Baowolf's Beginner Banquet -Sorry all tables are full no room.. (Page 25)

I was so beat when I got home that I napped for 2 hours. Then my mother called... and will be visiting.  I told her I had 13 hours of workouts planned while she is here.. gona be a full house.  My 5 kids, dauther's boyfriend visiting, mother and oh my wife forgot to tell me her sister and friend will be visiting the same weekend.

Anyway so I start my swim at 10pm and find my wife has cooked the pool to 94 F.  Ohmgosh!  I topped it off with an inch of cold water that dropped it down to 92.  So ya 4500 yard swim in 92F water until midnight.  I am sooo cooked I need some snow to roll in now.  Amazing what that extra 10 F does to your workout.  Oh well zzz time.

Ok so I looked back at my logs, last day without any workouts was April 21, 3 days after the Boston Marathon.  Sometimes on Friday I can get away with only 1 workout... but probably not this week as my Monday run got cut short.  Oh well, ya ZZ.

Uhoh, sounds like we have some bike envy going on.  Dennis already has a model identified .  FWIW I'm test driving a Cobb vflow max and so far so good.

Marcus, I hear you on the heat.  Rode in upper 90's on Sunday afternoon, and definitiely wilted!

Lisa, glad you had a great time in the mountains.  Unplugging is good!  Meanwhile, back to your juggling .

Karen, AWESOME on your ocean swim!  So proud of you.  Fun to conquer those fears.  Glad the jellyfish were scarce too.  I hear you on the salt water...blech!

Steve, LOL on the love scuffs.  I've only tipped over 2 X total so far and wound up with a bent seat and screwed up brake/gear thingie.  As for the IM training, how the heck do you combat the boredom?  This weekend w/ all those peeps around, maybe you will be motivated to run screaming from the house

OK, so I went to the source of all knowledge, the internet, for ideas about whether my bike seat is too low.  I really feel like it is, but don't know enuf to know if I should trust that feeling.  So I went here....http://www.ebicycles.com/bicycle-tools/saddle-height/road-bike, and it yielded that my saddle is currently about an inch too low.  I'm going to try raising it, and see if it helps.

As for weekend plans....probably bike today to test out the above adjustment, short run tomorrow, easy swim Saturday, and 10K on Sunday.  After that, my focus needs to be on OLY training.  Steve, do you have any suggestions for a training plan to put me in the best shape for my first OLY (16 weeks out)?  Also have a sprint 5 wks out w/ a 17 mile bike leg.  I'm also curious....everyone talks about bike intervals and such.  How do you do that with traffic, lights, etc?  I can only get about a mile between traffic lights, even on my "best route" around here.  Do I need to get a trainer to do that? 

Steve, you are a maniac.  I have heard IM training takes over your life.  It is impressive to read  your daily training.  Hope the family doesn't derail you.

Husband kept me awake most of the night snoring! I am dragging today. Daughter wants to go to a Yoga class...

Weekend plans-Another beach swim 1/2 mile, long bike ride 30 miles, long run but only 10 miles.

I have my second sprint tri next weekend, I have a girlfriend who is coming to cheer me on.  I am hoping she will catch the bug and start training for tri's.  She is a runner...loves to bike...good start huh?  Do you all find yourself trying to encourage others to take this journey? I do.  I have had 2 people start to exercise again they say because of me.  It is nice to know the impact of my training doesn't just stop with me, it affects others as well.  Time for Yoga "ommmm" -Karen

Yeah, I'd end that bike ride at a bar and not your house.  Plenty of motivation there to stay away.  IM training seems to get crazy around the last month with the long rides/runs.  Even the swims are quite long.  Maybe you've mentioned it earlier but which IM are you doing? Coeur d'Alene?

Carol, I have seen many suggestions on seat height, the one that Felt recommends is what my LBS used to set mine up initially.

Well I've had some great workouts over the pas 12 hours.  Last night I walked 5.5 miles at a very brisk pace.  This morning I went on an hour bike ride.  Things are getting better there because I almost hit an avg of 16mph on my training ride.  I think the speed is coming from better hill climbing.  After the bike ride, and a call to 911 over a 5am domestic disturbance outside my house(crazy people), I went for a 2200 yd swim.  Non-stop from start to finish in just over an hour.  Although slow, my pace was quite consistent with each 50yd lap being around 1:20-1:25 throughout.

