Hokies 1st Timer's Group - FULL (Page 23)

Amanda,

You should brag.  Well Done.

When you go long on the bike like you did (2 hours) keep you transition runs short like you did (30 minutes).  No need to hurt yourself by going long on the bike and then going long on the run.

Once your get your swim together I think you can comfortably race an Olympic distance tri.

Great quote for the group:

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

Another good one from Gordo:  http://www.endurancecorner.com/Gordo_Byrn/triathlon_coaching

Team,

Just discovered this swim related website.  Some really good advise for all levels of swimmers.  I picked up a couple things I'll trying out in the pool during my next swim workout.  It's worth checking this out:  http://swimsmooth.com/

Hi Jeff, been lurking on your mentor group a bit out of curiosity to see how you are doing.

You Hokies are very lucky, the man from Sarasota has pretty much experienced it all when it comes to triathlon and as you are finding out has a cool attitude to life. I think you should go for a coaching qualification Jeff and fill some of that spare time you seem to create every day. !!

Good luck my friend

Dave

Thanks for the kind comments Dave.  I was unbelieveably fortunate to have Gordo Byrn and Eric von Dohlen as my mentors when I was starting out.  Everything that I have mentioned on this thread are the many lessons those guys taught me.  Just passing that information along hoping that it makes a difference with others.

Hey Team,

Don't know if you knew it or not but BT just started a new Spring Mentoring Program.  They have moved our "Hokies" thread over to the Mentor Program Archives.  I won't be starting a new mentoring group but I will still check our thread out.  So, if you have questions or just want to interact with those in the group going forward you can still post to this thread.  Also, if you want to jump into a new mentoring group check out the new groups and go for it.  It would be a good opportunity to get some different ideas from other mentors and make new friends by meeting new fellow mentees.

Even if you don't post here anymore I will still be checking out your training logs.  Can't wait to read about your 1st race!!

Jeff,

I had no idea it was already time to move on. The time flew so quickly!

I am sure the others would agree that you have been a great mentor. You always reviewed our logs, and were quick to offer advice. You also challenged us to push the envelope a bit, and for me that meant swimming. I'm not sure I would have taken that blind leap into freestyle if you had not kept posting swimming articles, and inspiring with your own workouts.

I don't think I will join another mentor group. Working with you was a fantastic experience, but I never ventured beyond this thread to read or to get advice. So I think it is time to explore other areas of the BT forums, even if I never post!

Please continue to review my log, I need all the help I can get! LIkewise, I will peek in on you from time to time. And if anybody ever needs running advice, I can be most frequently found on the forums at runnersworld.com, the Beginners discussion board.

Thank you for all your support - you were a great first mentor!

Amanda

PS - I dedicated my swim to you today. When I saw your post last night, I knew there was no excuse and I had to swim this morning!

~Amanda

Melissa,

Well, it's not "over with" per se.  You can still post here.  Like I mentioned, I'll still check out the thread and answer all your questions.  I just wanted to make you guys aware of the fact that a new mentoring program was starting.  One of the things I like about BT is the mentoring program.  To it me it promotes a great sense of community between people from all over the planet with a common interest (triathlon).  I have met some really great people (you gals included) by participating in multiple mentoring group.  I personally have really enjoyed being a part of the "Hokies" group and I'm not trying to push any of you away from it.  I guess what I was really trying to convey is that you guys are perfectly free to join up with a new mentoring group if you like.

Amanda,

Ditto from above.  Keep posting here if you have questions.  I'll answer them the best I can. 

You, Melissa and Christy were really the "backbone" of the group.  If it were not for your participation this thread would have died on page 10.  So thanks for your contributions.

You gals are not getting away from me that easily!!  You are on my friends list on BT so I'll be watching your progress. 

Ha...Ha...  Keep getting in the pool Amanda.  It won't be long and you will be swimming circles around me.  Stick with it!!

I would definitely echo what Amanda said! This group has been a great experience and I appreciate Jeff keeping us on track and altogether. I don't think I'll join another mentoring group at this point, but maybe down the road. I have too many other boards to keep up with. 

