RE-OPENED Birkierunner's 2013 mentor group - RE-OPENED!!! (Page 20)

Here's my story. I am a 28 years old,  married, and will be a father on October 7!!!!! I live in Corinth, MS. I have always enjoyed competitive sports like basketball, football, and golf. Four years ago I started riding road bikes and joined a local bike group. I like riding but I have always wanted to do a triathlon and improve my overall fitness. My winter season was spent mostly doing insanity workouts and not much time on the bike. Since January I have been building a run base and started hitting the pool. Over the last few months its been difficult working on swimming technique, but I have slowly seen improvement in endurance. My run base is now to about 18 to 22 miles a week. I am starting to hit the bike harder, since our groups have started back. We do 20-25 mile routes Tuesday and Thursday and starting out with 30-40 mile routes on Saturdays. I am very excited about completing my first Triathlon and have scheduled two more in the summer. I do not have a background in endurance races or training, so I am hoping to gain more training knowledge as well as other triathlon help info. I do not have a Triathlon bike, but I have aero bars on my Specialized Roubaix.

Congrats on being an expectant father.  Sounds llike you've got a start on the 3 disciplines.  Don't worry about not having a tri bike.  I raced my first 2 seasons, including 2 IM, on my Trek 2300 road bike with aerobar clip-ons.

What's your first name?

HUH??  i get sick with the flu and miss a couple of weeks only to come back to find chatter about keeping the group going????  were we stopping????

got the flu about 2 weeks ago but back at full strength now and feeling stronger than ever!!!  one thing about triathlon workouts and the intensity/duration of it all is that it really has a big effect on the immune system and little colds and sickness can easily turn into major ordeals!!  Remember to take days off along the way and also eat as healthy as you can and get as much rest as possible (ya, i know, easier said than done!!)

Todd, the most important thing to keep in mind as you undertake IM training is consistency.  Life always gets in the way of a training plan but if you can rig your schedule to minimize interruptions your program will be more successful.  As for the swim training you should do the workouts as they are prescribed, with full warmups, any drills they prescribe and then the main set.  If you are strapped for time I would try to get in the warmup and main set.  Your ability level as a swimmer will dictate how much time you should spend on drill work.  With regards to open water vs the pool...its great that you have access to open water for training.  However, I would still use the pool for a lot of your workouts because it will be easier to maintain the structure (i.e. sets, reps, distances, time, etc) of the prescribed workout in a pool.  Save the open water for your longer swims where you can get in the needed distance plus work on your sighting skills.

If I can add to this.  Sometimes you don't need to take a full day off if you don't want to - just make it an easier day.  In some ways (for some people) it works out better than actually taking the full day off.  Last summer most of my weekends were  the typical long bike one day, long run the next day.  My normal Monday was an easier swim, just to keep moving.  I found that for me this worked better than taking the day off.

That said, there are certainly other days where I realize before, or just after starting, a workout that today is not the day, and I'm better off bagging the workout.  But it can be hard to figure out when to HTFU, and when to actually walk away from a workout.  And if I do walk away, I inevitably feel guilty about it, even though it was likely the right thing to do.

I would like to join this group if I may.  My name is Carl. Im 44, I  Live in CT, Married and Father of 2.  I have been on BT since 2007,  I have raced multiple sprint and Olympic distances. I also have run about 10 half marys and a Marathon in Chicago.

 This year Im stepping up to a HIM in June and then IM Florida in November. I primarily would like to join this group to get some good advice on training for the HIM and IM distances. Im super excited, yet a bit nervous as well to take on these endeavors.  Biking is probably an area where I need the most work.

Welcome to the group Carl!  I have IM Arizona in November (doing Mont Tremblant in August as well) so it will be a long season for both of us.

Hi Katie...you're in!

Katie, with regards to tendonitis what tendon are you talking about?  I had a bout of Achilles tendonitis eons ago and found that if I iced it religiously after every run it would help with the inflammation.  Some would suggest taking some type of anti-inflammatory product but I don't want to get into that type of discussion here as there are a lot of things to consider (pros and cons) before taking them. 