Weekend plans, I'm going to go to my LBS Saturday morning for my first C group ride.  I'm thinking with my speed that should be ok and not too slow, because I'm pretty sure a B ride would be too much.  We'll find out.  Sunday I'm planning on just doing a 1:15 run back down at my 10:00/mile pace.  Legs are feeling super now thanks to the stick and some rest.

Anybody racing this weekend?  I try to read all the posts but might have skipped over a race announcement earlier.

Thanks for the diagram Dennis!  I rode a little w/ my seat up 3/4 inch and feel MUCH better.  I'll check it against the diagram and see if it needs to go up a little more.  Nice that you found a group ride to go on, and very nice improvement in your bike speed!

Karen, way to go on encouraging others, and cool you have a race coming up next weekend!

I would say that you should not have your leg completely straight at the bottom of your pedal stoke.  There is no power if your leg is completely straight but if your leg is bent to much you put quite a bit of strain on your knees.  The only recommendations I have gotten have been that your legs should have about a 15 degree bend in them at the bottom.  It seems right to me.  Anyways just my 2 cents.

Marcus

Life of a triathlete: I realized after getting to work, I remembered to shave my legs but forgot to shave my face. I started shaving my legs a month or 2 ago.  It doesn't make me faster, but keeps me in the triathlete mindset even when I'm not training.  And an added bonus, it still feels like I'm rubbing a stranger's leg when I touch my own (I take what I can get folks).

On a training note, I used my tempo trainer this morning in the pool doing 5x100's.  I started at 1.1 seconds/stroke for the first 100 for a 2:25/[email protected] SPL.  I sped it up .05 per 100 until my last was 0.9 sec/stroke for a 2:10.3/100@18 SPL.  My stroke efficiency went down some with speeding up, but I swam a 2:10 100.  I have never came close to that.  I was so excited.  So I think the tempo timer is going to become a part of my regular swim training.  I now feel by the end of June I can have a sub 2:00 100 if I can just keep my SPL at 16.5 for 0.9sec/strokes.

Thanks Marcus! I'm not going to go for perfectly straight, but was really feeling cramped before I adjusted the seat up.  I had a bike fit done when I got my bike a couple months ago, but wasn't able to give much feedback in terms of whether things felt "right" or not since I was so new to it.  Maybe by process of elimination of what feels wrong I'll get there.

Dennis, OK, I hear you on the 7pm sleepies, but you can have the shaving your legs thing!  Probably not socially acceptable for me to give it up though.  Great job on the swimming progress!

Karen, I love inspiring others to exercise too.  I had the privilege of leading a wellness group at a previous employer.  It was a call center in the healthcare arena, and we employed a lot of younger people.  I was shocked at how sedentary so many of them were.  We did a 1 mile walk once, and many of them struggled to complete it.  I had to run back to the office to get my car to go and pick one of them up that couldn't make it at all.  So many of them had the "I can'ts", but it was pretty hard for them to make that fly w/ me since I was much older than most of them and have a lifelong health condition myself.  The %'s were still pretty low, but a few of them really caught fire and stuck with it, so it was worth it.

Did a short run this morning, just to get a feel for my desired race pace for the 10K on Sunday.  Hoping to break and hour....came within fractions of a second in years past.  Will likely be a challenge based on my recent running/pace history + the heat, but I'm going for it.  A few peeps from church are doing it too, and my friend's teen son is doing his first 1/2 at the same venue assuming I can register him at packet pickup today.  Should be a fun day!  Hoping to meet another BT'er for dinner tonight as she is in town to do a sprint tri.

Anyone else racing this weekend?  Either way, happy races, training, and rests to all! 

Hey All! It has been a while since I checked in. Things are going well. Yesterday I did a bike/jog brick at the gym and was pleased with how well it went. I think I am at a point where I can jog consistently. For some reason that is a big deal to me. I used a bike that had a seat so wide it actually made my butt hurt, which is kinda funny to me.

