jesswah's group - FULL of sexy triathletes! (Page 2)

Okey.  Let's figure out what we all want to learn here - since that's why were all here, right?  What topics interest you (nutrition, swim/bike/run skills, drills, periodization, strength training, finding balance, ...)?  What are your strengths and weaknesses? 

Since I'm asking, I'll start us out.

Strengths: running forever, swim form (or at least I think so!), T2

Weaknesses: biking.  Biking fast, biking up hills, motivation to bike.

Interests: Nutrition is always fascinating, but I train to eat, not eat to train, and am only willing to alter my diet enough to get closer to my ideal weight.  So, it's a matter of eating just healthy enough not to gain, and enjoying food.  My other current interest is biking.  I'm trying to make 2008 the year of the bike, so I can suck less.  Which means I need to devote time to drills, intervals, and strength - as well as ways to make my trainer less boring and more inticing.  Picked up some copies of Bicycling Magazine from my sister and it's got a whole page on different exercises for training your different systems (aerobic, anaerobic, strength, turnover).

I  feel like I need to improve on everything!

Strengths : I am a COMFORTABLE swimmer, but not so fast.  I feel like this is my best area so I should focus more on biking and running.

Weaknesses : Definitely running. I NEED to lose weight before running crazy miles because I will hurt myself. My surgically repaired knee and back tend to bother me when I do too much running volume. Weight loss will improve my biking which is OK considering that I have a really low end road bike with cheap components. I don't have the money or the willingness to waste it to upgrade there yet either.  As The Bear always says on the bike forums...its not the bike its the engine that needs work!!

I love biking and can pull good distances but my speed is average.

I have just started running seriously but my longest run so far has been 5 miles.  This is what I am currently working on with a 1/2 mary planned for February.  The only training plan I have is to run a little more each week, with long and short days within the week.  This is probably where I need the most help right now.

 Swimming-I really don't like doing this, but I am getting in the pool at least once week.  I am currently only doing a breaststroke, if you can call it that.  I am struggling getting from one end of the pool to the other but I find with each time I try, it gets a little easier.  Once I get a comfort with the current style, I will look to some training on a more efficient style.

My nutrition is horrible.  I say that I work hard to be able to eat well.  I know this is not a good plan, but I did make some lifestyle changes a year or so ago by really cutting down on fried foods and red meat (not cut out completley but a serious limit in place).

I categorize myself as - needs to improve on all 3 disciplines!

I am not a fast swimmer, not a fast rider nor a fast runner. My focus so far is endurance over anything else.

Swimming -
I got in the pool about 5 months ago for the first time after years. My son challenged me to swim a few laps along side with him and so I did (actually tried). Well, after 2 laps (50 yards), I had to stop, catch up my breath and look at him while he kept swimming... Since then, I made a nice progress. I can swim 2300 yards now. I had never learned to swim under a supervision of a coach. I simply watched other swimming, I watched swimming competitions on TV and read about it online. The form and technique are two areas in which I can use help. I need to find swimming coach that will be patient enough to walk me through the basics.

OWS are very stressful for me. The combination of a tight wetsuit  (which always makes  me feel like I am going to choke), ocean waves, water depth, living marine creatures and other swimmers kicking and waving inches from my head, is making me very nervous when is comes to actually swimming in an event. To address that, I am attending our club's monthly races - which provides me with all those fear factors combined. Also, from time to time, I am going to an outdoor pool (in the the temperature is low enough), wearing my wetsuit, and swimming out there - to focus on one aspect of my concerns - getting choked due to the wetsuit.

Biking -
I just got my new ride. Up until now, I was riding my old MTB which I bought at BJ's many years ago. They were never a good fit for me, and I always struggled riding them. When racing with them, I felt like I was riding a cheap toy when looking at the other racer's bicycles. About 2 weeks ago I got my first tri-bike - Cervelo P2C and I am really excited about this. I got a chance to ride them twice since then - and loved it. The speed I developed on them was absolutely amazing! I am planning to join a riding group that practice together on the weekends.

Running -
Maybe my "strongest" area.  I am not a fast runner at all. Maybe if I'd weight less I'd become a faster runner. I started training a year and 3 months ago with a goal of running 1/2 a marathon. I started off by running 500 yards and then walking back home. I then followed a training program and about 6 months later, I attended my first half marathon - which I completed in 2 hours and 23 minutes. That made me very proud and happy - but then my knee started giving me troubles so I decided to combine running with other sports - which brought me to the idea of triathlons...