If y'all are looking for me, I'm usually around here as chimera: http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=109

I've just started using dailymile (Melissa M.), but really, I keep up with most people on Facebook. Y'all are more than welcome to friend me if you'd like, Melissa Murfin.

Thanks Melissa.  I really enjoyed group.

Hey Gang,

There is one subject that I wanted to cover that I don't think I have in the thread prior to today.  That being the RACE itself. How should you pace during the race?  I got this advise from Gordo before my 1st Tri and it has worked well for me.

My overall goal in determining my race pacing is to always FINISH STRONG.  I tried pacing different ways and my best results have been in those races where I finished strong.  Believe me, there have been races where I went out too hard on the bike and early in the run and managed to blow myself to pieces (to the tune of walking.... and I'm not talking about my normal Run/Walk strategy... I'm mean blown to pieces walking!!).  I have never blown myself up during the swim because I have managed to do that so many times in training.  I have a healthy fear of hard swimming 

So here is how I try and play it.

I train and race using HR to help guide me.  The 1st thing I do during my lead up to the race is to determine the highest HR I can hold for the duration of the run.  I have an honest conversation with myself about this and set this HR as my target for the run during the race.  So in my case for Sprint and Olympic distance races that HR is normally in the 148-153 range (below my FT-Functional Threshold).  From there I adjust backwards 10 bpm (beats per minute) for the bike and another 10 bpm for the swim.   So now I have HR guidelines for the race.  Generally for the swim I want my HR to be in the 130bpm range, 140bpm for the bike and 150 for the run.  I know if I stick to those markers I will probably have a decently paced race (relative to me).

If you do use HR in your training you will know that there are a lot of factors that can influence your HR.  Fatigue and sickness are 2 but if you have a good plan they should not be a factor on race day.  3 other things that really effect my HR are heat, hydration and race day excitement.  If it's hot and you don't hydrate yourself properly expect your HR to be elevated relative to the paces your are use to in training.  I have also found that my HR can be up to 10 bpm higher at a given pace just because I'm in a race.  So keep those things in mind when setting your guidelines.

If you don't use HR then you will probably have to use pace relative to RPE.  Practice this in your training prior to racing and remember to be strong at the end.

Also, and probably most important....  Have fun while racing.  There will be a nice "buzz" waiting for you about 10 minutes after the finish line!!

Hi all, I'm back from my vacation and it looks like you all are leaving! Yikies!  

First of all, my last post was cut off while sitting on the tarmack at Fort Meyers Florida.  They told us we had a break in the storm and we were going now, all devices off.  So that's why I stopped my post mid sentence.  

Fast forward 3 weeks later for an update.....

Ran (means "jogged" when I use it) on the treadmill the first night of my cruise and threw my back out of whack.  Short version: better in 3 days. Resumed walking and took up Zumba on the boat, seriously thinking I'm too heavy to run and not hurt myself.  Gonna keep at what I'm doing (walking, swimming and biking), and try to take off 20 pounds.  At that point we'll see how the body responds to running.  I'm taking the race off the table at this point.  I know myself, I'm not gonna want to walk, I want to be done with it quicker than that.

I did walk a lot while on the trip, including just over 7 miles into and around Cartagena Columbia. 

So, what did I miss here?  Specifically, is this group still going or should I look for another group to post to?  Even though I don't have a specific race in mind, I like the info and the accountability.

Hope all is well with everyone!

Christi

Christi,

Good to hear from you and glad you are safely back in the states.  I hope you enjoyed the cruise outside of the back issue you experienced.

Regarding your thoughts on running:  As I have mentioned running is the most demanding discipline on your body in the sport.  I have also previously mentioned that biking is the safest place to build your overall endurance.  So your thoughts on how you are going to proceed sounds good to me.  Swim/Bike and Walk.  The KEY IS Swim/Bike or Walk everyday.  Remember, "Do something daily that moves you toward your goal".

BTW: there is no shame in walking.  I did it for an ENTIRE YEAR before I started running.  I still do it everyday as part of my run workouts.

