping your cadence high on the bike will help you to increase your cadence on the run.  You sure don't want to go into the run too soon and put yourself out for the rest of the season as a result.  Maybe ease into the run with some fast walking interspersed with periodic slow jogging for a while.  When you're feeling more comfortable on your foot, then slowly start increasing your jogging periods. 

Now, don't quote me here - everything is based on your own comfort levels and abilities.  I believe most of the time they are talking about not increasing your run milage more than 10% a week and that has a lot to do with the high impact nature of running.  Your body has to build up a tolerance for that. 

Biking on the other hand is a low impact activity.  I think you could reasonably jump up your distance by much more than 10%.  That said, you may want to increase by time increments rather than milage.  Maybe add 15 minutes at at time.  Give your legs a chance to adjust to the idea of more work and your bottom a chance to adjust to more time in the seat.

It took me a while to sort it out and I still haven't gotten it completly whipped.  I have always used a stone aged method for logging my workouts (chisel and stone) and then eventually moved to excel.  I only started using the BT tracker fairly recently myself.  Keep hammering at it though.

Chris

Christie it is!

You're right about the schedule being ambitious and my rationale is that I won't try to make up any missed workouts, knowing that there's lots of other workouts in my plan. I think that's easier than stressing about how to fit in a missed workout (which is my usual m.o.)

I have to figure out how to use the blog now...

Hi Chris, My name is Wendy and I'm from Kansas. If you still have room I'd love to join you guys!

About me: I just turned 44 and I'm a new Grandma! I've lost 31lbs in the last 10 months. Started with walking, I could barely finish a mile without thinking I was going to die! After I started to lose and had more energy I got back to swimming laps again. Then I went through C25K. Great program! Started cycling awhile back as well and I'm hooked! I have done a couple 5k's, one in March one in April. Happy with my finishes, the 1st I was 4th out of 28 in my age group, time was 29.42. The 2nd one I came in 21st out of 98 with a time of 27.13. I have gone on a couple of organized rides and have my 1st bike race May 7th. My 1st Sprint Tri is June 18th! So excited but concerned about the OWS. Don't get me wrong, I'm part fish, but hate murky lake water! I hope I don't freak out and drown!

Current Training Sched: MWF A.M. Run 3miles P.M. Bike 15 miles T-TH A.M. Toss up beween a shorter run or ride P.M. 45 minutes of lap swimming Weekends I try to get in one workout of each spread out across the two days.

Assorted Topics

I want to try to make sure that we cover all aspects of triathlon that you all have issues with or questions about.

In that vein, I will try to address topics such as nutrition, transition, competition -  just kidding - I wanted another "tion" word in there - along with swim, bike, and run issues that you may have.  If there is something else that is on your mind, please feel free to post and let us know. If I don't have an answer for you right away, I'll research it and try to find the best answer I can.

I'd also like to hear periodic reports on how you feel like your training is going.  Far from being inconsequential, you may just be the right motivator for someone else on the group to get out the door! 

My next post will be on nutrition during training and racing so if you have questions about that, please post now so I can be sure to get them answered. 

Tootle-loo

Chris

Hi Wendy!  That's an appropriate name for a Kansan   I have several friends in Kansas (one in Greensburg of all places) and really like visiting them. 

Congratualtions on being a brand new Grandma! You'll like that even more than being a mom - at least I do.  Congratulations on your weight loss as well - and getting back into an active lifestyle! You'll like that almost as much as being a Grandma.   Sounds like you're moving right along in your training. 

A lot of people worry about the OWS if they've only swum in a pool. While you're in the pool, try closing your eyes when your head is in the water and forcing yourself to look up every few strokes to see where you are.  You may not want to do your whole swim practice like that, but you'll get the idea about how to look where you're going with no lines  to guide you. 

