Todd's Tri Turtles 3 (Beginner, Sprint, 5K, 10K) Basically Closed (Page 22)

Nice job finishing 12th in the swim!

Lovey good luck on the peach challenge. I might be able to pull of a half-peach this month, but hope to get a full peach in one of these months.

Hi Turtles

Cycling at this time of year has additional hazards as it's magpie nesting season. I 'm getting swooped daily, fortunately no contact yet. There is one local magpie that is particularly mean and hits the helmet pretty hard.

I found this clip on Youtube that shows what we deal with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A7Gw217EJ4

Rod

Oh that must be maddening! HA, thanks for sharing.

That's just awesome.

Hey guys,

Sorry I got derailed for a while. I lost my username and password so I was reading what y'all were doing, just not posting

I found the password though and I'm back!

I finished my first ever tri a couple days after my 34th birthday on September 27. It went good. There were about a million times during the race I was wondering what the heck I was doing out there, but afterwards I was already trying to figure out how to get better.

At the pre-race meeting I asked if a lane of the road would be blocked off for bikes and they laughed and told me it was "like any other open road course you would ride". I said, "Well for those of us who have never road in a bike race, *ever*, we wouldn't know that". That got me a bit of attention (which I'm not so much a fan of) but it did get ALL my questions answered as after that several people wanted to give me advice. Good to know. Tell everyone you've never done it before and you can get all questions answered

Next time I will definitely get there earlier. We were putting our bikes on bike racks and it was still dark out and I couldn't figure WHY for the life of me they would open up at 5:30 for a 7:45 start time. We got there around 6 but next time we'll be getting there when they open.

I feel like the only interesting things I have to say are: you really shouldn't believe anyone when they say a 1500m swim feels like 1000m because of the current, you really should do an open water swim before race day, you should have your shoes untied (not knotted like mine) for T2, and you should talk to LOTS of people.

I'm not super competitive, but I must say, passing young men on the bike and saying "On your left" felt really good. Good thing I took all those spin classes!

My goal was 1:45 and I for sure wanted to finish under 2 hours. I came in at 1:50. I'm pretty happy with that. I have no idea why that run was so hard. I think that secretly someone came and lengthened it by 2 miles over night

Wondering what you guys do to keep up fitness over the winter? I mean, it's been two weeks since the race and I feel like a break is necessary, but how long? When do you start training for next season?

Congrats on completing your first tri and not being afraid to ask questions. This forum is a GREAT place to ask all your questions.

This winter I'm going to take spin classes, swim, and run. I've signed up for a 5K next month to keep me motivated. I'm just going to keep setting goals one month at a time... and have fun with it.

I feel the same way. Now that Ive decided to go on to do more tri's. I realize I will probably never podium in my life, so instead of going faster, I want to go further.

I have learned a lot from this forum, and from actual race time, OWS time and saddle time.

Good idea Cass about setting goals a month out. Not too far, but see improvement over time so when the big race happens, you know you are ready instead of maybe I'm ready.

Goals for winter - Improve leg and core strength, focus most attention there

Goals for next year - a Sprint, Olympic and a Half Iron in September.

Congrats on completing your first tri.

Great effort and I hoped you enjoyed the preparation as much as the event.

Your comment about passing "younger guys" made me smile. That's one thing about triathlon......... that age, body size and shape are never an indication of ability.

Keep at it.

Rod

Congrats on the Tri and all the lessons you learned along the way.

Winter maintenance is so different for everyone, but to me the biggest deciding factor is where you live. For instance, me being from Texas and only an hour and a half from the coast, I can pretty much do whatever I want whenever, by just adding some cold weather cycling and running gear to my closet. Get in some runs, take spin classes, start weight training, swim more, biggest thing is just try and stay active. For a lot of people what helps is signing up for a very early season race. It gives you something to look forward to and even if you fall off some during winter, you know it is there and will help get you kick started when you realize it's just a couple months away.

That is very sound advice. I have learned a lot this year.

I did an early season tri this year in April that had a short pool swim. Thanks Todd for the encouragement! Knowing you have a race will help keep you motivated over the winter. I run outdoors all winter unless there is ice. Falling hard on my butt was not fun.
I eventually go indoors on the track or treadmill, but I hate it and end up walking most of the time. Last winter while my running buddies hibernated like bears, I decided to walk 2 miles after spin class 3x a week and a walk of 4-5 miles on the weekend, all on the indoor track (10 times around = 1 mile).
What I learned? Even though I switched from running to walking (can’t maintain momentum on a treadmill), by walking and cross training, I did not lose any fitness. I got stronger building my base. First outdoor run this past spring was awesome while everyone huffed and puffed.

