RunningJayhawk's Mentor Nest - FULL! (Page 21)

Dena - WTG on the half marathon!  That's awesome!!
Lara - Congrats on finishing your first race!  I was having problems with the cold water during my race too. . . I'm planning on practicing open water swimming a few times before my next race to get used to cold water swimming.  It seems like it's something we might just have to live with

I had a pretty good weekend!  I got a good swim in Friday night, though the pool was surprisingly crowded (I figured Friday nights aren't generally a popular time to be at the gym!)  Saturday morning, I woke up with my ankle stiff & achy again, so I skipped my run again and just took a rest day instead.  I've had ankle issues in the past, and didn't want to mess with it.  Sunday morning, my tri club held a transition clinic at 7am, so I biked over there and we practiced our transitions.  She even made us get in the water and practice unzipping our wetsuits while running, etc.  After the clinic, I biked home, dropped off my gear, and went out for another 1.5hr bike ride.  I felt really good, and I think I should continue to bike longer (maybe up to 2-3 hrs).  It's hard to go fast on the bike path since it can get crowded, but if I go south, it's pretty clear after the museums.

Tonight, I'm planning another pool workout and maybe a yoga class.   

Congrats everyone on the great races this past weekend. I did a sprint tri and took about 14 minutes off my time from last year. I was glad about the 4 minutes off the swim. This weekend I am going to a OWS down the Jersey shore. I need to see if I can swim the length of my olympic tri in July. Only one more month--yikes!!! Anyone sign up for the NYC marathon this year? Lottery winners will be notified during the middle of the month. I already received my automatic entry. I'm hoping the weather holds out so I can bike after work. Have a good training day!!

You are an ANIMAL!!!!!!!!!!

Rest up and relax the next few days, you deserve it, girl!

Congrats on a solid race with some lessons learned! Sometimes with the swim it's about just finding a way to get through it, no matter what the stroke is. We've all been there before. Last year I did two cold water swims. The first one was in the low 60's and I basically submerged myself before the start so I wouldn't have that "OHMYGOSH ITS SO COLD MY LUNGS ARE FROZEN" feeling.

..I still had that sensation.

Then, for my second cold water swim (with a crisp 53 degrees)...I got in the water about 30 minutes before my wave...and stayed there. Swam around. floated. Just got my body acclimated to the cold. By the time I started, my brain was already frozen and my face/hands/feet were already numb...so it didn't startle me as much.

The best way to get better at cold water swimming is unfortunately swimming in cold water (or bathtubs full of ice!)

Sounds like the clinic went well! Hopefully you're icing your ankle and taking it easy.

Longer rides are good even when you're training for short distances. I ended up doing 3 hours on the trainer this past Sunday because I didn't want to battle the crowds on the path. Let's just say...that's the last time I ever do that. It was awful.

When I ride south I can typically hit up to 17mph when I pass 31st street. There's just that few folks (unless I'm riding during a prime running hour). On a typical day, I find I'm lucky to maintain 14-15mph given the pedestrians on the loose.

Great job with the improvement, especially on the swim!! Keep building up your swim endurance!! You'll be great next month.

And I wish I could run NYC. DH got in on the first shot...

Let me know when and where your next race is. Maybe I will come down and do it as well!!!

Congrats on finishing your races Dena & Lara (and if I missed anyone else, my apologies, but congrats are extended)!

I've been mired in a whirlwind of stressful situations and the winding down of the school year. Things should be getting better, not worse...maybe everything will calm down by the end of the week.

In the midst of the chaos, I started my oly training on Saturday. It's been challenging trying to get 2 workouts in on some days (mostly because of unforseen work issues). This morning was a 60 minute run at 4am and some core work and this afternoon is 1800 in the pool. My body is responding to the increased workload...mainly the weights and core are triggering some soreness, which I hadn't been doing in the previous training. Overall, though, I'm feeling very well and today's run is the longest time/distance I've ever done.

Sunday will be tri #2 and I'm looking forward to experiencing the adrenaline of race day once again.

Best of training to you all.

Hi all,

Sounds like everyone is having a nice week so far. My neck is feeling better and I made a chiropractor appointment for next Monday (my first ever!). The woman I'm going to see has gotten nothing but rave reviews so I'm excited and anxious to see if she can help me with the back and neck pain I've been putting up with the last few years.

