Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 24)

No log in yesterday -- Mother's Day ended up being a 24-hour deal.  The kids and I cleaned up the yard -- which was in quite a sorry state -- and Mom loved that.  She slept.

Sorry to miss the discussion.  Let's see if I can catch up.

Blanda:  Love the pics.

Jamie:  I am currently, I claim, the king of foot injuries.  I still have a significant issue with my right foot.  All I can say is that regular massaging and icing helps.

As for your other questions, let's go one at a time (I agree with Randy, but I'll put my own spin on things):

Not crazy.  Well, not crazier than what any of us does.  You're probably going to have to start thinking carefully about how to fit the added training in to your life.  Word of advice:  don't let it become an 'issue' between you and your wife.  I've seen that happen to more than one person.

I have a full.  I wore it in my recent HIM when the water temp was just barely legal, and was still fine (no overheating).  You're right -- summer races are not wetsuit legal around here.  In fact, I tend to race in my wetsuit only about twice per year, typically for a spring HIM and a fall long course race of some sort.  You will want, if at all possible, to try several on before buying.

I started with a road bike, and I tried to put aerobars and a forward seatpost on it. (Well, I did more than try -- I did it!)  I would rate the result as 'OK, not great'.  I found it quite difficult to dial in a really solid fit.  OF course, that could be a function of the bike and me, but I've heard since heard lots of people say similar things.

If you do anything, I'd say buy some 'shorty' (ITU-style) aero bars.  Here's a thread from last fall discussing various options:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=414404&posts=6&start=1

(Pay attention in particular to Shane's post.)  You shouldn't need a forward seat post with these, so total cost shouldn't be huge, especially if you can find a used pair.  Anyway, my advice would be to stick with the road bike, possibly with the clipons, through a full year of tris, then look into a tri bike.

Yes, get a fit first, and make sure it is somebody good.  I'm actually headed to Atlanta in the near future for a new fit, as I'm not 100% satisfied with my current fit.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Tri the Midlands is a great race.  The swim is about the friendliest OWS you will do (point to point, easy siting).  The bike course is on rural roads, mostly pretty good ones.  The run is an out-and-back with a short but notorious hill at the turnaround.  I had a cruddy race there last year, and I'm hoping to make it a good one this year.  Festival of Flowers is also good, though I think they only do an Oly there, no sprint.  Both races are HOT, though Tri the Midlands is over pretty early, before the real heat comes.  I remember doing Festival of Flowers one year and the temps were mid 90s at the start.  They had a tent set up with sprinklers at the end, and many of us just sat down in the watery goodness until we were soaked all the way through.

Jimmy -- I'll be following along!  Safe travels.  You are ready -- have a great race!

Just had to share this with everyone:

Went for a run with a group at work at lunchtime. Running with a group is completely new to me, and so far really great. As the four of us were getting ready to head out, I mentioned that I was overdressed (long sweat pants) because I hadn't planned to run... I had thrown my sneakers and sweats in the car just in case the traffic was bad and I'd have to ditch my swim before work. 

Well, it was not long after I mentioned swimming that the conversation turned to triathlon. As it turns out, two of the group have done triathlons, and the third swims at a popular lake. By the end of the run, I had an invite to swim at the lake, and an offer to borrow a road bike!!!

I just can't believe how many of the people I've met who are involved with triathlon are so generous and welcoming. And, of course, that goes for all of you, too. Thanks, everyone. 

PS - Someone was looking for the Chrissie Wellington bio. I think it comes out tomorrow, though the US book tour has been going for a few weeks.  Ordered my copy and hope to read it this weekend. 

Jimmy -- We'll all be rooting for you! Have a great race. 

Rene: Come on over!!

Jason: You'd think having year round summer and being surrounded by beaches we'd get there more often, but sadly, we don't. Pitiful! I am making more of an effort lately now that we all are better swimmers.

Jimmy: So excited for you!!