 If there are any lakes near you, you might go on a few casual excursions to play in the water just to get used to the idea.  Stick your face in the water swim around a little bit for fun, then later try doing a little meaningful swimming and practice sighting for real.   Eventually you'll wonder what you were worried about!  Oh - always make sure you have a swim buddy when you're doing open water work.  We want to make sure you get to your next race on time!

Welcome to the group!

Chris

I can understand that line of thought!  I miss stuff regularly and stressing over fitting in a missed workout is pretty counter-productive.  It kind of spoils the fun.

It took me a while to sort out the blog, too.  You'll get used to it.  There is a section on the forum that deals specifically with those kinds of questions - about the site, how to use the features etc.  If you have questions there - that's probably the best place to get your answers.  I'm just sort of a poke-around-til-I-get-it-right kind of person.  Then I have to repeat the process the next time

Chris

Training Logs

For those of you who are looking for some help on the training logs, there are several articles here about how to manage them.  http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/category.asp?catid=122  I think you'll find that things will make a little more sense after reading these - they did for me!

Chris

Thanks for having me Chris! We do have a lake right out side of town and as soon as it is warm enough I plan to start some practice swims. I had read about closing my eyes and have tried it, but I guess I need to be more consistent. I swim with clear goggles, do you think getting a dark pair would help "simulate" the murkyness (not sure that's a real word)? Any advice on how to swim pool laps without flipturning or touching the walls as I will not have that benefit in the OWS?

I will get my training log started on this site. I have been logging both my excerise and diet on myfitnesspal.com for close to a year now. I probably won't utilize the meal portion on here as all of my regular foods and recipes are in my database on the other site and would be quite time consuming to start over.

It's 7C here (I guess about 45F) today with 20-40kph winds. I really want to get out on my bike but I'm nervous. It's very hilly where I live and the combo of wind, cold(ish) and hills is intimidating the heck out of me. But, the hills aren't going anywhere and it's almost always windy here (usually windier than today), and at this rate it won't be warm until June (we had snow yesterday...grrrr) so I guess I just need to suck it up and do it. Ack.

I wish I wasn't such a bike wimp!

Hey Wendy,

I have never used dark goggles to simulate the lake water, but then, I never thought about it. It may not be as murky as you expect.  In fact, I regularly get distracted by the fish in our lake (but that's my ADD kicking in).  The biggest thing, really is that you don't have lines on the bottom of the lake to tell you where you are!  So you have to learn to pick up your head and look.  And really, that's a skill that you should begin to learn in the pool.  It takes a little bit of practice. You may chug a bit of water while you adapt and you don't want to get panicky in the lake while you're learning. 

On the flip turn subject – there was quite a raging discussion on that a couple of weeks ago.  You can read through it here: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=247540&posts=54&start=1

There is a video of a (what I consider) a good non-flip turn here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThOauZ7Ip9w

You’ll find that there are two sides to this discussion, and I think there is merit to both.  No you won’t get any push offs in the open water, but neither will you have to slow down/stop to make a turn in an OWS.  If you’re doing indoor triathlons, however, the flip turn is a good tool to have in your bag.  My own turns are more like that in the video, but not as clean.

Chris

Christie - you might want to try starting slower outside.  Wind can be fairly demoralizing on the bike .  Do some short rides - maybe 5-6 miles  - over friendly, close to home territory so  you can make friends with your bike in outdoor conditions.  Then start gradually ramping up as you gain more confidence.   The more comfortable you feel on the road, the more you will be encouraged to go further.   Don't forget to carry ID and a phone with you (I find that I can tuck my phone pretty securly into the leg of my bike shorts).

Chris

Chris,

I would like to join!

I did my first tri sprint 2 weeks ago,it was an open water swim in the ocean and I loved it! I signed up for another shorter sprint in 2 weeks and this one is a lake open water swim.

I am not sure what will be next but I know I want to continue.

I am new at swimming I started in January and I still struggle with it.  I love to bike and I am a certified spinning instructor and running is not my thing but I am trying to get better at it.