Steve- You may have already answered this question and I missed it, but what IM are you doing? I have to agree with the rest that you numbers are staggering, and I laughed a bit when I realized how different our perspectives are on things like walking/recovering. I did the 10k last weekend and thought I should take time off to let my legs recover, but then I saw how getting out to walk would have been the better decision instead of nothing. My mindset is slowly changing.

Question: I start a swimming class on Tuesday that is geared toward tri's. I have been practicing the TI method and wonder if that is the standard way of swimming in the sport? If the class wants to teach me something different what would be the best thing for me to do?

Dennis- I have a friend who shaves his legs. I thought it was weird at first, but it "grew" on me..ha! I agree with the 7pm sleepies. Thanks for the bike info and diagram; very helpful!

Carol-I hope you 10k is awesome and you meet your goal! Also glad you had fun in Aruba.

Karen- Ocean swimming seems intimidating to me too. Way to get out there and using the resources of your daughter and her boyfriend is brilliant. It is so great to hear you have a friend to come cheer you on and I hope she does get excited. I have a friend who I invited to do the 10k, but she wasn't able to. So I talked to her about the tri I am doing and she signed up. Crazy! I am excited and I love getting other people excited and sharing what knowledge I have.

I am sure I could say more to all of you, but my messages always end up so long. For the rest who are racing this weekend - have a blast!

Today I am going on a hike!

Well I am off to Chicago for my sister's college graduation!  Should be fun and hopefully I can get a run or two in.

Best of luck on your race this Sunday Carol and to any others that I might have missed!

Good luck on the training with the full house Steve, if that was me I know I wouldn't be getting anything done.  Well already late so I'm off... talk to you all in a few days.

Marcus

Dennis-I think it is cool when I see a guy's legs shaved.  That tells me he is active in something like swimming or tri's and is serious enough about it not to care what others think.  Also, great job on the swimming.  What timmer do you use?

Samantha-Glad your doing well, legs are OK.

Carol-Run hard girl! And keep encouraging others.

I swam 2200 today. Then my son got in the pool and swam a lap with me.  Rested then swm another.  At the edge he asked don't I get tired?  Made me smile.  I realized I have come a long way.  Told him I used to be able to go about 100 then had to side stroke then continue free style.  Now I can go...well, don't know how far.  But after the 2200 today my arms felt it. I am slow, but steady.  And as Steve suggested with my runs, I feel I am building my base even with swimming.  Shoot, I still worry if I am getting the catch right! Enjoy your weekend all! -Karen

Philips BodyGroom

Sorry I have been a little lax, but I have been doing my school psych job and my boss's Special Education Director job with lots of end of the school year stuff, setting up summer schools etc.

I am doing the Vineman in Santa Rosa CA.  (I did Couer d'Arlene last year.)  The swim is in a river so I won't get too far off course and will not have to worry about wind waves this year.  The bike has 4000 foot elevation gain of mostly rolling hills with 1 or 2 significant climbs per lap.  The run has 3 loops with 1 so/so hill and 1 significant hill per lap and the run should be around 95F. 

I got on my bike and positioned like the diagram above with bike shoes on and my heal on the pedal and that is exactly how I have my seat set up.  With your foot in the cleat it raises your foot a bit and your toes flex down some in the stroke.  Note that your foot is in front of straight down.  Clipped in with my pedal straight down my knee is bent slightly. 

For your 6k I would recommend a progressive build.  Start the first mile firm but relaxed, and push slightly harder each mile so that you finish at your fastest pace.  Each mile should be faster than the previous mile, if you top out speed wise your last 2-3 miles should be the same pace with no drop off. 

2200 is a solid continuos swim, you are definately coming along.  My current sustained pace for 2000+ is around 2:00/100. 

The first time you can start doing all of your workouts at a jog rather than at a walk jog is a really big accomplishment.  Way to go!

I learned to swim at a 2 day tri swim clinic.  That style of swimming will enable you to swim full IM distance at a comfortable pace.  To get really fast you may need  to tweek your style a bit.

