Scott and Kelly's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 23)

Very quick update from me.

I have been super busy since my adventure race on the 23rd of February.  We didn't do as well this year as past years - long story, but involves not finding a check point and me slipping and falling on a big patch of ice on a section of single track and buggering up my neck.  I'm fine - nothing broke, just a muscle spasm - and a HUGE thigh bruise I'm still trying to get rid of.  We helped a gal with a flat tire who needed assistance so that slowed us down as well.  And one check point just did not want us to find it for a great length of time.  Needless to say we ended up being one of the last teams in (not like us at all).  A little different from last year's race when we were the 2nd team to finish the race.  It was cold, mildly windy (12 mph) and hilly, and a mix of mud, gravel and patches of ice, but it felt nice to complete it.

I have taken up some weight training in place of swimming the last 3 weeks (since my indoor tri) in an effort to drop some fat and replace it with muscle.  Appears to be working as I am down 3% body fat in 3 weeks - so YEAH!  And my posture has never looked so good.

Headed to Florida Friday morning to Disney for spring break with the family.  Not sure what effect this will have on my training.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.  I'll see if I can't catch up on posts.

All the different types of triathlon - indoor, outdoor, off road, super sprint, sprint, etc and what the distances are for each.

How scarey open water swims are for nearly everyone, but any swim stroke is OK.

Where to line up for the swim.

Crazy rules -no ear phones/music, drafting, helmet on & buckled before removing bike.

Running with your bike helmet makes you faster.  Oh, no that's not right.  Remember to take it off.

All the mistakes other people have made during a triathlon (humanizes the sport and plus it's just funny and you feel less bad when you do an something idiotic).

Stay to the right.

Dismount/mount line

Your legs may feel numb when you get off the bike - it's normal.  Keep going the nerves will work again.

Bike comfort/saddle alternatives/proper bike size.  Aerodynamics can make a big difference in speed.

How to mount a bike.

Length of time to train (3 months for sprint etc).

Required equipment, nice to have equipment, equipment that is frivolous but fun to have/play with

List of beginner friendly races.

Costs involved

Addiction quality of the sport

Sorry about the absence lately.  Geeze life has been kinda crappy lately well hectic and crappy.  Kids birthdays, had to put one of my dogs down, training, yada yada.  Good to see everyone here is progressing well.

ALL long course training plans should be based on time and either HR or power.  What you NEED to be tracking is the amount of stress you're putting your body under.  Power and/or HR tell you how much stress your body is under and time gives you the duration you're stressing out the body.  

Now are all canned plans are targeted at the median athlete.  They don't take into account your strengths, weaknesses, time constraints, etc.  For instance Allen probably needs to swim less and bike more because swim isn't his limiter.  So tinkering with the plan isn't a bad thing.  Keep an eye on your recovery though.  

It's a tough deal on Killian, but it's a long time in the offing.  He had cataracts in both eyes and tumors in both ears.  He was fairly happy until recently, but he started snapping at our infant.  Tough deal for our other kids.

Good job on the race.  10 mins is a huge PR

An extra hour (I'm assuming) on the bike shouldn't mess you up unless you're just knocking out huge power intervals the whole time.  A typical bike/spin class isn't like that so I wouldn't worry too much.  

Just a quick note to the group.  Running to your potential in long course (HIM and IM) and to a lesser extent Oly tris is about what you did on the bike.  The bike is the longest segment, you take in most your nutrition here, and you have the potential to totally screw your run.  IF you pace, hydrate, and eat correctly on the bike you will get off and once the initial discomfort of running passes you'll be fine.  If you burn too many matches on the bike, by burning matches I mean go anaerobic for long periods of time and/or leave your body with no fuel in the tank, you will start off slightly slow on the run and start to crumble.  As Macca said a few years ago on the Kona broadcast (paraphrase) "You can be the best marathoner in the world but if you get off the bike with an empty tank you're not going anywhere."

The good thing about spin class is it is as hard as you make it.  The bad thing is it's generally only an hour.  Sometimes you could probably use about 30 minutes more.  

I have a friend who teaches spin and does Ironman races.  She teaches Wednesday and Friday and rides outside Saturday or Sunday depending on her kids' schedules.  This is ALL the riding she does in prep for IMs and she'll come in 11:30ish.  She races smart though.  She could probably ride 20ish mph for a half ironman, but she rides 18.5 to 19 and is able to run her a$$ off when she gets off the bike.  

Look for all us parents who do HIM and IM distance it's a juggling act.  We miss workouts because of kids, or lack of sleep, or work, or any number of other conflicts.  The key is to just be as consistent with your training as you can and race smart come race day.

I CAN NOT stress this enough.  Type A triathletes get all bent out of shape when they have to miss workouts.  You have no idea how many athletes I have to tell to just "let it go."  If they miss a workout I get "should I make up the workout tomorrow?", "should I replace workout A with workout b?", etc, etc.  The answer is generally "let it go."  We're not pros, life happens.  Most type A triathletes obsess and borderline over train so if you miss a workout just look at it as a bit more rest than your body normally would be allowed.  

Oh trust me you wouldn't be any more of a pain than any other triathlete.  Most have definite ideas about how they should be training that either come from magazines or reports on how pros train.  Top level people sell their "program" like it's the only good way to train.  Fact of the matter is that there is more than one way to skin a cat and each athlete has a slightly different "best" way to train.  It's a coaches job to find what works best for the athlete and not try to jam a round peg into a square hole.