I do crossfit every day and I love it, I have been doing it for a year now and I have lost 30 pounds, I still want to lose 5 or 10 pounds more.

for my first tri I use the training from the book triathloning for ordinary mortals an now I am doing the same training for the last two weeks.

I am a PE teacher and I have a 16 year old daughter at home and a 20 year old that moved out a few months ago.

Ana

@ Wendy - Just the other day I was in our local bike shop talking with the owner. He gave me a fantasic idea about how to better practice for the OWS. He uses a bungie type rope, similar to a ski rope but it has some elastic to it. He puts some type of belt on - any will do as long as you can clip the rope to it. Then he secures the rope to something at the end of the pool.  I tried it last night in our pool.  It did work pretty well.  I still have to do some fine tuning --I didn't have any elasitc rope, just a regular rope. I would jerk around pretty hard. I can see where the elastic has its place. Anyway, I thought I would throw that out there as an idea. 

@ Chris -Here is a question to you or anyone who may know the answer. I have a 'skin' wetsuit (basically a 1-2mil) that I've used diving. I was planning on using this for the tri, but was told it will really bog me down - like having a parachute.  Has anyone tried one of these in a Tri?

Also, a real newbie question.  At the transition location, do I bring a towel and lay all my items out on? Do they have a chair?  In otherwords, what kind of non-tri equipment will I have to bring?

I tried a jog/walk the other day on my bad foot. It was fine for a day and a half, but then really started to hurt. Hoping it was the yard work yesterday that caused the pain, not the run.  Sigh.

Arin

Arin, no chair on transition and yes bring a towel I recommend a bright color and lay everything you need on it : bike shoes, number belt, sunglasses, helmet, water, running shoes, hat  I also brought a bright color back pack with extra googles.

Ana

Welcome Ana! 

Wow! You're really getting after it.  I'm glad you're having a good time with the sprints.  The swim is usually what bothers most people, but it sounds like you're doing just fine with that.   Sounds like you're way ahead of the game in the bike department too.  Running isn't my thing either, but just keep plugging away at it.  It's the only way to get to the finish line!

Transitions -

Arin asked a great question which leads to the whole topic of transitions.  As Ana said, no chair in the transitions.  Bring a towel - one that you will recognize as there will be a lot of bikes and stuff.  PLEASE do not tie balloons or stuffed animals or your children to your transition area.  They may be great for you to spot, but trying to do battle with your neighbor's helium balloon on a windy day while you try to get through the transition is most irritating.   If you're not going to use it in an event, or it's not holding what you need, don't bring it. That said, be forewarned: I need a lot of stuff

First, memorize your transition spot.  Set up, go out, and come back in from both the swim side and the bike side so you can go right to your area.  You don't want to be running up and down looking for your bike.  I never have this problem cause by the time I get there everyone has already left!  It's harder for me to find coming back from the bike cause now all the other bikes are back.

In most transistion areas you have an area about the width of your handle bars to work with, so don't bring a lot of extra stuff, Just exactly what you'll need.  You'll see lots of different ways to manage stuff, from tri specific backpacks, to gym bags, etc. I personally, am very low tech - not to mention cheap.  I use a plastic bin - about 10x13x6 - to carry my stuff.  It serves a dual purpose that I'll explain in a few minutes.  It doesn't have a lid, but it fits nicely into one of those reusable grocery bags which makes it easy to carry.

Everybody has their own unique way of managing their race needs.  Since I'm never going to be in contention for podium placement - or even in the top ten of my age group (unless there are only eight racing), I don't get overly concerned with transition times.  Not that I dawdle, but I find if I try to rush through it as fast as I can, I'm going to forget something - sunglasses, race belt, clothes, shoes... you get the idea.  However, I do, want to get through quickly, so I try to have everything laid out in a manner that works for me.  You'll need to experiment with what works for you.  Some folks are minimalists, and others require more support.

