Todd's Tri Turtles 7 (Beginner - Sprints, 5K, 10K) - OPEN (Page 2)

Count me in on the Feb challenge!

Tom, you may already have a swim watch of some sort but I found a garmin swim watch to be helpful when I first started swimming; still have take a glance at it to know how you are doing during a set. It gives a tone/vibration at the yardage/meters mark you set; I can kinda get a feel where I am in a set based on where I'm at when it gives me a tone/vibration.

All that said I'm slower than all get out n the pool anyway......so I'm certain others hacd better methods.....

Thanks Bill! I will look into that.

NAME: Joel

I am brand spanking new to Triathlon! I was talked into a 70.3 by 2 good friends who like to run... long story short I am not a good runner... like 2 miles in I am saying I have a bike or car why am i not using those? But all in all the month of training that i have been doing i have found im starting to enjoy cardio again. But i am really looking forward to the journey!


2019 Races : doing a Sprint in March, Planning for a Olympic in June, and then the 70.3 in Sept..

FAMILY STATUS Single

CURRENT TRAINING: Using Joe Friel's "Your First Triathlon" using the beginner Olympic plan.

2019 RACES: Sprint in March (swimming pool stationary bike and indoor track) June or July Olympic distance Sept: Lake Placid 70.3

WEIGHT LOSS: hopefully a good bit. I think I am aiming at 250-240 by September...

Joel,

Welcome to the group and congrats on the decision to take up Triathlon. You really jumped in head first but I’m not one to tell you that you should not have signed up for a half in your first year. As long as you train properly you can be ready. A few things jumped out to me though. I like that you are progressing but I’d probably throw in an outdoor sprint with open water swim before the Olympic. If I remember looking at it right Placid 70.3 is very hilly so make sure you are really prepared for that 56 mile ride. This is also an issue because you don’t really like running so if you are spent after the bike it’s going to make for a very slow and long half marathon. Last and you are possibly doing it but didn’t put it, I’d do some stand alone runs and group rides events if you can. The events will keep you motivated while offering training and feedback. Again welcome and thanks for bringing us on your journey to 70.3!

Tom, I wear my Garmin 920 to keep track and for logging but it hard to see through googles. That being said, I use the clock on the wall and start at an even time, which allows me to roughly know my time for whatever distance / set that I’m doing. While not fast I’m blessed that if I just go at an even pace it’s roughly 2 minutes per hundred. I also at least once a month would jump in and swim as many laps as I could in 30 minutes with breaks in there if needed. You can then compare distance swam each test time and instantly tell what your average is and what kind of improvements you have made.

Joel...welcome; sounds like you’ve set out a good plan. Todd’s remarks are on target. Also while training hard know when to take a rest as well....hardest thing to do sometimes is to not “overdo”! I know-been there done that....

Hi Turtles,

Welcome Joel, hope you enjoy your tri efforts.

I'm really enjoying the hot Summer days and taking advantage of the weather by training early in the day before it gets too hot. So different to parts of the USA that we see on the news.

It's now 1 week out to my next race. This morning I went to the venue where the race is being held and did the run and swim. I plan to ride the bike course tomorrow and revisit a couple of times during the week. I'm fortunate that it's only a 20 minute drive from home.

The water was warm and clear and I made note of currents and sand banks. It's good to know but it can be different on race day. I'll go for a swim at the venue the day before the race at the same time as the race start so I'll know what to expect with the tide and currents. I also learned that from the waters edge to T1 is a fairly steep run along the sand.

I also made some tactical notes on the run course. It's good to have a going in plan but I'll also have a "Plan B" in case I start to run out of gas on the run.

How is everybody going with the February Challenge?

Rod,
That is some serious recon before the race. I never really thought about that, but can see how it would be very beneficial. Thank you for the tip.

February challenge is going well. I have about two more weeks of the crossfit class I signed up for then I will add swimming back into my routine. I was trying to swing both, but was really struggling to get through the crossfit workouts and since I paid money for the crossfit class I put the swimming on hold for a bit. The crossfit class is giving me some good lower back strength, which I desperately needed.

I upped my run pace today and it was a real struggle. I will stay at this pace for a few more weeks until it becomes comfortable and up it again (and again, and again, ....). My official training program starts at the end of February for my June triathlon (first one!).


I feel like I need some profound/inspirational signature looking at everyone else's posts. We're getting a blizzard today so I will have some time to ponder this.

Tom

I was thinking about you guys today with the blizzard. We have the other extremes. In my state we are having bush fires (wild fires) and in North Queensland they are flooded. The city of Townsville , population approx 200,000 resembles New Orleans after Katrina. Many rivers have burst their banks and suburbs evacuated. Oh, did I mention crocodiles are swimming in streets.

I was planning to head to Townsville this winter. We will see what happens.

"crocodiles are swimming in streets" WOW! I thought packing heat while hiking in grizzly country was a necessary pain, sounds like you need to just to get the mail, LOL! Stay safe!

Rod....good for you checking out the race site!!!! Wise!!

