Hashers and Mashers Part 2 - OPEN (Page 25)

Hi all,

Well, if I wasn't feeling fat and lazy before, I certainly am now. Sounds like everyone is smashing out the training sessions which is awesome. Keep it up!

I gave myself a week and a bit off after the HIM and then a picked up a bug from my little man (my son, William). I've been on antibiotoics for two weeks now and have not done any form of exercise in three and a half weeks! Oh well, this is all part of it. Just lucky it was after my "A" race and not before! I hope to get on the bike this weekend but I'll just see how I am.

I've been reading the nutrition chat with some interest. It really is the fourth discipline in triathlon and there is so much to learn. I just wish I was more knowledgable (and much more disciplined)...!

Enjoy your next session....

Cheers,
Chris

Its great to see you practicing transitions. Its a great way to shave some time off your race and you have to practice for it to become second nature.

Getting on/off the bike is a big part of it. You just need to weigh up the time saving against the potential risks. Because I don't practice much I take the safer options (I don't try and do a full flying mount) particularly if its a longer race where a couple of seconds is not that important.

Here's a question for the group, how does everyone mount and dismount their bikes...?

No flying mount here. I put my shoes on in transition then I run out of transition, get off to the side a little then hop on and shove off.

I kind of do a flying mount/dismount.  I keep my shoes on the bike, and rubber band them so they stay up, so that while running I can step on the left shoe and use that momentum to lift my right leg over the saddle and then start peddling.  At a convenient location I put my feet in the shoes.  Then on dismount at a convenient spot I take my feet out of the shoes and then close to the bike end line I start standing on the left peddle as the bike moves forward and then dismount right before the line.

Joe - Have you noticed a growing tendency in triathlons to discourage AGers from leaving their cycling shoes on their respective pedals? I think I saw two events last year say it was not allowed except for Pro's. The only reason I can imagine them doing this would be fear of people injuring themselves.

I've not encountered any races where they do that but I've heard it is common.

I agree with mike up there, i cannot jump that high and i have bottles behind my seat so i have to jump high to get over them


@Everyone
Whats the balance again re. short runs and long run in a week?

@Joe
Hows the season looking for you?

@George
Do you practice frontcrawl in the pool so as to get used to when you get to OWS?

@Gary
You around there??? hows your recovery going.

@Nick
Someone told me with my other group you can get prescription goggles and sunglasses maybe expensive but worth the investment longterm.

Cheers Everyone

Carlo



Edited by strykergt 2014-02-25 12:01 AM

I'm a bit like you Joe, although I do swap between two methods.

1. I will have my shoes in the pedals and held up with rubber bands (right shoe forward). After the mount line I swing my right leg over while I'm basically stationary, and put my foot straight into the open shoe. I then push off. I tend to put my left foot on top of the shoe until I get moving and away from the danger zone. Then slip my foot into the shoe and tighten them both up.

2. But, for my HIM I just put my shoes on in transition (and climbed on the bike the normal road-riding way). I just wanted to be safe!

In any case, there is no "flying" involved in my mounts.

I have dismounted before by taking both feet out of the shoes and swinging the right leg over. However, I stopped doing this when I caught my leg on my rear bottle cages and dropped the bike in practice (twice). I have since decided not to have bottle cages (or anything else) behind the saddle so I expect I will go back to this method.

When my long runs get over 16km (10 miles) I only run twice a week. One long and one short (say 10km). I run on concrete and that's all my body can cope with.

I need to find some long trails so I can avoid the concrete...

Very nice run today. Increasing my run time to 50 minutes tomorrow. Almost at an hour, which I'll be thrilled with.

It depends of course. Ideally, 1 long, 2 medium, and 3 short but ideal isn't practical for most people when riding and cycling too. I tried to hit 1 long, 1 medium and 1 short at a minimum when training for races.

MikeR - Thanks for the running ratios. It was a good reminder. I've been running more and holding myself to about 11minute miles. I had a mediocre run today but I may be due for a recovery week because I seem to be having slow workouts in everything.

Carlo - I mainly swim freestyle/frontcrawl in the pool. I usually start and finish a swim with a 50m breaststroke just to get warmed-up and then cool down. Sometimes our coach will have us do some other strokes but mainly it is all freestyle.

Greg - Good work on your run today. You'll be up to an hour pretty quick.

Anna - I put my bike shoes on at my T1 spot then walk(fast)/run to the mount line.


All - I'm really tired tonight. In my cycling group we did a 50minute TT. Pretty much all Zn3/4/5. I thought I kept my pace up pretty well but at the end my average pace was well below what I would have expected. Hmmm!

Work has been mad over the last couple of days I haven't had a chance to come here much other than to log my workouts. Will try to catch up later on today or tomorrow.
I've been doing ok with the food side of things, just really really avoiding sugar - to break the addiction and I think I've even lost a couple of pounds, but won't get weighed until monday.

