Gray Guys/Girls Master's Focus Triathlon Mentor Group--Now Open (Page 24)

Nice PR bike ride Janet.  60km/ 37.5 mi is a decent ride.  Not a big leap from here to 90km/ 56mi.  How did you feel after the ride (comfort wise)?

Not too bad.  Some soreness in my backside and my neck/shoulders were achy but I figured that was just from the longer distance.  Also had to deal with some pretty good headwinds on the second half of the ride, so just some fatigue in the legs from that.  Overall - very happy with the ride.  

Congrats on your race and the 1st place in your AG!  

Janet

Here's a short race report:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=541761&posts=1&page=1#M5186087

It was a fairly quiet race.

The soreness you mention is pretty normal and gratefully not a problem for you.  Hopefully you can get your distance up to 56 mi pretty easily/ quickly.

How's the course you ride for adding another 30 km/ 18.5 mi?  

Embrace the wind - get down low on your bike and push harder.  It always makes me crazy when I'm pushing hard into a headwind and making what I think is a good pace only to have some young woman pull up beside me and say, "good morning." and smile then take off into the wind like I am standing still. (Young guys do the same thing but they aren't as friendly).  They make me feel like Wylie Coyote and they are the roadrunner.

Great job Janet.  Doesn't really matter what the pace was, you did the distance.  When you are riding longer rides they generally shouldn't be much higher than a Z2 pace anyway.  Keep it up, 56-miles is a piece of cake!

Hey Chris!

Congrats on your first triathlon!

I read your race report and have a couple comments/observations -

1. You were anaerobic during the swim.  That carried over and caused you problems in T1 and on the bike.  Increased yardage/swim training will go along ways towards correcting this.
2. You said, "I was very out of breath coming out of the swim. So T1 was slow. Gel/drinking while in T1 might need to wait until on the bike."  See #1 above.  I would STRONGLY urge you to continue to take in a gel and hydration in T1.  When you come out of the water, even at a sprint distance, you are at a caloric deficit as well as mildly dehydrated.  Taking in nutrition and hydration in T1 begins to immediately get you back on track.  You always want to strive to stay ahead of the nutrition/hydration curve.  Failure to do that will create bigger problems later in the race.
3. You said, "For some reason my legs were smoked after the swim. The first 3 miles on the bike I wasn't sure I'd make it. But I bounced back."  See #1 & 2 above.  This was a direct result of being anaerobic during the swim.  Taking in nutrition during T1 is what helped you bounce back.  People don't realize how much the swim can impact the rest of the race.  You got to experience it first hand.
4. Running off of the bike is always going to be a challenge.  Increasing the number of brick runs will help.  I have most of the athletes I work with build up to a Z2 run after EVERY bike session.  Two to three weeks out from the race, we have a couple of those bricks at Z3->Z4 pace.  It doesn't make it easier per se, but it does make it more "comfortable."  Knowing what you are going to experience goes a long way towards becoming proficient.
5. GREAT race report!  A tremendous learning experience.

Good job Chris.  Now you are a triathlete, welcome to the wonderful world of Triathlon!

Hey George, you've got this!  Lots of hill work.  If you don't have hills in your area; lots of big gear, low RPM work.  Just be aware that stresses the knees.  Big gear/low RPM will increase muscular strength which will benefit you in the hills.

Congratulations!  First is first, doesn't matter how you got there!  The question isn't what your bike speed was; rather, how was your run.  You had a better run this year than last year.  You can't have a good run without a good bike ride - PERIOD.  Sounds to me like you had a good bike ride also!

Good for you George!  Giving back is always a positive thing to do.  I wish there had been someone that had been as helpful on the day of my first triathlon.

Two days off?!?  You slacker!    Sometimes you need a break.  You come back refreshed and energized - ready to hit training hard again.

Deb - I just read your race report.  You're not wordy.  It was a good read and sounds like you ran a solid race and your transitions were fast!  I'd like transitions like yours.  

I'll check out the climbing cassette's.  Anything that makes climbing easier would be a big help.

Deb - congrats on your race!

Had a pretty good OWS practice on Saturday morning.  My sighting is getting better.  I did 1 big loop and 2 small loops for a total of about 1500m.  I'm getting more comfortable with it every time which is good.  I'm still slow, but finding it easier to get into a good rhythm.  

DNF'd my biathlon (4 mile run/20 mile bike) on Sunday morning .   Apparently I strained a tendon in my leg on one of my runs last week and I couldn't get through the 4 mile run without pain in my foot.  Decided to stop about 1/2 way through the run instead of possibly making things worse.  Getting to Ohio in August is more important to me.  There were actually quite a few DNF's at the race.  The temps were already in the low 80's when the race started at 7 am and there is very little shade on both the run and bike courses.  Ended up being a record-tying day temp wise.  It's starting to really feel like summer here. 

Janet

AKDave - Congrats on your two races.  Your times were really good as well.  In Florida were you swimming in a lake or saltwater?