I'm recovering from a weekend of gluttony and over sipping of the adult bevvies. Feels good to sweat all that out!

I'm turning 40 this weekend and I'm honestly OK with that. I wanted to take on a new sport before turning the big 4 0, and I'm so glad I chose multi-sporting. It's made me feel stronger and healthier than I have in a long, long time, and more accomplished! I've made some awesome new friends through it as well. IRL and here on BT!

Jen-great to find people that share your interests.  I do almost all of my training alone.  I do have a buddy that  run with 1-2 times a week and I always look forward to those runs...catching up on what's going on and gettting a visit in while running.

Chrissie Wellington will actually be in my little town of Fairhope, Alabama next Monday night signing books! Got it on the calendar and plan to attend!

Randy

Jen - I ordered the book on Amazon yesterday. It shipped and is supposed to be at my house on Thursday. Now i need to finish "Every Second Counts" by Lance Armstrong before Thursday! 

I am going to start using Trainerroad.com tomorrow morning ... will let you know how it goes!

Jen -- great to hear about the new training partners.  And I agree -- triathlon folks really do seem to be very nice, in general.

Happy B-day Blanda!  (Turning 40 was a bit of a trigger/wake-up call for me -- that's when I started running.)

Real IM training started for me today, though it was a relatively easy day.  Good night all!

Rene - I leave in just over an hour!  Plan to get there for a few pre-race days of R&R, enjoying the sights and hopefully acclimating a bit as well. 

Jason - running in A2 sounds great!  Will let you know when I come to town.  I live in Ada, Mi which is just outside of Grand Rapids.  I graduated from Pioneer HS in 1983.  Every time I visit I am so amazed how much the town has changed.  The new UM football stadium is pretty amazing!

Michael - excited to see how your IM journey goes.  I always have such a sense of purpose when I embark on these.  I love training and the race for me is the icing on the cake. 

Well group, I'm just finishing up last minute packing before leaving for the airport.

Thought I's share my last 4 1/2 months of logging with you:

 Looking back, my one area I wish I could have done different was getting in more longer bike rides.  This is my biggest struggle with training as I rarely have that much time free to go 5-6 hours.

One change I made this year was to focus lots more on running.  Not so much speed as endurance.  I have a hope to not have to stop during the marathon leg of this race.  This is a tall order for me.  At least hope to keeping my walking to a minimum.

For the bike, my strategy is to resist the urge to "push it" on the beginning of the course.  I hope to go strong and steady.  If I am going to achieve my race goal, I need to save energy for the run. 

My goal for the swim is to get through feeling strong.  It may be a wetsuit swim (temps permitting).  I have not decided what to do yet.  Half the IM's I've done without wetsuits.  I plan to get a feel for what most are doing on race day (wetsuit vs non), then choose the other option to minimize the craziness of the crowds.

Renee, the link you sent me from Endurance Nation helped remind me the importance of hydration.  I have my nutrition plan, but will need to modify it based on how often I need to pee.  If I'm not peeing on the bike then I know I'm not taking enough in.

Finally, I need to always remember that this is Ironman, and anything can happen on race day.  Fun is always my number one rule!  Jim

Good luck, Jim.  Looking forward to hearing all about it!

[P.S. to Jim and Jason - love running in the Arb!]

I really like TrainerRoad.  Lots of good woorkouts.  Great to be able to follow workout numbers while watching a dvd or Netflix.  Really neat product.

Randy 

So I did my first trainerroad.com workout this morning. It was a total of 1 hour on the bike to establish my functional threshold power. Since I do not have a power meter I am using the Garmin GSC10 in addition with my heart rate to establish virtual power ... pretty awesome application ... I am hooked! Workout was so much fun almost like a game!

Check out my ride:

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/55082

Oh ... I also forgot to mention ... "A life without limits" arrived today ... happy reading!