I have been doing more on the turbo but haven't really been out on the bike on the road in over two weeks (I think) and it's not looking like it'll happen this sunday.... I'm 'slightly' worried... need to do it!

Lurking. Not working out. Resting and hating every minute of it. Only bright spot is the bike should be arriving Saturday!

Don't fret about pace at all. Pace when you are worn down means nothing. Keep doing the work and after a proper taper, your pace will surprise you.

Tay - Through the winter I can't ride outside at all from late October to sometime in March or even April so it is riding on the trainer all winter. It is still valid workouts every bit as beneficial as riding outside. We envy your ability to ride outside whenever you can.

What is your climate like at this time of year? (temp, wind, rain or?)

What you say makes good sense and I should know it by now. Even though I schedule recovery weeks I don't think I've really been letting up much when I should.

Gary - Glad you're still keeping up. Stay with us and chime in whenever you can and let us know how you're recovering.

Won't getting your bike be a torture for you? Or, will you be able to do some light riding?

Hi Everyone - its still February which is basically the beginning of the year right - so can I join in?

Me: Forty something, ok 42 going on 43 soon my goodness I have to do the math to figure it out.

About ten years ago I trained for my first marathon (after virtually no working out since college). It was a really special 6 or so months of training and a fantastic race (in Rome no less). I enjoyed the whole experience. Since then I have been an on again off again runner - probably 6 or so half marathons and a couple of other full marathons. Never as completely well trained as for the first - but generally very motivated with a goal like a marathon or half. Last year once I finally changed careers from a traveling consultant to now working 10 mins from home I decided to chase my Triathlon fascinations and see what I could do. Mind you I have never been and nor do not ever expect to be fast - I am just not built to be particularly great at these events. My fastest marathon is 4 hours and fastest 5k is about 23mins. So my motivation is really to better myself enjoy the process and enjoy getting into and staying in great shape.

Last year I went from couch in May to Sprint in October and Half Marathon in November. I put in a lot of good training - usually 6-7 aerobic workouts a week plus a little core and pull up/pushup work. The sprint was fun however outside of the swim (I admit I breast stroked quite a bit) It I found it not really that challenging largely because the overall duration was very doable for me. Nevertheless I really enjoyed the discipline of working out almost every day and progressing so much by having better overall body fitness. I took most of December very low key and started up again in Jan - this time including weights. So this year I am signed up for another sprint at the end of April and then an Olympic at the end of August. The later will be challenging because we are expecting our 2nd child in May - not quite sure if I'll be able to keep up the now ~10 workouts per week (6-7 aerobic, 2x weights, 1-2 core).
Whatever might come of my workout time constraints over the middle six months of the year I intend to keep progressing in Triathlon. I have the bug for sure - love the discipline and overall post work out feeling, not to mention learning more about my fitness/health and capabilities.

Ultimately I would like to do a full 140.3 - however since family is no 1 for me I am willing to be patient - earliest I could imagine would be in three years time but if the timing isnt right for another 6 years I'm cool with that too. In the mean time I am looking to progress to a all Olympic races next year, and then two years from now a half iron.

I've joined a local Tri Club which helps. However my family priorities mean I am rarely able to join organized workouts - I sneak in most of my works outs curing lunch and after our current only child is asleep. So I'm sort of going it alone. Looking for a good place to learn and motivate. Hopefully this is a start.

Look forward to learning.

John

PS Can anyone tell me if my very slow swimming progression is normal? I've been swimming since June (took most of Nov and Dec off) and hit the pool now three times a week. But I find it so very hard to make gains like I can see especially in running when I put in the time. Currently my longest sets are about 1500m (with longest continuous interval 500M). But its a struggle - breathing, feeling comfortable etc. I have done a couple of swim coaching sessions. How will I ever get from this to an Olympic continuous 1500M not to mention half or full iron? Anyway curious what the progression in swimming has been for others who started from scratch...

oh that was a tad long wasn't it...I'll try to be more succinct going forward.

First day in the boot. Torture. Not sure it's adjusted right and ankle feels quite stiff.
Getting the bike WILL be torture since I won't be doing any riding yet.

Thanks for asking.

Welcome John!

Slow swimming progression is normal. One trick that helped me move from a few hundred yards straight to several thousand is not to stop when you get gassed after 400-500 yards. Instead put a pull buoy between your knees and keep going without kicking. After another few hundred yards, take it out and keep going until you need it again. The big muscles in your legs take a lot of oxygen so by stopping kicking, you can recover your breath. Swimming with the pull buoy also helps you feel what it's like to swim level which is the goal. You may need to kick less than you do now. I reduced my kicking to help gain endurance.