Tonight I had a nice treadmill run and did some strength training. I'm going to try to add back a bit of strength training into my schedule if I can, I miss it and I find that I feel a lot better when I get some in. I'm hoping that, yoga and lots of stretching will keep my injury free, I'm tired of always having something wrong with me!

Glad your taking proactive measured to fix yourself.  I am certain the Chiropractor can help you but don't expect instant results.  You will probably feel better right away but after that you will feel some pulling and tension in the area and may have to go back for more then one treatment.  Think of it this way, you have been suffering for years like this so your muscles are now used to pulling in a certain direction; once the bones are in the right place then it will feel wierd for a bit till the muscel relax and come back to where they are supposed to be.  A good massage after would not go amiss.

(Side note: unless there is something really wrong don't get sucked into going twice a week for the rest of your life.  My experience is they can either fix it or they can't.  If they can't you should be seeing a Medical Dr for physio ect)
Hope this helps,
Alan

I hope you find a few visits with the chiropractor helpful. I'm married to one (and subsequently have a table set up in our living room) any whenever I feel "off" he's always able to help get me back in line. I'm amazed at how incredible it makes me feel!

Yoga and stretching are great for injury prevention, but also take time to strengthen your core. It's been proved that when you have a strong core, your body balance is stronger too...helping avoid injury.

I'm back after a full weekend.  I raced a sprint on Sunday and placed second in my age group (...there were two of us...)  I finished in 1:46 BOP.  She's on my team and only beat me by 10 minutes, mostly on the bike.  Maybe I can catch her in July...  Niranjan brought the little ones up and they raced across the finish with me.  I couldn't catch Chandrika.  Afterward, my team had a cookout and we had family beach and park time.

There were some non-racers training on the Olympic bike course for the race there on July 5.  They share part of the sprint course going the opposite way.  Even though I'd ridden the sprint course a couple of times before, I hit this point where NOTHING looked familiar.  When I saw the riders coming the other way, I became absolutely cussing convinced that **I** had somehow taken a wrong turn and was on the olympic route, and was blowing my race.  I know the panic slowed me down.

This also was my first OW tri.  Cool and refreshing, sans wetsuit.  Boy, I didn't want to put my face in.  Even with warming up, I had trouble breathing when we reentered the water to start.

Monday was a rest day, Tuesday a hard swim.  I'm getting ready to get on the trainer for a boring 45min E2 while the kids play.  My house is a pit, but I'm still working on my race report...

Saturday night was really funny.  We were at a kid's birthday party and Niranjan kept telling all his buddies that I was racing in the morning.  I felt like I had groupies...  One guy now wants to start doing this and told me he thought it'd be great for his wife too.  I recognized the gleam of obsession starting in his eyes.  I'm thinking she may hate me soon.

I found a great t-shirt:  "I'm not obsessed, I'm dedicated. http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/item/dedicated-yellow-tshirt/10627358... />
Cheryl

I've been dragging this week.  I can't run because of my heel and I can't swim because of my black eye (which is almost healed, thank goodness!).  Without the structure of my training plan I've been pretty lazy this week.  I had plans to do some strength training and also maybe an exercise dvd just to keep my energy and endurance up, but the past 2 nights I've just laid on the couch reading and falling asleep.  need to snap out of it!

Plan to do something tonight and will bike tomorrow.

Erin

Good morning, and happy Wednesday everyone!!

Denise & Cheryl - Congrats on your races as well

Barb - I'm definitely enjoying the ride south of the museums; it's too bad it takes me at least 20 minutes to get down there, with all the people, stop lights, the tricky bridge around Navy Pier, etc.  I might start joining the CTC city rides once they get more regular. . . I think they bike basically all the way to Indiana and back - 42 miles total.  Sounds like fun, but I wonder if I'd be too slow and holding everyone back

Tif - Good luck on your race this weekend!  (Is Nik doing it too?  Because then good luck to you, too!)

Margot - I'm glad you're feeling better-ish.  Good luck with the chiropractor.  I'm a firm believer of yoga & strength training helping with keeping you injury-free (lol, sometimes in my training log it feels like I do just about as much yoga/strength as I do tri-sports!) 