As for a training plan I would urge you to check out the free training plans here on BT.  Also, there are different levels of membership to BT that will allow access to more detailed training plans.  I wouldn't suggest that you go out and spend a huge amount of money on a bike.  Try to find a local bike shop that has a good reputation for personalized bike fitting, especially for triathlon if possible.  You don't necessarily need a triathlon specific bike if you're just starting out.  You can add aerobar clip-ons to a road bike and make some seat post adjustments to get your road bike to have more of a triathlon "geometry" .  As time goes by and you decide you like the sport you can upgrade to a tri specific bike later.   

This is what I did.  I realized that when I got into Tri's it may or may not stick, so I got a road bike that I figured I would continue to ride even if I stay with Tri's.  I bought an entry level bike simply because they were so much money, and it served me very well for my first few years racing.  I'd still be racing it if a bonus from work and a great bike deal didn't collide at the same time = Tri Bike.

For the record, I still enjoy riding my road bike (new frame thanks to a warranty issue on the old frame), and there are some like Pro Jordan Rapp that would argue lots of Triathletes should ride their road bikes more often.

there are some great training programs here at BT.  Like you i am new to the sport, and picked up a 20 week training program.  I don't know how i will do in the tri, but boy is it working great for me from a fitness point of view.  check out the one that fits best into your schedule.  as for the bike, i agree, a used one should do.  I have a bike that i love, but its in my summer cottage, so i bought a used one here in the city to train on. Nothing fancy, something i can get on and do the long bike rides that the schedule calls for.  welcome to the group...

Thanks.  I will be doing the workouts as they are in the plan.  I have started doing two workouts a day this week to adress any schedule issues before I start the BT 20 week plan.  It seems to me that schedule can be a big obstacle in training for an IM. 

Todd 

I have the Garmin 910xt and like it.  However, I have not used it in pool workouts as some people do so I can't comment on how accurate it is as far as lap/distance counting, etc.  Also, the instaneous run pace readouts seem to fluctuate quite a bit which is something of an annoyance.  Overall, I like its ability to be used in multi-sport mode where you can have different alarms for each leg.  For example, I have it set up to have different alarms on the bike and run to remind me to take in nutrition in an IM race...which can also be handy in training.  There have been a number of firmware updates by Garmin for the 910 but I'm afraid to update mine for fear of "fixing something that ain't broke" (other than the instant pace I mentioned).  Read DCRainmaker's review here

As for the bike...make sure it actually fits you.  Take it to a local shop and pay them for the fit analysis and be sure to tell them you're not necessarily in the market to buy a new bike.  If its a reliable shop they won't give you a hard sell to ditch your old bike in favor of a new one.  There are some tweaks they can do to your old bike like stem length, seat post orientation, etc to give you a tri specific fit.  Not sure how old you're talking, but make sure the tires are not worn out, rim tape is not worn out (rim tape prevents the spokes from puncturing your tube), make sure you like the seat and its comfortable for long rides, maybe replace the handlebar tape if worn, check that brake pads are not too worn, chain is not too worn (may need replacing or at least cleaning), derailleurs are shifting ok (may need adjusting), etc.  Your shop may offer a comrehensive tune up package where much of this can be checked out and worn out components can be replaced.

It's a mountain bike, or what is it?  If a mountain bike then forget everything I said about converting it to a triathlon geometry.  Not gonna happen.  Having said that, I've seen more than a few people start out in triathlons using a mountain bike.

I have a 910 as well, and love it.  I had a 305, but upgraded when I had changed power meters.  The 910 really is a great all in for me, since it will sync with my PM, and then works for swim and run.  I swim with mine about 4 times per week at the moment and am liking the metrics that it gives me in terms of my pace, distance, stroke count, etc.  Once it warms up I will be looking to see how well it works in open water and compare those swims against my pool swims.  Should prove interesting.  Jim's comment about the "current" pace while running is true (although it has improved), but I typically have lap pace (set for each km) as my default big number that I key off while running.

I bolded the above, just to add a comment.  Most of us as Triathletes don't swim as much as we should, and as a result we likely underperform a bit when racing during the bike and run portions because the swim has taken more energy out of us than it should.  This becomes more true the longer the distance. 

I began swimming more often last year, and while I didn't really get much faster in the water, I was stronger on the bike and run during races because my swim fitness had improved.

Yep, I have my lap pace set for each mile.  That whole metric experiment didn't work out too well in the U.S. a few decades ago :-)