Jenny (jsnowash)'s Spring Guinea Pig Group - CLOSED (Page 20)

Yes, indeed, GAME ON!  Good for you, Brian. 

I had the most wonderful run this morning.  I actually got out of the house when I planned and hit the road without picking any route.  I just meandered around a bunch of residential streets, often with zero traffic so I could run in the road and not fiddle with sidewalks and curbs.  After the last few very hot days, it was a beautiful cool morning.  I have been running intentionally without my ipod for several months but sometimes I struggle to keep thoughts in my head other than focusing on my legs or breathing.  When I get bored, I recite my little mantra, "Lighter, Longer, Faster, Stronger"  which I mix up depending on what comes to mind.  I ran for 90 minutes and I think I could have gone another 90 more.  So nice when everything feels good.

Have a great day!

Had a good 90 minute ride last night.  Felt pretty good.  "Fast Five" was a decent movie.  Alot of parallels to Oceans Eleven, but that's not a bad thing.  The chase scenes stretched the limits of physics...ok, the chase scenes were just not plausible, but who cares.  It was good indoor bike fare.

Did some abs today, but it was a long day at work, so I'm going to brick tomorrow rather than go too hard today.  Also took my bike into the shop to get tuned-up ahead of my HIM in a couple of weeks.

That's about it from here today.  Hope everybody is having a great day today.

Did a bike-run brick earlier today (10 mile bike-6.3 mile run)...and wow, it's hot and humid here in NY.  I'm just glad I got out this morning before it got even worse.  BTW, did I say it was hot and humid yet?  

Hope everyone is healing and doing well.  Happy Friday.

Brian, training in humidity has got to be stifling.  We have plenty of heat, but virtually no humidity.  We have drought conditions here.  If it makes you feel any better - I will get wrinkles faster than you will!

I did a bike/run brick too this morning.  Rode for an hour, ran for half hour.  The transition to running is definitely getting easier.  It does help to know that the wooden leg syndrome will pass after a while.  I have found that if I don't push too hard the first 3-4 minutes, then it goes away quicker than if I try to get to a fast stride too soon.  Of course, my fast stride is another runners' jog...

Enjoy your weekend, all!

Jeff - ouch!  man, sorry to hear about your rib.  How long did the doctor say it will take to heal?  wishing you all the best for a quick recovery.  

@Jenny - yikes on your dog.  glad to hear it ended ok.

I biked 40 miles outside today.  I started at 5:30am-ish, and it was already 80 degrees.  I was expecting the worst given the high temps so early, but the temperature and humidity didn't increase too much on my 2 hour ride, so overall the weather was surprisingly reasonable.

My goal today was to really push it up the hills, and that went fairly well.  Will probably get up early tomorrow morning and go for a long run.  HIM in 13 days and counting...

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  

@Jeff, oh man, that sucks.  I've heard you can break a rib just coughing wrong.

@Jenny, if you don't get nervous before a long endurance event something's wrong.  You're going to do great.

I've got a Sprint Tri on the 4th.  I'm not feeling terribly confident but I'm going to try to turn that around before the event.  Even if the fitness may be off a little, the brain can overcome a lot of things.  If I finish faster than my previous (and only other) Sprint Tri, I'll be happy.

Bill

Not much to report here in smoky and hot Montana.  We are just on the edge of a 160,000 acre fire that has us choked with lots of smoke and haze.  We have had power outages with power lines being burned down.  I hopped on the trainer this morning as we had no power at our house out of town.  My husband joked that he should figure out some way to connect the generator to the trainer so we could at least keep his beer cold.  Funny guy....

I usually work out before 7 am to get it done and to avoid the heat, but I did a run on Saturday about the time of day that I think my sprint tri will run.  Running in the heat doesn't usually bother me, but this time I battled a little nausea at the end -  oops, need to be careful with that.  Do any of you use nutrition products after a workout to replenish from heat?  I have read about salt tablets, but I have never tried anything other than just water and fruit.

Got up early yesterday am and ran 6.3 miles.  My first mile was relatively slow, but did "negative splits" for the balance of the run, which surprised me.  I pace myself to how I feel, and I guess I was feeling better on the second half of my run.  I also tried to 'attack' the hills better on my run - and I think this was a big help to my overall time.  The HIM race that I have scheduled in less than 2 weeks has some serious hills on the run, so I'm trying to incorporate some more race-like conditions on my training runs...so long story short, yesterday morning's run felt really good and I was happy with my time.

Today, I plan to get into the pool for 2000-3000.  And tomorrow, probably get up early again for a long distance bike ride.  

@Heather and Jaycee - Happy belated Canada Day.

@everybody else - Hope everyone has a nice (and safe) July 4th tomorrow.  It's kinda nice to have a holiday mid-week.

Happy Tuesday to all.

