Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 21)

TT stands for Time Trial.  You will see it posted in all different kinds of ways.  Usually you can tell what type of TT it is by the distances the person is talking about.  Normally a 40k TT would be a bike but there are other distances too.

As far as advice for your first tri.  Take your time preparing for this race.  Personally I would take a day to do nothing but physically run through the transitions.  This really helped me in my first race to keep things under control and not become scatterbrained in T1 and T2.  I physically did everything I was planning on doing.  From the wetsuit removal all the way through putting the bike shoes on and running to the bike exit.  T2 would be the same, take the bike shoes off on the bike and run into transition.....shoes on etc. and run out.

i just used my driveway as the transition area and went about the whole process.  I did it 3 times one day and a couple times another day the week before my first race.

The biggest piece of advice I can give................ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!! Its an awesome time!!!!

Don't worry about anyone else on race day.  Forget the fancy bikes and all the people in crazy tri outfits.  Just do whatever you need to do in order to stay relaxed and get ready to swim/bike/run your best.

I wouldn't worry about times too much; focus more on giving everything you have.  If you've finished and given your all, that's an A+ day.

And it's your first, so really just HAVE FUN!  You only do your first one once.

Congratulations on the training!  I remember how I felt when I was making achieving those milestones.  It makes you feel like a million bucks. 

It's to bad about the river.  As with almost everywhere right now the rivers are high.  Your rivers must look a lot better than the ones over here.  I am not particularly interested in swimming in the rivers in my neck of the woods.  I used to duck hunt in them and used waders to throw decoys out but they seem to be a lot more dirty than the lakes around here.

Whoa....that is fast.  That honestly beats my best 500 by like 20 seconds!  Awesome job!

My swim was super crappy yesterday.  I had an easier swim with a warmup, 2 x 400, 1 x 100, 2 x 200, 1 x 100 and a cooldown.  So my 200's were supposed to be "moderate pace", which means about 1:30-1:33 pace for me.  I did my first 200 and looked at my watch....1:39 pace.  My left shoulder was burning and I was sucking wind.  I knew it was going to be one of those days.  I managed 1:32 for my last 400, but it wasn't pretty and there was nothing "moderate" about it.  Oh well...gotta have off days to appreciate the on days.

Awesome Greg!  I'm super pumped for ya.  I probably say this to everyone who is going into their first race, but seriously enjoy it! 

1.  Go hard and stick to your plan.  Oh...and have a plan.  For pacing I mean. 

2.  Do NOT go out too hard on the swim.  You'll be thrashing around and sucking wind like I did.  Pick a spot on the outside to the far left or right of your wave and take nice long strong strokes.

3.  Push hard on the bike, but stick to your plan!

4.  Don't go sprinting out of transition onto the run like your some kind of running superstar about to win the gold medal in the 100m dash.  Trust me when I say that this will make the rest of your run feel like your body is trying to take revenge.

5.  Like everyone else said, practice your transitions.  I like to lay everything out on a towel next to my bike in the order in which I need it.  So my transition towel for my first race looked like this: 

     A. bike helmet with my sunglasses in it and race number belt laid over it. 
     B. bike shoes. 
     C. running shoes with my hat over the top if it's not too hot out.

That's pretty much it.  Don't over complicate it with nutrition in your transition area and all that.  If you need nutrition, put it in your bottle on the bike.

The only other thing I can think of is make sure you pack your bag the night before and make sure you have everything you need.  I lay out everything I need for each leg of the race in individual piles in the middle of the floor.  I ask myself "is this everything I need to swim...to bike...to run" and if the answer is yes, I make sure to pack everything on the floor.  Everything goes in one bag so I know if I grab that one bag in the morning I am good to go.

Didn't mean to skip this - that's a stupid fast time Dirk.  If my math is right that's 1:23/100, 5 times in a row.  It shows all the training is working.  Great job, you're right to be pleased.  Now get that HM PR and the week will be complete!

Awesome job hitting that milestone.  And you have to keep claiming the victories - small and large, though I'd say your first 100 mile month shouldn't be considered a small one.

Too bad on the canoe cancellation, but that's a great attitude in terms of focusing on the things you can control.  Get that bike time.

New helmet on the way.

I just blew my clothing and mad money budget for this month. 