 In my picture, you'll see the bike hung up by the seat (I used the weight bench and bar to simulate).  On the aerobars is my helmet, with sunglasses, hair tie, and bike gloves, and race belt.  My bike jersey is hanging on the aerobars as well.  Also on my bike is a Bento Box, which is just a little fabric box with velcro closure strapped to the top bar.  In it I keep things like sports beans or gels or a sandwich (yes, really).  On the ground is my cooler (which I'll explain later) and my bucket with the rest of my stuff.  The bucket has a smaller towel (usually from another race)a squirt bottle, sunscreen, chapstick, my shoes and socks (some people can do without the socks but I'm not one of them. 

My cooler size varies depending on the race. This picture shows my Olympic race cooler.  A sprint race cooler is about a third that size. I like this cooler cause it's got a velcro top which I can just rip open and grap what I want.  Nutrition is another discussion and my needs, like each of ya'lls are very individual and unique.  I'll address that in a couple of days.

So my first transition goes something like this for an Olympic: I come out of the swim and strip off my wetsuit.  Usually the bikes around me are already gone, so I have plenty of room. I toss my wetsuit over the bike rack, step in the bucket and give my feet a quick squirt with the water bottle to get the sand and stuff off, step out on the towel give a quick swipe with the other and but my shoes and socks on. Then I grab my jersey and fight with it until I get it over my wet self - I wouldn't bother but I'll need those pockets later. I shove my hair in the hair tie and slap the helmet on my head and buckle it - you can get DQ'd if you don't have your helmet strap buckled before you get on your bike.  I grab my sunglasses, race belt, and what I need from the cooler stash it in my jersey and on my bike and off I go.   I don't have clip on pedals, so I don't have to change shoes later, but I've seen lots of people who do leave them clipped onto their bike for a faster getaway.  Note:  if you decide to squirt your feet, be sure you do it in such a way that you don't get your neighbor's stuff all wet - that's the primary reason I have the bucket.

My second transition is less involved: Run my bike in, hang it up.  Snatch off my helmet, grab a visor and what I need from the cooler, and I'm gone.

Sprints are less involved - particularly in the heat of summer when the wetsuit isn't a factor.  I also don't use a bike jersey for those since I don't need so much food for those. 

The best thing to do is to practice your transitions.  The first one is the hardest so take all your stuff with you to an OWS practice, and set it up. There likely won't be any bike racks convenient so you may have to find something else to lean your bike up against, but you'll get the picture.  Go all the way through it in practice up to and including running with your bike for a hundred feet or so and then hop on and ride.  You don't have to ride far, just another 100 feet and back.  Then hop off where you got on and run your bike back, put it where it was, a pick up your run gear and run for a couple hundred feet.  Do this several times so you have a good idea ahead of time how you're going to do it. 

If I've forgotten something, or you have other questions, please let me know and I'll address them as best I can.  Remember, though, this is the setup I've found for me.  Lots of folks do things very differently.  Ultimately, you have to learn what works best for you. 

Chris

(transition.jpg)

Hey Arin,

Diving wetsuits and swimming wetsuits are entirely different animals.  I dive as well (love it!), and as tight as dive suits seem to fit, they are not the same.  They'll slow you down, both because of the material and the looseness - even though you think they're snug, they're not.  Swimming wetsuits have a much tighter fit, and more compression than diving wetsuits.  Dive suits are not built for speed. They're also a little more fragile than dive suits.  You have to be cautious when putting them on not to let your fingernails do any damage. 

The best thing to do is to go try on some swimming wetsuits.  Different brands have different fits and you really have to find the one that's right for you.  You can sometimes rent wetsuits and that's a good option if you're not sure how far you're going to take this triathlon thing.   That also give you the opportunity to try a couple differnt ones to see which works well for you.  Like everything else, they come in a large range of prices.  You'll need to decide how much you want to budget for that kind of item.

Chris