triOK's Group - FULL (Page 2)

Hey Erik!

I keep 2 towels at my transition transition area.  One to "mark my territory" if you will, and a smaller one to dry my feet off.  I usually don't worry about drying off otherwise, but you need to do what makes you feel comfy.  If its cold, then dry off.  Another tidbit:  bring flipflops to run in while going from the pool to the bike.  Just find a little spot near the pool exit that you can keep them.  As you are running past, jump into them and get to the bike.

A race belt is a must.  You can get one at www.coremultisport.com.  They are super fast; just snap it on and your gone.  It flaps around, but they are usually pretty tough, and I have never had a problem.  Oh, yes, most of the time you are required to wear your number on the bike.

Welcome everyone!  It will take me some time to get through all of your questions, but I will give it a shot.

Wilie05:  Do you have your race picked out yet?  Start there.  That will give you the ultimate goal and motivation!

gc150 - 2007-02-06 4:45 PM Hi Robyn, I would like to join your group if it's still open. I've done a couple of marathons and I just did my first century last year. I learned how to swim 2 years ago so I would like to do my first triathlon sometime this year. I live in New York and was looking at the competitor information for some of the local triathlons and they seem to all have so many penalties and rules. It made me a little wary of signing up before I knew what I was getting into. I have a couple of initial questions, I read in one of the triathlons that flip turns will be penalized, what's the recommended way of turning in a pool. I have a habit of pulling up on the edge of the pool to turn, will that be penalized? Also, how does these waves work? How do they put you in a wave? What if I'm faster or slower than the other swimmers in my wave. Thanks in advance! Grace

OK, to answer some of your questions:  It depends.

There are a lot of rules, but most of them are common sense.  The most important ones you should remember are NO DRAFTING and don't leave the course (if you step off the course to.... relieve yourself... you can be DQed).  The rest of the time, it just depends on the race.  I am pretty sure that flip-turns are not illegal, but on a snake swim they aren't useful anyway. 

Waves can be put together differently.  In pool swims, they usually group you according to your 500m swim time.  In OWS, you are usually grouped by age.  If you are faster or slower than people in your wave, then you do exactly what you do on the bike or run;  Pass or get passed.

Hi shultzboy!  Welcome to the group!

You might want to look at going to the YMCA to swim.  I don't know if it works any differently, but here you don't have to be a member to you their facilities.  Its $5 and you can swim your little heart out.  I think other corporate gyms are similar.

Since your limiter, like most of us, is swimming, I would not put off training in the pool.  Swimming tends to be the hardest discipline to master and it takes hours and hours and hours and hours of pool time to get to the point where you can swim efficiently.  Our goal, as I have mentioned above, is to get out of the water fresh.  If you can't swim well, you are dooming your race before it ever begins.

POOL TIME, PEOPLE!  That's what I'm sayin'!

What would you guys think of challenging some of the other mentor groups?  We have people here that come from all different backgrounds and have different goals.  I think this would definitely keep us all motivated and bring us closer to our own goals.

If you haven't noticed, I have a very competitive personality and to me, there is nothing like a good challenge to keep me going.  I won't make a post about it until you guys decide that this is something that you would like to do.  Here is an example of what I mean...

I am willing to make the challenge that my mentor group is more motivated and dedicated to their new lifestyle than all of the other mentor groups.  And to prove it, we can compare things like:

weight lost per person

most time in the pool / on bike / pounding the pavement (or dreadmill)

most improved strength

best nutrition

most inspires between teammates

most consistent training

etc, etc...

What do you guys think?  Its not going to be about speed or distance.  Its about getting you to your goals...

I've heard people talking about that, but I have no clue what it is. I'll do some online research and check it out, thanks!

The challenge idea sounds good! I'm pretty competitive too, so this should be fun if we can beat the socks off another group.

Erik,

Mike Ricci, our own BT coach, has got a huge thread on it in the Tri Talk forum.  Try to see if you can find it there.  He explains it WAY better than I can.

I'm a Z1/Z2 Kool Aid Kid!  You'll understand when you read the thread.

Oh sorry... We have some new peep's to add to our "family"

willie05

gc150

schultzboy

No_Mercy

poke4christ

YAY!  Everyone has avatars and is looking good!

OK...If we decide to issue a challenge to another group, what kinds of things do you want to include in the challenge.  Remember, this is a beginner's mentor program and our ultimate goal here is to prep you for your goal race, without injury.  We should include both physical/training type things, as well as "team building things."  Post any and all suggestions...

I am going to talk a little trash to some fellow BT mentors to get some interested parties involved to see what they think.