I would suggest that you add one additional discipline that you didn't mention to the mix.  That would be nutrition.  I don't bring it up because I think it is an issue with you in particular.  I bring it up because to me it's the 4th discipline in the sport.  I wasn't able to lose weight until I addressed it.  Before I lost the weight I ate LOTS.  Now, I eat LOTS.  I just eat differently.

Don't fret over not doing the race.  There will be plenty of races out there for you to enter once you feel confident about doing a race.

Finally, this thread.  You can read above about the status of it.  Feel free to join another group if you want.  I encouraged everyone to do so.  I'm not heading up another group this spring/summer as a mentor but I did join a group as a mentee (I think it is called bigsky.... something or other).

I'll continue to check in on this thread so if you have additional questions feel free to post them here.

Ha ha ha!  That's funny Jeff! What you described sounds more like how my Dad's vacation went, I was the odd one....early to bed, early to rise and I think I had  6 drinks (mojito, 24 K gold margarita, Balboa beer, 2 glasses of wine and a lemoncello) total on the whole trip.  I was pretty good about eating fruit, walking daily, line dancing (was somehow I managed to work up a sweat doing) and participating in Zumba.  If I had brought my googles I could've had some work in the pool....instead I just relaxed there.  Local pool is now open on Friday's in the 50 m length config.  Looking forward to seeing how it feels to do those long laps.  

The cruise food.....well, could've done much worse.  But got hung up on the delicious pizza in flavors I haven't seen before.  And the bread products were absolutely phenomenal!  Soft, fluffy bread....or crusty crust with soft fluffy inside...just amazing.  So really I ate way too much bread.  Since many of these "problem" foods aren't available to me here, I'll be back on track easily.  

Regarding your last post about my thoughts on running....I agree, what you've told me, I'm hearing in my own head.  I very much like the advice I've gotten here and will keep it with me.  I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and see what I feel like doing as far as the race goes.  I realize this is just the start of things and think next year should be awesome as far as where I'm starting from.

As far as the blog here goes, I think I'll just hang out here and keep posting to my training calendar. If I have questions, I'll post here and if I don't hear anything from you, I'll poke you on the "inspire" to check this thread.  Will that work for you?  

Really appreciate all the help and support of this group, you were all inspiring!  Thank you!

Christi

Actually Christi I'm like you in regard to the alcohol.  I just can't tolerate it like I used to be able to do.  Actually I have found it to be one of "triggers".  I can guarantee that if there is over consumption of alcohol in my life nowadays there is likely to be over consumption of other things (namely food).  That's not to say I don't enjoy a beer, margarita. vodka tonic or glass of wine here and there.  Just every once in a while and in small quantities nowadays.

Your welcome Christi.  Trust me, you ladies kept me on my toes.  I was able to learn as much from this process as you did.  Thanks for your participation.

Don't hesitate to contact me via an inspire or in this thread if you have additional questions.

Yea..  You betya.  I'm not letting your ladies off the hook 

Just posting to see something new here.  Hellllooooo oooo  ooo oo o!  Anyone herrrreee ee e?

Talked about riding my bike today, that was fun.  I need to do something besides ride my actual bike, if the weather is going to keep this nasty stuff up.  

Talking isn't helping at all. 

Have a good one,

Christi

Hey Christi,

Sorry for not replying sooner - things have been quit here recently so I forgot to check.  Anyhow, bike riding.  Do you belong to a gym that has spinners?  I do and I'll often jump on a spinner rather than ride my bike.  For me the spinner is great because:

1) It saves me time when I want to swim and bike together.  The gym I belong to has a pool where I swim so I can do my swim workout, walk into the locker and get my cycling gear on and then do my bike workout.

2) I hate riding late during the day on my bike where there is traffic.  Hate it!!!  If it's a weekday and later than 3:00PM I very rarely ride my bike.  Opt for the spinner instead.

3) When it gets really, really hot here in Florida (July, August) often I'll take my rides indoor on a spinner.

For me a couple downsides of spinners:

1) It's hard for me to get into a comfortable aero position.  Just not dialed in like my bike is.

2) I really have a hard time keeping it going for much longer than 1.5 hours indoors.   Mental issue for me.

Don't know if this is an option for you.  If it is try it out.