Thanks to all for your "get well soon" wishes.

@Jenny-Glad the pooch is ok.  Those furry little buggers really become a part of the family.

I had worked a good bit of OT at work, so I was able to (finally) buy a new Profile Design Wahoo wetsuit and some Pearl Izumi IsoTransition shoes.  Unfortunately, they arrived right when I hurt the rib.  But yesterday I took them both out; OWS was tough-it hurts to get into suit and the swim stroke didn't do it any favors, but you just grit your teeth and bare it.  Wetsuit performed flawlessly.  You really CAN feel your legs being lifted up. 

PI shoes are simply perfect.  They are without a doubt the most functional, comfortable pair of shoes I've owned.  They are race ready right out of the box.   (I wrote reviews on both the wetsuit and shoes).

Have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July. 

Planning my 4th of July annual picnic at our house without fireworks - complete ban statewide with the fires.  I completely understand but I have grown men in my family who act like 9 y.o. boys when you start talking about fireworks.  Guess they will just have to make do with horseshoes .... sigh.....

Had a nice run this morning and hitting the pool later today.  Brian, I appreciate what you said about attacking the hills.  We don't have many around my routes, but sometimes when I have hills I kind of chug down.  How do you attack a hill specifically?  I have read a little about Chi running which I have tried to incorporate into my general stride, but I wonder if stride changes on a hill.  I usually imagine a string from my forearm to the top of my knees lifting my leg when I take a hill.   Just curious if others have a trick for hills.

Attack hills...good question.  I notice that when I normally go up hills, my stride get shorter/cadence increases/running mechanics change.  I think this is typical for just about everybody because of the hill, ie. gravity is working against the body.  And I'm also going slower up the hills, again it's hard to argue against gravity.  

So, when I 'attack' hills, I try to maintain as normal of a stride and running mechanics as I can, and try not to slow down too much.  Gravity is still working against me, but instead of chugging up a hill, I'm trying to run up the hill.  

Perhaps it's not that big of a difference in some respects, but I've noticed the difference in terms of my run fitness and on the clock.  

Does that make sense?  

@Janette-I've always thought 'attacking' a hill was a state-of-mind.  I KNOW most of my competition is going to slow down going up a hill; so I try and speed up. But I, also, take shorter strides, rolling onto and through the balls of my feet (using my toes to help push me) , lean INTO the face of the hill so gravity is working for you and really utilize a exagerated arm swing.  Also, run THROUGH the top of the hill-don't just stop at the top.

Hi all,

It's been a while.  I've been feeling kind of "meh" about training, so I took some time off.  I was still hiking, walking the dogs, playing soccer and softball, but I tried to take a few weeks and only do what I felt like doing.  I think it helped, and I finally started running again (just a short 2 miles) this evening.  I had a great run, so I'm feeling pretty good about that.

@ Janette - I was taught to run hills by lifting your chin and focussing your eyes on something just over the crest (a telephone pole or tree is a great choice) which helps fool your brain into thinking that the hill is not as bad as it would seem if you were looking at the slope, then to concentrate on lifting your knees as you run up and over.  This has always helped me pass tons of people on hills during races.  (the only exception to this rule was San Francisco where the hills were insane. I walked up those.)

Happy 4th to all the Americans in the group. Hope your weather is as great as ours was on the 1st!

~ Heather

Well, I did my second Sprint Triathlon this morning and seriously surprised myself.  I was thinking a 1:19 or so but ended up with a 1:09:01.  That's 16 minutes faster than my first Sprint Tri.

Swim  1/4 mile  10:23 (probably the best I could hope for! I'm slow.)

T1  2:03 (lost some time here becuase my stupid shirt wouldn't go on!)

Bike  9.8 miles  30:21  (19.77 mph.  Wow.  Never ridden that fast!)

T2  1:42

Run  3 miles  24:30  (8:10 m/m.  Quite a slow run.  Hot.  HR spiked.)

Overall  1:09:01  (3 in AG.  Missed 2nd by 16 seconds.)

HAPPY! and very surprised I did that well.

Bill

@Bill - congrats on your Sprint tri.  Seems as if your training and race plan were completely dialed-in...great job!

I got up early on July 4 for a long bike ride.  When I got up at oh dark thirty, it was raining and about 75 degrees.  Since the rain wasn't too heavy - it was just sprinkling - I decided to go for a ride anyway.  It rained the entire time and in some places there standing water on the road.  Needless to say, I took it easy, especially on the downhills.  I was thoroughly soaked by the time I finished.  And on the way home, I was thinking about what indoor activities to do with my family today since it was unlikely that we could goto the beach due to the weather.

Well, by 9am, the rain was gone.  We had blue sky and temperatures approaching the mid-90s...in other words, great beach weather.  It was as if Mother Nature flipped a switch.  BTW, the weather folks on local news said it was supposed to rain pretty much all day...so much for their forecast.  