Others -
My weight - I have a goal which is to loose more weight. I was about 250 lbs. when I started training. Although I did not look too bad (as it was spread over my 6'7" height) - it did not feel that great. I am now around 230 lbs. (depends on how close it is to a holiday). It was always a struggle for me to watch my weight and I found that training does help - big time. I would like to loose more weight but it is not my main focus at the moment.

Goals -
My goal is to finish an ironman event at one point. If it will take me 2 years to get there, so be it. I really want it for myself. For my own record. I was never an athlete. Nobody in my family is. I was never exposed to an active lifestyle as a kid but want my kids to grow up differently. This, hopefully, will trigger them to be actively working out - in whatever sport they would like to.

Summary -
That is pretty much it. I am a true beginner. I am here to learn more than I can help. I had set my long term goals and now need to work out the short term goals and see how they fit into the whole picture.

Thanks! 

I need to work on EVERYTHING. I have never been a swimmer. I grew up by a lake but basically I can swim to get to the skis and swim back to the boat after i'm done, thats about it. I swim a couple of laps and Im DONE. I had 1 swim lesson that REALLY helped, but now its a matter of making time. That brings me to my main issue, TIME.

 I am taking 12 hours next semester along with 8hr clinicals a week and a part time job. If i get behind on care plans or studying, my workouts go to hell. So really its a matter of staying on top of my school work.

I am ok with nutrition. Its something that i really enjoy learning about and try to stay up with and if I am working out hard I eat better, because I dont want all that hard work to be for nothing.

Ok, lets start with swimming, since it's the first discipline and by far the most technical.  As Kirk mentioned, Total Immersion is wonderful - there are books, DVDs, and swim camps.  Or you can also hire a swim coach.  Once you have the basics down, you can do a lot of work on your own doing drills to refine technique and increase efficiency.  What about speed?  I'd say, don't worry.  But if you really want to work on speed, do intervals.  Like 200yard repeats with 15-20 sec rest.  You should make sure you have decent form first though, as the more you swim with improper form, the more work it may take to correct.

Drills.  There's drills to work on almost every aspect of swimming.  Fist swimming to work on correct arm position during the pull, side kicking for balance, finger-tip drag for arm recovery, catch-up drill for timing, bilateral breathing, gliding, golf, etc.  The Mountain View Masters swim club a a bunch of drills with descriptions on their site.  You may also be able to find video clips of some drills on YouTube.  Or a good tri related book - which should have sketches and descriptions.

Main set.  Early in the season, I usually focus on just a straight set to work on my base endurance.  So, after a warm-up and some drills, I might just swim 2000+ yards non-stop.  As the season progresses, I try to mix in speed work.  Sometimes it'll be short intervals (100-200 yards), other days longer (500-1000 yard), and every so often a pyramid-type to mix things up (like 8x50, 4x100, 2x200, 1x400 all at 400y pace).  What you put in your main set depends on your goals.  Faster for a short distance, then you're probably better suited to shorter intervals.  Fast time for oly or HIM?  500y repeats would be better than 50y - though you can do both.

How to structure a swim workout.  A swim workout has 4 parts, and usually are done in a set order.  First a warm-up of 200-500 yards to get everything working.  Then drills.  A lot of drills force you to swim slower than normal, so you probably don't want to be doing lots of yardage.  I'd shoot for <300 yards of drills.  Then your main set - either a straight set or intervals.  Then a cool down.  Why do the drills before the main set?  Well, if you're trying to change parts of your technique, you'd be better served to do drills to emphasize these, then practice them as you swim, rather than doing drills, a quick cool down, and hopping out. 

Do you have to do drills?  Nope.  If you like your form, there's nothing that says you have to!!  In fact, there's nothing that says you have to swim the way I outlined, or how the pool studs do.  What do you enjoy?  What gets your butt motivated to go swim?  Do that!!  Bottom line - there's no point scheduling workouts you don't want to do, or don't enjoy.  (Which would explain why I haven't been on my bike for days.)

Okay.. my brain has officially turned to mush.  I'm off to bed for a long sleep.  Zzzzzzz....  Have a good rest of the weekend peeps!!

Hey everyone! Thanks for letting me in the group and sorry for not checking back in. I had to leave town for a funeral and just got back in last night.

Anyway as to the questions posed by our fearless leader:

Strengths: Here's how I feel I am in the three events from best to worst: biking, swimming, running. Here's how I usually place: swimming, biking, running. So it would appear that my swimming is good as well as the biking. I'm by no means happy with them and definitely need to get back on it as I've taken quite a long hiatus. I also feel like my transition are pretty good.