I ordered one a sterling helmet from Rudy Project. They gave me a 50% coupon code for some feedback I'd provided in March when I cancelled an order on a winter cycling jacket that had been backordered for 6 weeks.  I couldn't pass it up. 

On the toe front, While I still can't wear dress shoes or walk in running shoes, I think I can tolerate wearing bike shoes today.  Will find out after work.

If you wear bike gloves (I do), I've found the best option is to velcro them to the cross bars on the handlebars and put them on after I'm out of transition and on the road.  When I return, I generally just leave them on and once I've started the run, I remove them and stash them in my jersey pocket. 

Ok Greg, here goes....

The biggest obstacle faced by most folks in their first triathlon is the anxiety over unfamiliar territory...and sometimes the question of whether they can finish, or finish somewhere other than dead last.

Because of this, I take a different approach in giving advice to a 1st timer than the others here.  I don't take issue with their advice at all.  But I tend to try to encourage people to give themselves permission to enjoy the first triathlon as an experience and not as a race.

As such, it doesn't matter if transitions take 5 minutes because you change clothes, you walk, you take your time.

So first, feel free to take or ignore any advice about clothing choices and transition technique.  (for example, at first I would swim in a speedo and put bike shorts over that in T1 as well as put on my shirt).

Pacing is critically important to enjoying the experience.  You WILL exhaust yourself in the swim unless you are very, very intentional about taking it easy and slow.  If you do, all is not lost...just walk to your bike and catch your breath.

Now if you've put competitive goals on yourself for your first triathlon, I am not going to argue against it.  If you plan on this approach to your first race, then taking the swim easy and transitioning cleanly will be very important factors in cutting wasted time.

Good luck!

ps. sprint tris never require nutrition.  You can have a gu 30 minutes before start, but nothing else until you finish.  Water to wet your whistle on the bike is OK, but won't really improve the race outcome.  You won't dehydrate enough in 1:20, at least not this time of year, for that to matter....so consider taking a 1/2 full water bottle on the bike.  No more drinks once you are within 3 miles of T2, or you may have trouble running with the water in your gut.

I would consider taking it easy on Friday and doing that swim workout on Saturday.  There tends to be an upregulation of the metabolism after a workout day, and a downregulation after an off day.  You will feel better racing on Sunday if you make that switch.

Good luck Greg, enjoy the burn, see what your body can do. Definately don't have any calories during the tri, half bottle is perfect.

Dirk, wow! great swimming.

I have decided to bike to work on Friday and bike home. 43 Miles... each way! I'm glad I have showers at work and it is supposed to be nice and sunny. I think my 9 hours in between each ride will help me recover just fine for a weekend.

On the swimming with a wetsuit. Last year I did my oly swim in 36 minutes, my 400 for a sprint tri was around 7:50 both without a wetsuit. I can't go out in the lakes yet, flooding, but I'm wondering how much faster I will be when setting my goal times. I routinely swim the 400 at an easy pace in 7:20-7:30 in my speedo so is it wishful thinking that I could swim a 28-27 minute 1500 in my wetsuit? Anyway, I guess I'll find out for sure June 11th, only a week and a half of building workouts before my taper begins.

Second question. I have my training plan building up to my first triathlon this season but I have a 7 week layoff until my second. I haven't seen training plans account for races. My tentative plan is to do a 1 week rest/recovery week after the triathlon , 4 weeks building and then a 2 week taper before my A race. My building will focus on speed and power more than distance. Any tips?

How much a wetsuit helps you is generally considered to be dependent on how good you are as a swimmer.  With elite swimmers getting very little advantage and novice swimmers getting a ton of help.

The generally accepted estimate in improvement, and one that is dead on the money for me personally, is 10 seconds per 100m.

So, you should expect to be 150 seconds faster over 1500meters.  That's 2 1/2 minutes.  So that alone won't give you the performance you are hoping for...but it's still significant.

I fixed your post for you, see above... 

There are no layoffs! 

Ok....training plans....here's where things get pretty simple.  All of the 'speed', 'power' type of training is icing on the cake for very well trained, experienced athletes who would otherwise be describable as having reached a plateau...

Even the shortest of triathlons (I'm doing one soon that lasts only about 40 minutes) is entirely an endurance event. 

