owl_girl's Group --- FULL! (Page 25)

Man!  You have had quite a time of it lately!  Glad to hear you think you are finally beating it!  Treat yourself nicely while you get your training feet back under you.

You're not going to have any trouble doing the half marathon in May!  I'm getting excited about it!  True, my running has sucked lately, but......  I'm really ready to pull myself past these little injuries!  (No more kettlebell for awhile! )  Anyway, we won't have trouble finding each other at the race.  I'm easy to pick out of a crowd!   Check out the pix on my album, too.  As the race draws closer, I will have an idea of where things will be set up.  (This race is run by my running club so I better have an idea!)

Keep yourself healthy, Steve!  Cheers!

I have a request for all of us that have done races over the past couple of months.  Start thinking about, and report on, your race strategy.  Did it work?  If you have done multiple races, what did you change between races?  What do you need to work on for your next race?

As for me, I've done two short running races so far.  The first one was pretty successful for me.  I changed my breakfast routine and it seemed to work quite nicely.  I also began slowly.  I knew the course would be a challenge so I didn't want to push it.  As for the second one, well, it was just plain crappy.  I did not eat the new breakfast.  I had a hard workout the day before.  I hurt myself a week previous.  All of those things led to disaster.

For my next short running race in a couple of weeks, I plan on eating the yummy oatmeal breakfast and cutting out the hard workout the day before.  It is not an "A" race so I don't plan on an official taper.

Let's hear from all of you.  We need to learn from each others mistakes and successes!

I have the same problem, Shaun.  I'm usually wore out by the time I get away from the crowd and then I'm to exhausted to regroup.  Then I freak out again and get even more wore out.  It is a vicious cycle!  To get used to this you could just do more triathlons.  You could also get on a water polo team.  Yeah, not practical but I'm sure it would be effective!

Oh!  Such wonderful thoughts, Sarah!  That's what I'm talking about!  Yes, attitude has a lot to do with how we train and race.

I Googled "kettlebell" so I've seen what it is...what do you do with it?

I've only done 2 triathlons and one 5k, all last year. For my first tri I put too much pressure on myself. I looked at the results from 2006 and thought I had a shot at 3rd place if I hit all my goals. I started by losing my composure in the swim, but did really well in the bike. Then, I fell apart on the run (it's likely that I went too hard on the bike). I called it "The Bad, The Good, and The Ugly" I was bummed out for a few days before I could appreciate that I HAD FINISHED A TRIATHLON!!! My second tri was all about just finishing so there was much less pressure and even though it was very hard, it was a much better experience.

My first tri of 2008 is in 4 weeks.  So far I have no strategy.

You can do anything with a kettlebell that you can do with dumbbells and then some more.  When you hold it, it is off balance so it trains your neuromuscular system differently.  You can swing it around too.  The one thing that you must do with perfect form before attempting to work with a kettlebell is a perfect squat.  Squats are the foundation move in kettlebell training.  (That's why my butt hurts so bad! )  Hope that explains it for ya!

Sounds hard on the knees, too! 

Yeah, your knees and lower back could take a beating if your squat is bad.  There are a lot of similarities to power lifting.  In fact, several moves are power lifting moves.

I don't have this problem but have heard of others that do.  We will have to verify this with our resident super swimmer, Sarah.  I think cramps in the calves are due to a lack of flexibility in the ankles.  I'll do some research and get back to you.

Found something for ya Shaun.

Leg cramps while swimming are very common among triathletes, most often striking the calves. This is because triathletes are predominantly lower-body athletes whose legs — by virtue of their defined musculature and overall training fatigue — are more prone to muscle spasms in the water as their less-flexible legs flay stiffly back and forth.

One obvious preventative measure is to practice lots of stretching, not just before your race but throughout the season. Leg flexibility is relative, and triathletes are habitually less flexible than swimmers. Concentrate on ankle flexibility so that you are able to point your toes on the down-kick of your kick cycle; often, triathletes kick incorrectly with their feet at a 90 degree angle to their shins, contributing to the likelihood of a calf cramp while adding extra drag.

Potassium is known to prevent cramps. If you don’t take supplements or eat bananas regularly, that could be your answer if you’re known to suffer from exercise-induced cramps.

Seems like it could be either problem for you.  Time to experiment.  Increasing your leg flexibility will definitely be a good thing even if that is not your particular cramping issue.  Cheers!

I've got a 30+ mile bike ride planned for tomorrow. I'm gonna try to complete the loop I tried to do last week. It's supposed to be sunny with temps in the high 30's to middle 40's and a light breeze. Not too bad for March.

After this weekend I'll cut back a bit on the riding and start doing bricks on the weekends so that I'll be ready for my triathlon in 4 weeks.

Hi everyone!

Last week was a fun week for me. My new tri bike came in just before we left for a family trip to Hot Springs, so we dropped it off at the LBS before leaving and it was ready when we got back in town. The LBS was no help with fitting though, so hopefully I'll be able to find someone when I go back to Salem later this week. I've never ridden a tri or road bike before so it's all new to me. Also learning clipless pedals for the first time, but I'm getting the hang of it. I posted a pic in my album. I'll try to get one out on the road later. Happy training!