I also learned that I don’t need to walk a little bit after the bike. I usually walk about a quarter mile to get my legs going. Then I would start run/walking the rest because at that point I was tired. My spring tri, I got the “crazy idea” to run right out the gate with NO STOPPING. I maintained, NOT average BUT maintained my 10k race pace the entire 4 miles! That was my fastest run in any triathlon. Who knew! Maybe I should have listened more. The funny thing was, my body felt like it was running 2 min/mile slower the entire time and I didn’t want to look at my watch. If you can, run from the start because my momentum from the bike was helpful.

I plan to do that same spring triathlon as an early spring goal.
I plan to do some running race as well, a 10k. 10 miler or half marathon.

Hi Turtles

I'm doing a 100 km bike ride on Sunday. I just checked the weather forecast: "a warm 28 (82 F) degrees, mostly sunny with strong winds, north to northwesterly 35 to 50 km/h (20-30 mph)."

Unfortunately the ride is south to north so it's head wind all the way.

Any tips?

Rod

Edited by AussieTurtle 2014-10-16 9:26 PM

A metric century, that sounds great. Drink lots of water the entire day before, not just before going to bed, but the entire day to make sure you're well hydrated for the ride. During the ride, drink some watered down Gatorade (or equivalent) and enjoy snacking. I always love that about long rides - once you get about 40+ miles in your body is ready to consume lots of calories, so you can pretty much eat whatever you want.

I've done 2 century rides and I had some trouble with cramping the last ~20 miles. If you're worried about cramping, read up on nutrition for endurance sports. For instance, you don't want to drink too much water during the ride, because that could actually lead to cramping. I don't know a whole lot about this subject, but if I do another event like a century ride I would try to learn more.

Good luck and have a nice ride.

Patrick pretty much hit it on the head. Drink plenty of fluids the day before and I always make sure to drink at least on 20 oz bike bottle per hour (mine has Ironman Perform powder in it, which gives me calories and electrolytes). Don't forget it's a long day and not a race, so make sure you start nice and easy so you can finish happy and healthy. I can tell you that I have found the best thing for me and long rides especially in heat (mine has been in 100 degree temps by the way) is to ride by heart rate. When your body starts to suffer / become dehydrated your heart rate will definitely raise. If you need a break take one. There are usually several stops and if I have time I stop at each one, eat a little, drink some, and visit for a few and then get back at it.

Thanks Patrick & Todd

I'll start hydrating now.

I've checked out the rest stops & I'm treating this as 5 x 20 km rides.

I picked up a pair of clip on tri bars to help with riding into the head wind. I hope that helps.

I'll let you know how I went on Monday.

Rod

Just don't use them to much this first ride with them. It may or may not happen but your back and neck could be killing you the next day if you use them to much after not having used them. Also do not change anything on your bike to make the aero bars work. Any and all adjustments should be to the aero bars alone. I know it doesn't should like it but they were a great thought. The other problem is after using them you'll want a try bike within six months. O well guess you gotta get a new bike if that happens

Hey Todd

Great minds think alike.

I decided that this ride is not the time to start experimenting so the clip ons will stay in the shed until next week.

Rod

I did my final (4th) tri for this season today. A Women's tri. I've done one before at the same location, but this time I PR'ed, by 5 min, and was able to run the whole run, instead of taking short walk breaks, as I've done on the other tri's.
http://beginnertriathlete.com/RaceLog/races-view-container.asp?race...

I know I need to continue working on my swim and bike, but I also want to improve my run, so what do you guys do on the off season? I don't want to burn out, but I enjoy alternating all 3 sports. I plan on doing the same one I did last April (my first) again next year, but am trying to decide if I want to try the olympic distance. Guess it will have to depend on my swim training.
Today, I didn't use the sleeveless wetsuit I bought, as the weather has been warm and the internet said the water was 82 degrees, but when I arrived, i was told it was 77 and wetsuit legal. Well, the fact that it was in the 60's air temp, made the water feel warm, so no worries. This was my fastest swim anyway-guess it was with the current? The tri race offered us several race pics for only $5, so I'm hoping to get a good one this time, and maybe I'll post it, if it's not too scary.