Your smartest training move is to continue progressively adding up volume to build endurance.  If you do nothing more than that, you will steadily improve for years to come.

After your upcoming race, you probably only need 1 day off, then 1-2 more days with what you would typically have considered an easy day before continuing right where you left off during your build up.

Maintain that until you are 3-5 days before the next 'A' race and you are good to go.

I believe I posted in depth a few pages back about tapering and how most people over taper.  The 2-week taper you describe is only for professional Ironman distance triathletes that have been doing 5 hour training days and need weeks to fully recover from their training load prior to their big effort.

At your (even mine) level of training a 'taper' doesn't need to be much more than 2 easy days and a very big meal.

by far the most common race experience among people who 'taper' is that they have a race that stinks and they talk about how they had a 'bad' day and that they were performing worse that day than they had been in training sessions prior to their taper. 

Now, with all that I've said already...if you want a week or two off for a mental rest, that's absolutely fine.  Life has it's ebb and flow. 

Nice work Bryan.  That's a good clip for sure.  If you can average that during training, you can definitely do it for a race!

I agree with Jeff on the taper after your tri.  After a longer distance race is where I think you need to watch when you come back to training.  After my marathon I couldn't do anything but ride my bike for short periods and I had to keep it at a very easy pace.  After my Oly distance races last year I took 2 full days off and came back to normal training by the end of the week.  I was also in the beginning stages of my marathon training after the race in august and started a run focus then too.  Anyway, A couple of days rest is all you need after a sprint or an oly.

This is what my week looked like after my last oly on Aug. 1.  I wasn't at nearly the same volume I am at today so my times/distances are much lower.

1 Triathlon (Olympic)

2

3

4 B: 20.95 Mi 1h 07m 49s

5 S: 2000.00 Yd 50m R: 3.12 Mi 25m 22s

6 R: 8.00 Mi 1h 07m 32s

7 B: 32.44 Mi 1h 43m 52s

S:   2000.00 Yd 50m B:  53.39 Mi 2h 51m 41s R:   11.12 Mi 1h 32m 54s

 Currently I am doing a HIM training regimen just to build volume for a HIM next season.  My goal is to be kind of fast next year, maybe MOP-FOMOP for the distance.  I am not going to hold my breath though.

This ^^^^ X2!

I actually think you will be able to do better than 18.3 for a race, provided the conditions are similar.  There is a lot of adrenaline during your races.  Although that goes without saying.

I hope the toe get back to normal soon,  But if not the bike can def help maintain some of the run fitness if you keep the intensity up there.

I agree on the post-race taper period.  I think it’s really the running which requires the recovery.  After a half marathon, it’s a few days until my legs feel capable of doing anything.  After a sprint tri – one day off is fine.  In fact, I’ve taken a short bike after a sprint and not felt bad at all.

chopadog83 - Wetsuit benefit is definitely individual.  If you have a balance problem, which implies you’re not an experienced swimmer as Jeff says, I think the wetsuit is a huge advantage.  I know this from experience!  It instantly gives you perfect balance with no effort.  It also allows you to keep that balance with very little if any kicking.  I’m not advocating no kicking – that’s up to you – but it’s amazing how much more I have to kick in the pool to keep my balance the same as with a wetsuit on.

bdj6020 – 18.3 is pretty quick for a training ride.  Unless conditions are really more difficult you may very well exceed that in a race.

We haven’t seen the sun since last Friday up here.  I AM SICK OF THIS WEATHER.  Just had to get that out.

I hear that Warren....got my 45 min. run in yesterday when we had a bit of a break from the weather, but man was it ever humid!!!  When you're used to running in the 40's and 50's and all of a sudden it's 60 something and humid, whoa...breathing was much harder.

On that note...I was thinking about this during my run yesterday.  You really have to make sure two things align during your race.  How your body feels and how your breathing feels.  For me I think that my legs feel better after proper recovery and my breathing feels better after better sleep.  I'm sure the sleep helps the legs too....  If I can combine proper sleep and proper recovery/nutrition, I always have a better workout.

I just got done with a very easy 20 mile ride.  I wanted to get a short easy ride in without blowing my legs up.  I am also planning a very easy 200 yd swim later this afternoon.

I am also going to get a couple of high quality, high carb meals in today to make sure I am good for tomorrow.