I have had the same problem as your shorts catching on the saddle but it didn't result in a barrell roll dismount.  Nice recovery but no pics?

Chris - Congrats on your race as well.  I found your heart rate info very interesting.  Now I am curious about my own racing HR.

It's never fun to DNF but you made the right decision.  

Nice to hear your swimming is progressing nicely and getting comfortable with sighting is a big plus as well.

OK, well, there's a cure for this.  Start doing 200's in training.  If that doesn't do it, then do 400's in training.  This is a mental thing.  You need your brain to get the idea that pacing is important.  If you are swimming a 400, at some point, your brain will figure out, "Hey!  This is painful!  Maybe I should slow down."  If your brain doesn't get the memo, your body has a way of informing you that you are going to fast.  Trust me, swim a couple 400's and you will have a MUCH better idea of pacing.  Do that a couple of back to back workouts and you will likely no longer have pacing problems.

Hey Dave,

Interesting bike dismount technique.  Are you going to do a clinic on that?

Glad you weren't hurt and the bike was intact.

Good race reports!

Hey Deb,

I always enjoy reading your race reports.  I have a question.  What smoothing are you using on your Garmin?  If I recall you have a Garmin Edge 510.  I believe you can select instant avg, 3s average, 10s average and 30s average.  I have found that the 10 second average works best for me.  The instant is useless because the number bounces all over.  3-second is more steady but still bounces quite a lot.  The 10-second tends to be stable enough to provide useful information.

Also, if you are using Training Peaks, there is a metric called "Variability Index" that looks at how evenly you applied power over the course of the race.  It is an excellent metric to examine when you are riding a hilly course as it will help you determine how "well" you paced the hills and the ride in general.

Great race report as usual!

Hey Janet.

I can remember a time not so long ago that a 1,500 meter swim was all but out of the question.  You've made some huge strides forward in the water!

You did the right thing accepting a DNF.  Sometimes it is better to live to fight another day than continue on and end your season.

I'm not sure about everywhere else, but in Southern California, summer has "officially" made it's entrance with temperatures of 110-115 expected this weekend through the next 7-10 days here on the edge of the desert.  That means running early in the morning while it's still cool and moving most of my rides to the trainer.  I'll still do the long ride outdoors though because I just can't stomach the trainer for 3-4 hour rides.

I finally got off my backside and entered a couple races.  I've entered the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (13.1) next May in Indianapolis - this is the one from downtown Indianapolis to a turn-around lap of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and back.  More importantly for my goals as a triathlete is the Ironman I've entered in December (actually not a WTC branded Ironman but a local 140.6) with an eye towards a KQ attempt at Ironman Louisville October 2017.  While all of those events are months away, it has provided a certain incentive to get meaningful training done.  Coming back from injury and the seemingly endless medical issues the past couple of years has been one of the toughest things I have ever done athletically.  The things that I could recover from in a couple days when I was in my 20's now seem to take weeks or months.  Regaining fitness that use to be so easy, now seems to be a daunting task - the joy of becoming an older athlete.

Entering the races has put an exclamation point on my new outlook.  Whereas a month ago, I'd go and do a swim, ride or a run, but I had no particular passion or desire to push myself.  I was just going through the motions and feeling sorry for myself that I was having to battle back from a pretty low level of fitness (partially self imposed because I couldn't seem to overcome the temptations found in the kitchen).  Somehow, the competitive athletic fire has been rekindled in the past couple of months - culminating with entering the races.  I'm happy to say that I now look forward with enthusiasm to executing my training plan.  My desire to go to Kona once again burns within me.  I write all of this to say that, for each of us, there is that "one thing" that will inspire us to continue on when everything tells us to stop.  There is "one thing" that will motivate us when everything around us is trying to drag us down.  There is "one thing" that will stimulate and propel you to excellence.  I encourage each of you to find your "one thing."  You will be a better triathlete once you do.

What's everyone have on tap for the weekend?

Just the last week or two we've had pretty cool temps especially at night and on Tuesday we tried to swim in the lake but we were frozen out and we had to go back to the pool probably until late next week.  I'm not sure what the lake temp is now but on Friday (last week) it was a balmy 20C/ 68F but by Tuesday it was nasty cold.

Interesting observation - Two weeks ago at my Olympic race they gave us tattoos for our race numbers on our left shoulder and calf.  So I put mine on and then raced the event and just happened to get sunburned.  Then after the race I scrubbed off the tattoos (very carefully thanks to the sunburn).  Then I realized I now have a negative tattoo of my race number on my shoulder.  I'm not sure how long it will last but after two weeks it is just as visible as it was after the race.  Not a big deal but just an interesting souvenir of the race.

My weekend - a 100 km bike ride starting early tomorrow morning and hoping not to get soaked in the scheduled rain.  I'm hoping it will go better than my ride last Saturday.  On Sunday I have a two hour run (a long run but not a long distance).  Then I get Monday off.

My "One Thing", that's a hard one.  I'll have to think about it.  I love it anytime I have a great swim, bike or run.