So, I was pleased with my times from my first Sprint tri, but I definitely want to improve on whatever I can, here are my times:

Swim: 20 minutes

Bike: 40:12

Run: 26:11

So, should I focus on continuing my overall fitness level, which could improve my time in each discipline, or should I really dial in on one of them and try to improve it? 

Jamie-good question and one that I think all triathletes have to consider when balancing training with life's other activities.  Personally, I think it is easier to make gains in the run and bike by running and biking more.  More is not universally better but neither running or biking are as technically challenging as swimming.  So much of improving swim speed is improving technique.  Not to say that increasing swim volume won't improve swim endurance but ultimately improvements in technique are what result in the biggest gains.

Also, since you are gradually increasing the distance of your events you will want to improve your bike/run endurance.  Those 2 disciplines are also, percentage wise, what we spend the most time doing when racing.  It may be much easier to shorten your bike or run split by several minutes than do the same on the swim.  Looking at your recent race and assuming a 10% improvement in each leg you would have saved 2 minutes on the swim as compared to 4 minutes on the bike and 2.6 minutes on the run.  Don't neglect the swim but I would focus on gradually increasing run and bike volume.  Something to consider would be to do a "swim focused" training period in the off season. Maybe get some lessons or join a masters group.  Its much easier to try to work on things when we aren't focused on racing and improving our times.  My experience with swimming technique/improvement is I get worse before I get better.  If you don't want to get lessons or join masters you may want to look at a program online called "Finding Freestyle".  Its like $60 and has a 12 week program with interaction from the instructors, videos and message forums to get help.  Lots of good stuff in that program and I think anyone that went through it would see benefits.

Not sure if you are following a specific training plan but one good way to increase run volume is the 3-2-1 plan.  Pick a time or distance say 15 minutes.  3 days you run 15 minutes, 2 days you run 30 minutes and 1 day you run 45 minutes. Of course the trick is incorporating it into your tri training.  There are big gains to be made with running just by increasing the number of days you run. Don't worry about pace right now just let your body adapt toothe increased load. Really, start easy and let your body adapt....the 10% per week increase is a good guideline.

Randy        

Randy, that is great advice and just what I was looking for! I was thinking the same thing, that my swim was kinda slow, but was the shortest event as far as time was concerned. I was also really taking everyone's advice and trying to stay relatively nice and easy throughout, which isn't to say I would've gone a lot faster if I had exerted a little more effort, but maybe a little. 

I think I can really improve my bike time. I felt good on the bike, and passed 4 people in my group, but I think I can get my average to 17 if I just keep working on it. 

As far as the running goes, I was really surprised to see it was my strongest event. I've been running for about a year now, but I'm nothing like fast. My run time was only 40 secs. slower than my fastest 5k ever. Honestly, if I'd known I was going to do that well compared to those in my group, I would've put more into the first mile then I did.

I'm doing another Sprint in a few weeks, then another in July or August, then an Oly in the Fall, so in June I'm going to start a 20 week Oly plan that I'll go by. I think it'll work, and I'll probably exceed the expected miles by race day. 

This is a great group, I feel like a sponge just soaking up everything! Thanks! 

I need some help!  I do most of my riding on the trainer in the garage watching Netflix dvd's or streaming programs.  I'm running short of things I WANT to watch.  I like stupid comedy movies like Dodgeball, Anchorman etc but also like a good mystery or action thriller.  I've been all the way through numerous TV series including Lost, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and others.  Never could really get into 24 or Dexter which I know alot of people like.

I apologize to folks that were in our previous group as I asked this before.  Anybody have suggestions on movies, TV series they really like.  While you are at it what are your top 3 or 5 or whatever favorite movies?

Mine...no particular order

 Bourne trilogy, Shawshank Redemption, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, 3:10 to Yuma, Secondhand Lions. I'm sure there are others that I'll think of later. 

Any suggestions appreciated.

Randy

Jami/Jason-thanks for the suggestions.  Anyone else?

On the road for work today.  Hope to get in an easy ride and run this evening.

Have a good day everyone.

Randy