Perfecting the catch is really one of those things I think you continue to try to perfect, I certainly don't have it down yet.  I am sure having a coach would help a lot with getting you there faster.  The most important components early on are balencing yourself head to butt and timing your rotation side to side so that breathing is deacent.  Then working on the stroke with timing the pull and positioning the catch and pull through take longer.  Most folks push down  with their hand more than they should, which raises your head and sinks your butt making you slower in the water.   

I just used one of the BT Oly plans, but went longer on the bike rides as I was using for a build to a HIM.  You can ignore the sprint prep and just use the Oly plan to get you ready for the sprint and then do the sprint as part of your training.  You shoudl recover in 1-2 days and get back into the plan.  You won't need more than a 1-2 day taper for a sprint unless it is your A race for the year. 

Alright Carol I looked at your half mary pace and your runs for the past month.  Breaking  1 hour is going to be challenging for you.  Your half mary pace from February puts you at a 1:08:19 for a 10k.  Your more recent longer runs put you at a 1:05:00 time for the 10k.  Your base miles are coming up and the race is shorter than the half mary, so you won't fade as much at the end. 

I am thinking Mile 1= 9:45, 2= 9:35, 3= 9:25, 4=9:20, 5= 9:15, 6 = 9:20 (9:15 if you can hold it) and finish at 9:20.  That puts you at 57:30 with a little slush for the last 1.5 miles.   If you flatten out at 9:25 for the last 3 miles you still finish at 59:00 ish.  This won't be an easy race, but I think you can break 1 hour if you follow these pace guides.  If you have a garmin to check pace you can use that.  I expect your HR to be close to 200 by the end given your HR data, at least in the 190+ range.  I don't want to hear 190+ until mile 3 is completed though 8). 

Marcus-I hope your sisters grad was a fun time for you. I hope you were able to get some training is as well.

Steve-Just so you know I tell my friends about your training because the amount of time you put in for training is mind-boggling. How you do all of it with a family, job and many other things is beyond me. Then I read you swam from 10pm to 12pm and I think I get the picture of what it takes. Do you sleep much? I was at the CDA IM last year. This year I am a volunteer, so it is too bad you won't be there. It would be fun to meet. Oh well.

I am visiting friends in Portland and getting in my regular workouts has been difficult. Went on a beautiful hike today and that was a good push. Tomorrow I plan to run, but I will see how that works out. I really caused my hamstrings to suffer for the last couple days because I over-stretched them pulling weeds the other day. It has take so long for them to feel better.

Question: I am on older road bike that is a twelve speed, I think, and the shifter on on the frame and not easily accessible. I have considered upgrading to new gears and shifters as opposed to buying a whole new bike. Any thoughts? I suppose I should also see if this bike is even a good fit for me. Is there a way to get fitted for cheap?

Karen-I am so impressed with your swimming yards.

I should go to bed because it is really late. Keep up all the awesome work!!

Tried to post earlier and lost it

Anyway, thanks so much Steve for the pacing advice!  I agree w/ you that this is a stretch given where I am running wise. Hopefully I won't go into my "oh well...let's just smell the roses" mode tomorrow when the going gets tough.  Knowing I have put a goal out there AND have a plan should help with that.  Will make sure my garmin is charged this time!  Good luck with training this weekend amidst all the peeps descending on your house.

Samantha, I did my first two tri's in a one piece swimsuit and added running shorts and a tank top in T1.  Next tri, I "invested" in a pair of tri shorts, and added a running top from the back of my closet that had a bit of built in support as my pretend tri top.  I viewed it as too tight/revealing before trying on tri tops, and then decided it wasn't so bad after all .  Worked OK, but not ideal.  If you are sure you are planning on doing more tri's (and I'm betting you are) then I think the tri shorts/top or one piece tri outfit would be worth it.  If you're still testing the waters and don't want the stress of any add'l expenses, then bathing suit + shorts and tank can work just fine.

Met another BT'er and her friend for dinner last night and had a wonderful time!  She was doing a local sprint tri this morning, so hoping it went well for her.

