Wurkit_Gurl's Group - CLOSED (sssh...we're training) (Page 23)

The results of the May challenge are in!

Amy went over and beyond the goal of 20 pink/dark pink/green squares with a grand total of 25!

James was runner up with 24 squares, including 1 race!

Kathleen also exceeded her goal with 21 pink squares, a few of those miserably cold open water swims, so she deserves props for that!

Despite being injured, Will remained on top of the game with 21 squares, due to his persistence in working to rehab his knee.

Steve met his goal with 20 squares, even while finishing up his finals and his thesis.

I hit exactly 20 squares, including my first half-marathon

Steph managed to get 16 squares, even though she had a very busy month, so although she was not able to meet the goal this time, she deserve some congrats for squeezing in as much as she could!

Yay for all of you! What a hard-working bunch

For the June challenge, I would like everyone to pick a discipline, either swim, bike or run (your choice), and choose either a goal of a certain time spent doing that discipline (hours or minutes, up to you), or a certain mileage (or kilometer-age, for our member across the pond). Post your goals here, so I can keep track of them! I need to think about mine for a minute and will post mine later.

Okay, my goal is running, since I starting marathon training this month. I am going to shoot for 75 miles for the month of June.

kmbhoya2000 - 2009-06-01 12:43 PM Sorry about your race Chrissy!  That stinks    We had a fun weekend, and I got a really good walk in, as well as an OWS; and it was fine!!!  I def get more winded, but part of it is also my issue with what may be swimming underneath me, I really have a tiny bit of a phobia about lakes & oceans...ridiculous, I know   That's where the wetsuit is great!!  I know things can't directly touch me!!!

Trying to cut things down for this week, so I can get rested up!!  I've got to think about my June challenge - plus I need to get through this race, and recover, and I'm sure that will highlight things I need to work on.  The unfortunate thing is I think I really need to work on both swimming and biking!!!

Glad you got in the water and it was successful! Yes, open water IS a little tougher, since you have to battle waves and current and such. And I'm irrationally afraid of sharks in the ocean, if that makes you feel better Lakes and rivers are all right though. Usually, the critters will go far, far away once a mass of splashing athletes comes charging toward them Aside from minnows at the water's edge, you probably won't see anything.

Great goal, James! I need to get my butt on the bike as well, but the marathon is really the priority, so I want to make sure I don't slack off at all. Ideally, I'd like to hit every single training run on my plan in some capacity, barring any unforeseen injuries or illnesses. In a few weeks, I'm doing a 4-miler race. My plan has 6 miles that day. But with such short distances that I can do in my sleep right now, I figure a 4-mile race (harder effort) will be equally as stressful on my body as an easy 6 miles. Once it gets up towards the longer runs, I'll have to be more choosy.

I think I'll go with running as well. Since I'm terrible about tracking the actual miles, I'm setting a goal of 6 hours. June will be a much better month for me, so I'm confident I'll hit my goal.

Morning folks, hope everyone is able to check in today - new challenge for June! Pick your discipline, pick your goal in time or mileage and hit it

I think some more folks are racing this month. Feel free to update as to how the training is going - if you have any questions, let me know! The only thing on tap for this month is a 4-miler Twilight run - really, it's at 7 pm, which isn't exactly twilight, and it'll probably be hot as crap.

No, definitely DO NOT start with your shoes clipped into the pedals if you have never done it before. And a week is not enough time to practice. That is only something the top elite folks do, or people who have practiced it many, many times. On Sunday, I watched a guy almost tip over because he couldn't get his foot in his shoe. It's really only necessary if you're trying to win your AG, or the whole thing. I have honestly not had any problems running in my road bike shoes - they have a hard sole (not carbon, but still) and I have Look pedals, so those have fairly large cleats. You do have to run a little further back on your heels than you would in normal running shoes - that's all right for the few yards that it'll take to get through transition. If transition is on grass or dirt, you should be all right.

See my answer to his question - it's NOT necessary for newbies or people who are new to clipless pedals. Or really anyone who's not looking to AG place or place overall.

To be honest, once you get clipless pedals, they're actually quite easy. The clipless aspect is not what freaks me out about riding. It does make stopping fast a bit harder, but you get used to it. Of course,  now I have to learn how to stop all over again, since my seat is raised and that changes how I dismount my bike. But the difficult part is not being clipped in, it's the fact that I have to put a lot of weight on my weak leg either way.

You'll tip eventually. Tipping over when stopped or almost stopped isn't bad. You just kinda fall. It doesn't hurt really. Actually crashing while riding is another thing entirely. At that point, being clipped in or not doesn't make a difference.

It's okay to come to a complete stop at the dismount line. Plenty of others will. Just take your time to get off the bike and when both legs are clear of the pedals, then you can run with it. You won't lose that much time by not doing a flying dismount. Again, none of that stuff is really that necessary for us newbies or non-AG winners, and none of it should be executed unless it's practiced A LOT.

I have never actually used toe cages, as I went straight from the platform pedals that came with my bike to clipless pedals about a month later. But I think that toe cages are probably a little trickier than clipless pedals, since you have to pull your foot back and out to get it out of the cage. With a clipless pedal system, you just click your heel to the side and it comes out. And there's nothing for your foot to get caught on. The cleat either disengages from the pedal or it doesn't, and I've rarely had issues where I couldn't actually get my foot out of the pedal. Now remembering to unclip in time is another story, but that's why you practice. I would unclip long before I had to, until I got comfortable with the motion. Now unclipping is second nature.

Exactly! Being able to pull back and up helps immensely, rather than only being able to mash down. It's not as efficient. Esp. in triathlon, where you need to NOT fry your quads in order to go and run afterwards

You do mean 1 mile, not 1 kilometer, yes? (Just checking since you silly Brits use the metric system ) If you can run 1 mile in 8 minutes, I'd start adding a little distance and going a bit slower. An 8 minute mile is a great pace for a beginner, so for your race, you should really work on trying to be able to run the distance required. You're probably more than capable, you just need to force yourself to go slower, which kinda sucks, but come race day, it's better to run a little more slowly and finish strong, then go all out for a mile and run out of steam.

Ah makes sense. Still, though, an 8:30/mile is good! You can DEFINITELY go longer than a mile, you just may have to bring down your pace a bit. And for a newb, running 9:XX/miles is still pretty darned respectable. I'd concentrate on increasing your mileage. Normally "increase your mileage" has ominous tones to it, but since you're only running 1 mile at a time, going for 1 or 2 more (slowly) won't hurt