In any case, I hope everyone had a great July 4 and Happy Thursday.

@Bill-GREAT JOB.  Those  are some good numbers.  Maybe try swimming in a shirt to get you through T1 a bit faster. 

Hope everyone had a great 4th.  I managed a nice OWS-still digging the new wetsuit; then a 4 mile run to the college.  Lots of pedestrian traffic.  Falling more in love with my PI IsoTransition shoes.

Rib still pretty sore.  Stumbled on a casual bike ride later in the day and really tweaked it good.  Oddly, it feels better today than it has. 

Bill - Congratulations on your Sprint race! 

GP's - thanks for the tips on hill running.  Good info. 

I did a long run early Wednesday morning.  My route was 10 miles and it felt pretty good.  I did have achy legs later, but a dose of Advil took care of that. 

Awesome 4th of July celebration with a great group of family and friends.  Some of our group was gone fighting fires so we felt a little guilty sitting in the AC drinking cold beer but that only lasted - oh, 5 seconds or so!  We cancelled our usual fireworks and opted instead for a huge water balloon, water hose and water blaster fight.  It was hysterical to watch the grown ups and the kids all plotting war!  No one escaped water casualty - even my 91 y.o. grandfather!  This morning I picked up a zillion water balloon scraps rather than the usual firework debris.  Fun, fun.

Hi GPs! Sounds like everyone's training is going well. 

@Jenny - so glad to hear that your dog is okay! i can't imagine how terrifying it must've been and so lucky your son found him when he did. 

Hope all our American friends had a great 4th of July.

My tendinitis seems to be getting better. I've been letting it rest, doing my exercises as prescribed by my physio. However, I don't want to start pushing it too much too soon so I'm still just focusing on my swimming. I've been really happy with how my swimming has been improving (if only this could've happened in conjunction with bike/run training). I've done a lot of open water swimming this summer. I've learned to push the pace a little bit more when OWS-ing. I find that without the lanes I don't know how fast I should be swimming and my OWS pace ends up slower than I expected. However, if I push a little harder, it ends up right where I want it to be. 

For example, I did a 600m ows swim to start and averaged around 2 min/100m which is a bit slow since my pool swims usually average around 1:35-1:40/100m. When I tried to speed up a little, I ended up swimming the next 800m at around a 1:52 pace which I was happier with. 

I'm going on vacation next week and will have limited internet but hopefully when I get back I can (fingers crossed) start a bit of training again. 

JayCee - have a great vacation!

I did an OWS yesterday and there were several people in the water floating/fishing/goofing.  I think that is the secret to my freak out factor - I need other people in the water.  I still struggle with swimming very far, very fast, but I didn't freak out and bolt out of the water.  I got some optic goggles and a contact for my one good eye and that helps to be able to see.  I still swim crooked though!

I set out my gear in order of what I imagine my transitions might be - rehearsing in my head the sequence.  I have practiced the bike to run transition several times but have yet to do swim to bike because of logistics of my swimming locations.  But, whenever I take off my wet suit, I need to hold on to something to get the ankles and feet out.  I have tried the lube stuff around my ankles, but I can't seem to get enough pull without losing my balance.  Do any of you use a bucket and sit down?  I have read a few posts about people that do.  Depending on how my bike is racked, I might be able to just grab onto it for the little support I need.  Geez, I will be glad when I have this first tri under my belt .....

@Janette - Sounds like you're on the right track for your race.  In addition to thinking out your transitions, I would actually lay out all your gear for T1 and T2, and practice a bit with it.  There are plenty of good checklists out there about what you're likely to need, but there is no substitute, imho, to walking through T1 and T2 to see if everything is in order.  For my first race, I over packed, but have since gotten better at it.  My two other suggestions - 1. Check the weather.  If it's likely to rain, then pack your gear in plastic or ziploc bags to keep stuff dry, esp. your running socks and running shoes.  If it's sunny and hot, then perhaps pack some extra water/gatorade/fluids, sunscreen and a running hat/visor.  2.  Make sure your running shoes are untied.  I made this stupid error on my first race.  All this said, I'm sure you'll do great.

I ran 9.6 miles today.  This will be my last long run before next weekend's race.  Overall, I felt pretty good.  It was really hot here this morning, so my pace was a bit slower that what I anticipated.  Practiced my race nutrition as well, and overall that seems ok.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Brian

Hey all.  Biked for an hour on my indoor bike this evening.  I was hoping to get out this am for a long bike ride, but I didn't think that was a good idea given how tired I was.  And since I have a HIM next week, I thought some extra rest was probably the best course of action...or inaction as the case may be.

Hopefully 'taper week' will prove to be uneventful in terms of work, so I can be prepared for next week's race.  Fingers crossed.

That's about it from here.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Brian