Crocs in the streets????? Guess the old saying "up to your rear end in gators (or crocs)" is true!!!

Weather broke here for us over the weekend......nearly a 70 degree swing in temps from midweek last week to today.....

Let us know how the race goes.....

Tom....hopefully the frigid weather broke for you.....we suffered an artic blast last week; it finally eased up over the weekend. I just know our 2 Vizslas hated getting out into deep snow to do their business. Luckily we were able to get in a walk/training session with them over the weekend and again today. They had a sever case of cabin fever!!!

Had a pretty good swim today.....anytime I can complete 2K yards in under an hour is good for me.....felt it afterwards. Still haven't gotten back to the kick sets due to the hip issues. Guess I'll just need to bite the bullet and start those again. Kick sets are the pits!!

Bill, ya the temperatures are 5X warmer today than yesterday ( 1 degrees to 5 degrees)! It looks like we will be in this pattern for another week, after that it should start a gradual spring thaw. I can't complain too much as we've had a pretty mild winter, for us anyway. On the plus side skiing is getting much better.

Good work on the swim! Swimming is by far my weakest link.

Rod, best of luck with the race and if it is over when you see this congrats and let us know how it went.

Unfortunately our run of beautiful warm weather ended about last Wednesday. We've had wind and rain and but no too cold. I went to check out the swim on Saturday and it was a real struggle even to walk along the beach let alone swim. I didn't dare go in. I woke this morning and noticed the wind had dropped. So I was hopeful of a good race.

The wind picked up again and I had a quick dip in the bay before the race to feel the temperature and assess the conditions. It was very difficult to swim in 2-4 foot chop. We were given the option to swim or not, I decided to try. The chop made it hard to get any rhythm going and I wasn't making much progress. Before the first marker it became clear to me that I would not complete the swim course and mad the decision to quit the swim. Not like me to quit anything but self preservation took priority. I got a tow back from a life saver on a jet ski and then waited with about 6 others for the last swimmer to complete the course. We were then able to continue the race. I'm sure that this is a local rule but as it was a Beginners race the aim was to get people involved.

I was very happy with my bike ride except for a pedestrian stepping out in front of me as I was getting up to speed. I aim to ride between 25 - 30 KMH but managed 20 -25 KMH into the wind and 35-40 KMH with the wind at my back. The run was flat and it wasn't impacted by the wind. Not sure what happened with the timing but my T1 & T2 times were combined with my bike leg. I managed a PB on the run.

I stayed for the medal presentations to congratulate the winners and was very surprised to hear my name called out as the winner of the Male 60 - 69 age group. I wasn't too excited as I was the only entrant in the category and not having completed the swim I'm treating it as a Participation Medal. Still it's nice to get a small reward for the effort.

I'm now considering how to improve my open water swimming in rough conditions and that can only be practice and practicing as part of a group as I wouldn't dare to swim alone in such conditions.

Rod....sounds like some very tough conditions and you made a good decision on the swim portion. Congrats on the PB for the run!! And what the heck....even though you were the only one in your age group...you finished ahead of all those others who didn’t have the motivation to get out there and push themselves!!

Congrats!!!!

Thanks Bill.

Just received corrected times for the bike leg and did a PB on the bike too.

Awesome Rod, sounds like you were handed some adverse conditions, adapted, and turned in a PB on the bike and the run. That is a good days work! Not sure where you are at in your season down there, but you've raised the bar for the rest of it.

Rod...even better with a PB on the bike!!! Tom is right...you raised the bar for all here!!!!

Later getting a session in today, nasty weather (again!!!) moves up the need to complete a couple errands early. So, had to dig deep to get the motivation to get on the trainer....but I did!! Ended up being a better session than I expected. Back to the pool in the am....

Sorry guys, bad week at work. I’ll catch up tomorrow and post.

Hi Turtles,

A quiet week for me last week. I find I need to take a week off every 6 weeks or so for rest and recovery. I pulled up ok after the recent race but my body was telling me to slow down so I listened. I registered for my next race in late March so I'll refocus when I return from a week away at the beach. I'm hoping to getting a couple of runs and swims in while I'm away but these will be very relaxed rather than at my regular training level.

Great wisdom in your approach to resting periodically!!! Leaning toward resting today myself but it's snowed again and I'll need to do some clearing of the drive and walkways; not much but I'll just "count" that as a strength session! Had a particularly good week in the pool last week. A new high in yardage for my swim last Monday.....

Hello Turtles,
Had my last crossfit class on Saturday and will resume swimming in the pool again on Tuesday. My training plan that I will be using is starting up on February 24th. It is a phone app called TriTrainer by JammyCo. You enter your race date and it works backwards to determine a start date for your plan. Up till now I have been just getting in some workouts so I can hit the ground running (pun intended) when my training plan starts.

Thinking about this has made me curious what others here use for their training plans? I just basically downloaded the first app I came across and didn't put a lot of thought or research into it, perhaps I should have.

Happy Presidents Day,

Tom