Weakness: Running, nutrition and motivation. I'm not a fast runner and I don't have great confidence in the area. In the HIM I did I blew up on the run and it was a sufferfest, but that's in part to heat but also because of nutrition. In sprints and oly's I didn't really pay that much attention to nutrition and it definitely showed in the HIM. I hope to start not only finding a better plan but also tightening up my normal eating regimine as well. As was mentioned earlier, I love food and do train to eat to a degree.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and has a great holiday!

Hi,

I came across this article that outlines some recommendations of what to eat after an exercise: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/aa081403.htm

Ihope it helps,

Ronen

Here is an area which I can use some advice: Heart Rate. Well, I am using a HRM in all my exercise and I really think that this is a type of a safety net. I am following some basic guidelines of MaxHR MinHR and different workout zones.

What I have found myself doing in many of the longer runs or bike rides, is slowing down and reducing the incline as my HR reaches above the recommended zones. As it goes back down, I increase my speed again and after a short while my HR would climb again and so on.

My question is: Can anything be done about this? If so, what should I do?

Thank you in advance,

Ronen.

For before, I think that's more personal.  If it's been >3 hours since I've eaten, I'll have a light snack (think granola bar, Gu) if I'm headed out for >1 hour.  Otherwise, I usually don't bother.  After, yes, eat!  Recommendations I've heard is 100-200 calories in the first 15 minutes after ceasing exercising to replenish consumed carbs.  The ideal is a 4:1 carbs-to-protein ratio, which I think is supposed to maximize nutrient uptake, and therefore recovery.  Ex: something with 24 g of carbs and 6 g of protein (120 cal if it has no fat).  However, I'm not sure how this will impact soreness - I believe it mostly has to do with recovering energy-wise.  For soreness after long runs, ice baths are supposed to be great.  I've never tried it as I am a wimp - the idea of sitting in a bathtub of ice for 10-15 minutes sounds like TORTURE!  (If you do this though, I've heard it's easier to get in, then add ice, not the other way)

First, where are these recommended HR zones from?  Ideally they should be determined, but this can be painful, and obviously inaccurate if you don't push yourself to your absolute max.  The next best thing is to use one of many formulas to estimate.  Then, from your max HR you can determine HR zones for different intensity levels.

Friel's book (The Triathlete's Training Bible) has instructions on how to conduct swim, bike, and run graded exercise tests, with a HR monitor to determine your lactate threshold HR.  Then it's got tables that tell you your HR intensity zones based on your LTHR.  I'm guessing it takes a bit of time, but if you are curious, it may be worth it.

Just found a run down of the test protocol and HR zone tables on the PTS website.

OK, this is probably longer than you wanted..... but now you've got multiple zones for each sport.  What to do with them, and when to use what zones?  In short, zone 1-2 is recovery between intervals, long endurance runs/rides with be in zones 2-3, and zones 4+ are for intervals.  The higher the HR, the shorter the interval.  And this is how training can get incredibly technical!

In short, I'd say, if you feel like you are going at a pace you could maintain for hours, then there is no need to slow it down - unless the plan has you scheduled for active recovery.  If you feel like you are going hard on your long ride, then you probably are - paying attention to perceived effort may help you sort out when to back off, and when to keep chugging along.

You're not kidding. We're were second to last....what's up with that!!

Happy New Year to everyone! Be safe and start the year off strong!

I am working on this lovely holiday night. As someone who has kids and a very demanding job as far as time goes, I have found the only way to make sure I get the workouts in is to get up as early as I need to. This way, there is less impact on my family and whatever pops up during the day workwise or kidwise it doesn't cause me to skip the workout. I know that will mean some 4 a.m. wake ups for me this spring, but it will be worth it in the long run!!!

I second the early morning workouts.  The alarm, and the cat, go off at 3:40am.  After taking care of the horses, we're out the door to the gym by 4:30.  That way, I'm able to get in one good workout before work.  If I manage a second after work, that's just bonus. 

As someone who had gone through the same thing, I know exactly what you are going through. The way I chose was to do it in 3 weeks by cutting 3 cans a day each week - such that in the first week, I had "only" 9 cans a day, in the second week 6 and so on.

Now, after a while of drinking ice tap water, bottled water or energy drink (form time to time), whenever I grab a can of soda, it tastes like a medicine to me...