Just back from a short bike ride w/ hubby.  First time he's gotten out on a bike in a long time.  I stealthily guided our route to end at my favorite coffee shop .  Think he still prefers golf and tinkering with computers, but it was fun to do that together.

Your entry bikes with decent components run around $650 to $750.  That being said you can go for used and get some pretty good deals.  A lot of folks get really nice bikes for Christmas and don't ride them much, perhaps at all and then sell them 2 to 3 years later.  Sometimes they area  good deal sometimes not.  Often folks did not spend the time to shop around and purchased the bike for $1000 more than it was worth new, so when they mark it down $1000 you are not getting a deal.  If I were to upgrade, I would sell my current bike for probably $700.  But I am not going to upgrade until I am worthy of an upgrade speedwise.  And I don't see that happening in the next 3 years.  For now my bike is better than I am. 

You can test ride bikes at bike shops.  Even if you don't intend on buying one right off, you can try some out to see what the difference is between a 1990, 60 pound Swin and a P2 Cevelo.  And then save your pennies for 3 years 8). 

It is hard to change clothes in T1 because you are wet.  Also most triathlons do not have changing tents.  I remember trying to put on a tri top after a swim.... it was really hard.  I really think that wearing a tri outfit throughout the race is ideal.

Showed up at the LBS for my C group ride.  Nobody there at the meeting spot, back of the store.  So I walked around front and saw a lot of bikers.  This is the B group.  I asked what was up with the C group.  "The left 20 minutes earlier" somebody said.  Somebody else said, "Well I guess you're riding with us."  When I asked their pace they said, no more than 17 on flats, 20 downhill.  "How far?", I then asked.  "62 miles today", somebody responded.

So today i had my first group ride.  My Garmin clocked it in at 63 miles.  I didn't get dropped and kept up with them the entire way.  I had a blast.  I think I'll go back next weekend.

Dennis, that is totally the way to get faster at biking, and nice distance.  Grats for staying with them. 

This morning I got out of bed late.. dragged my feet a little getting out the door, as I prepared my calorie potion, filled my misc. water bottles (28 + 16 + 64 oz) and got ready to head out on my 110 mile bike ride... I noticed the clouds getting darker, the temperature drop 10 F and it start to rain.  Sigh, I wasn't going to do another 100+ mile ride on the drainer this close to race day.  I went and got what rain gear was easy to find, pants, jacket, put a rain cover on my helment and well oops my waterproof gloves are at work, put on wool socks. I found it interesting that I manged to always be biking into the wind on an out and back.  There were times when the wind died down, but never a tail wind. It rained on and off for the whole ride.  It was also annoying that my bike computer battery died while I was asleep lastnight, so no spedometer.  I used my garmin to judge distance, but its battery went from full charge to dead by the time I got to 100 miles.  So much for the 8 hour charge they advertise, more like 6 hours.  Oh well got er done, not fast but done, tired.  Fatigue is building pretty fast wouldn't be suprised if tomorrows run was off by 1 mpm or so. 

Dennis- Wow that is amazing! You did well! Just shows we are more capable than we give ourselves credit! Had a running girlfriend with similar circumstance- running group -track work out no one there with her pace so she ran with the faster group- and guess what, she kept up! So good for you, you great BT'er!!

I did another beach swim today.  This will put into perspective the size of the waves: had my daughter and her boyfriend again, paddle their surfbords with me.  Well the bf wanted to stop and surf instead!!  The waves were much larger than normal, much larger than my  Tuesday swim.  And the temp was down from 81 to 76. Go figure, weird Fl weather.  Cold to me at first, but once I started to swim, not problem. So after that, I went on my longest bike ride to date-30 miles. Steve you would be proud of me, I thought of your advice, I took a protein bar and ate it near mile 12. Nothin' like a Snickers protein bar! But it was melting...have to do something about that. Think I will run tomorrow 10 miles. Then 2 hour ride south to the folk's- family visit.  My mom wants me there earlier, but I said I had to get my long run in.  Sounding like a triathlete huh?

Carol-Good luck on your race tomorrow! BT'ers are behind you! (and waiting for your results!!) -Karen