I also have to try to lose a little weight during the off-season. That's a constant battle it seems, never losing the last 5-10 pounds that bother me.

The magpie you-tube video mentioned above is great! Loved and hate it. I've been attacked by a bird while walking, but never to that degree.
Ps. I wanted to recommend a podcast I've been listening to lately and found educational and interesting. Runner academy with matt johnson.

Hi Turtles

Yesterday's ride was hard. The weather was cooler than forecast at 23 C (73 F) but the winds were as predicted with a head wind of up to 50 KMH ( 30 MPH).

My plan was to ride at my own pace and stop every 20 kms for a quick rest and to have something to eat. The plan worked for me.

I did this ride last year and it took me 8 hours 3 mins. This year, in much worse conditions it took me 7 hours 12 mins so I was quite happy with the result. My actual riding time was 6 hours (40 mins planned rest, 5 mins unplanned rest. The rest of the down time must have been at traffic lights and toilet breaks).

More pleasing than the result was the fact that I'm now fitter / stronger, lighter and more educated on how to ride and refuel. There is one mountain we have to climb and last year I had to stop half way up and again at the top. This year I rode up non stop and kept going. There is also a 6 km stretch that is like a wind tunnel and I rode through that non stop while last year I had to stop 3 times. Last year I lost 3 kg on the day this year only 1 kg.

I pulled up okay but plan to take it easy today.

Rod

Rod, nice job finishing strong on the century ride. Those sound like some tough winds alright.

Kristen, congrats on the triathlon and keeping the running pace up. This winter I'm changing up my workout routine by getting up 2 hours earlier to get in a 30-60 minute workout everyday of the week. I'm trying to diversify my workouts as much as possible. I'll keep running, spin class, and swimming as my core workouts, but mix in a day of calisthenics, free weights, or circuit training once per week. I'm hoping to find small events (5Ks, etc...) to keep my motivated. I'm currently doing BT's October Peach Challenge to keep my motivated - so far so good.

Kristen congrats on a great race and impressive PR improvement. In ref. to the picture don't hold your breath because even someone who looks like you has an almost impossilbe time finding a good looking race pic I don't even check them anyone.


Rod, great job on getting it done in the right way. Everything we do is training and a learning experience all at the same time. Think of the next race you do when people are complaining about the 15 mph winds and you just smile and think it could be and has been a lot worse.

I swam 1400 yards this morning. A big leap for me. I had two motivations:

1) I realized last night that the swim for an OD Tri I'm considering is 1750 yards, which is a lot further than I expected. The HIM swim is only another 300 yards!
2) On Tuesday, I swam an exhausting 700 yards. The pool was filled with really good swimmers. I was sharing a lane with a guy who kept doing the butterfly. I basically felt like I was an annoyance to him and his buddies who were training together in adjacent lanes.

So this morning I went to the pool with a strong sense of determination to remain relaxed and own my swim. It felt great!

That's how it has to be when using a shared pool. Own your swim and spend less time worrying about others swim's. Doing the butterfly in a shared lane is pretty inconsiderate, but look at it as an opportunity to practice for race day. Even in a small wave start, you still will have 30 or so people swimming at the same time, sometimes in the same space. The more turbulent the water the better.

Hi Turtles

So much for having a quiet week to recover from my big ride. This week I bought a wet suit and tried it out with an open water swim. The buoyancy provided by the suit is fantastic.

I also managed a couple of runs , a gym session and had my first session with a new training group. We mainly covered open water techniques and did some entry / exit drills.

This morning's swim session was called off after only 20 minutes in the pool due to a lightning storm. That was frustrating but definitely the right call.

Rod.

Rod I miss the open water wet-suit buoyancy.

Saturday I ran a tempo to see where I'm at before my 5K next week. I thought my pace was feeling sluggish, but surprisingly I finished only 2 seconds of my 5K PR (23m 2s). Hope to translate that into a new PR next weekend.

Patrick and Rod, you guys are killing it. Keep it up this is always the toughest time of year but translates so well into improvements next year. i hope to get back at it on the first, but then again I have said that before. Add onto that, that my boss said he wanted our case load to be essentially 0 by Dec. 1 and that threw another wrench at me. I guess in a way though it is good because now I have a date it all has to be done, so maybe after that date I will be able to really go forward and enjoy this sport and training again. Just dang frustrating.