This week is supposed to be a rest week. . . Next week and the week after are my "peak" weeks where I'll be doing more intense brick workouts, but lower training volumes, then I have my race on the 28th.  But since I took it easy last weekend because of my ankle, I'll count that as part of my recovery "week" and shift some workouts around.  I want to schedule in some harder/longer workouts this weekend instead because I'll be out of town for the 12-22, and I have no clue if I'll be able to get my workouts done as planned.  I'll be in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, so I'm sure the runs & swims won't be an issue (I just need to NOT get stung by jellyfish like the last time I was down there), but I still need to figure out what to do for my bike workouts.  Worst case scenario, I'll just do a bunch of bricks this weekend & next week, and just do a lot of swimming and running while I'm out of town.

Congrats on the race Cheryl!

Thanks to everyone for the advice on the chiropractor. I'll let you know how it goes next week.

Today I have a swim planned at lunch, I'm really looking forward to it. I've been enjoying swimming a lot more since I started using Swimplan.com. It's also SO nice to get out of the office for an hour and do something active, since I usually do most of my training after work.

Margot--good luck with the Chiro. I was very skeptical when I first went to one and now I am a firm believer. I no longer suffer from plantar facitis, shin splints, or knee soreness. He laughs at me everytime I go to him because when I started seeing him I told him I wasn't a believer and I didn't think it would help and now he tells me I should come see him less often (only go about every three weeks).

For those of you training for an Olympic distance-- Do you all follow a plan? I don't and just try to get in as much biking, swimming and running as possible. I have many sprints, runs, adventure races and a marathon all throughout the season that I am not sure how that would all work into a training plan. If you do follow a plan, how closely do you follow it? I guess it is kinda late for me because I only have 12 weeks until my oly tri.

I swam this morning, but I am going to go running now because it is National Running Day!!!

Here's my May totals, training for faster sprints, includes a sprint tri and a 5K race:

May's totals:
Bike:	7h 20m 27s  - 100.54 Mi
Run:	6h 50m 44s  - 35.48 Mi
Swim:	4h 07m 42s  - 10380 Yd
Running Drills:	07m
Swimming - Other:	2h 45m
Walking:	2h 55m

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheryl

Margot-For Plantar Facsitis the Chiro did electric stim on my arch, rolled it, stretched my calves, and taped my arch with some kind of black tape and I bought over the counter superfeet inserts. It took awhile, but I am completely pain free.

I need some feedback for my bike workout structure later this afternoon.

My plan calls for 8x2' up a hill at 65-70 RPMS. Unfortunately (at least in this aspect) I live in the flattest part of Texas and the only "hill" I have access to is a railroad overpass that takes me about 45" to climb on a normal day. So, should I count 2 uphills as 1 rep or should I count each uphill as 1 rep......or should I take a different approach?

For those of you training for an Olympic distance-- Do you all follow a plan? I don't and just try to get in as much biking, swimming and running as possible. I have many sprints, runs, adventure races and a marathon all throughout the season that I am not sure how that would all work into a training plan. If you do follow a plan, how closely do you follow it? I guess it is kinda late for me because I only have 12 weeks until my oly tri.

Denise, I am following the Sprint to Olympic Bridge plan here on BT. I love structure and being planned in advanced as far as my workouts are concerned. I follow it pretty much precisely, except I will make a few adjustments. For example, I have a sprint on Sunday. I am following the plan as-is, except I am removing the planned weight training from Saturday's workout and trading in a power bike session on Saturday for a short recovery ride (I have a feeling after the hills today, I will need a couple days of moderate active recovery). Otherwise everything else is as prescribed...with the rule of thumb that I re-adjust and don't do anything too strenuous within a couple days of a race. And I don't think 12 weeks out is too late. If you've been consistent with working out, training and racing, you should be able to pick up on a plan if you want more structure. My current plan is 20 weeks long.

Ahhhh...Hill repeats when you live in the flatlands.

Gotta love those.

I feel your pain.

When I do "hills" I either travel an hour to the NW Burbs...or I park it on the trainer, get into the highest gear, stand and climb.

I would definitely climb twice to get you to the 2 minute arena as part of your set. Also you may want to check out Map My Ride and see what other cyclists in your area have done as part of hill training. I've seen folks get pretty creative in terms of finding solutions to hills (bridges over water, on/off ramps, parking garage ramps--just be careful!). It's just about finding something that works for you.