Gray Guys/Girls Maturing Triathlete Mentor Group (Page 28)

Thanks Kelly, I've been struggling with my recovery and feeling a bit of anxiety over it all but starting to get back to normal.

When are you heading to Whistler?  A fair number of people are heading there from here.  Have a good time and I hope the weather there will be comfortably cool for you.

I just had a look on Ironman Live and checked out Kelly's progress at Whistler.

He had a good swim and T1 and just now is showing at 151km of the bike ride.  It is really hot here in Penticton so I imagine it is a hot day in Whistler as well.  I hope he keeps cool and keeps going.  Really excited for him and keeping a close eye on his progress.

Deb ... good to hear from you and to know your progress is going well.  If I could share an experience I had with injury, PT and such.  Many years back I had ACL surgery from a skiing accident and I was as determined to progress as much so as it seems you are.  The ortho I went to served many athletes with knee injuries - college athletes, a lot of soccer injuries, and such.  Going thru the PT I noticed a lot that had a 'hitch' in their step due to the knee injury.  I was determined to not have that at the end, and equally determined to work very hard to progress quickly.

At some point I developed some knee pain due to the PT and stubbornly insisted on working thru it.  I continued my grind at home exercises with the pain, and after 2-3 therapist sessions with the continued pain, my therapist got in my face and said, "LOOK, (the unspoken words were you idiot!) ... if there's pain - there's likely inflammation - if there's inflammation, the harder you work the worse the inflammation gets; i.e. you are making this worse"!

I'm certainly not trying to dampen your enthusiasm, and doubt that I could ... just want to caution in the light of my experience to pace yourself and not go so hard that risk for regression increases.

Again ... good to hear you're doing well!!

Ciao ... Dorm

Great job Kelly!!  There's nothing so sweet as finishing and adding a finisher jersey to ones collection - especially an IM jersey. 

Ciao ... Dorm

Congratulations Kelly - Really, really pleased for you.  I followed the day right up to your finish.  Now you get to enjoy the last most important part of training - the recovery rest time.  Enjoy your recovery and take care of yourself.  Hopefully you're not too stiff.

Very cool to get your medal from your daughter.  I hope you got a photo of that special moment.

A friend drove back from Whistler on Monday and he said there was no smoke in the air in Whistler but then really thick once he got to the Fraser Valley.

Had a good bike ride today doing hill repeats.  Our air quality is really bad right now with smoke filling our valley to the point that we can't even see the mountains around us so while I was riding my eyes were stinging from the smoke and people I passed were wearing dust masks to protect their lungs.  Probably not a good day to do hill repeats but I got it done.

I also swam in the pool today and I have to say I did not feel like I was ready for my 3K swim at the end of August.  I'm sure I can finish the swim but I'd like it to be faster than last year.

Hey George,

Great race!  These are the "character building" races you will never forget.  It's testament to you that you never considered quiting even in the face of very harsh conditions!

Julie,

First is first!  Don't cloud the issue with how many people were in the age-group! 

Congrats on a good race.

There is that!  That's how my wife passes the time at longer races!

Kelly,

Sorry it's late but good job!

Hello all and hope the weekend bodes well for you.  I have been super busy with projects over the past 2-3 weeks, so training and checking in here has slacked.  It still amazes me that our friends idea of retirement is engaging in endless leisure, partying, sleeping, boredom et al.  When we talk about our days; working in the yard, building furniture, training and such - their immediate response always seems to be "I thought you were retired"!

Anyway ... I have been uber busy with some projects and as such my training has suffered.  Speaking of suffering - I got in some pool laps on Wednesday and cycling training on Friday.  And, I absolutely suffered thru both.  First the pool ... only 500m, but I'm hitting it again here in a few minutes.  Friday's cycling was indeed sufferage!  My last TT was done ~3-4 weeks ago and I've only ridden twice and maybe 2 workouts since the TT.  The point being, when you do a TT and increase your maximum training watts by 10% and one month later try to workout given the higher wattage ... there's a lot of pain, sweat, cursing and suffering. 

I'm back in the pool today and on for an early bike ride tomorrow with one of my daughters.  I have two events upcoming ... another sprint tri in Sept and a cycling event in Oct. and want to give solid participation.

Hope all have a good weekend ...

Ciao - Dorm

Originally posted by Rollergirl

Originally posted by k9car363

Originally posted by Rollergirl

Originally posted by k9car363

Originally posted by Rollergirl Thanks. Very interesting. as a beginner, we don't necessarily think about transitions, but really, they are the 4th sport and we can get better there too.

I actually think there are seven disciplines in triathlon -

• Swim
• Bike
• Run
• Hydration
• Nutrition
• Transition
• Mental

Arguably mental is the most important.  Indeed, I believe that success in sport is 90% mental and 10% physical.  Your body will go where your mind leads.  From motivating you to go workout when you simply want to stay in bed or it's stormy outside to allowing you to overcome the pain of going very deep as you approach the finish line - it all starts in the mind.

Hydration/nutrition are often overlooked or not considered until the day before a race.  That's all well and good for a sprint distance race, but for anything longer, ignoring your hydration/nutrition plan is an invitation to a painful day at best and outright failure at worst.

We've been talking a little bit about transitions - I had an athlete I worked with a couple of years ago - their T1 at an Ironman event was 14:37 and T2 was 9:16.  That's nearly 24-minutes in transition - when other people can do the same thing in less than 2-minutes.  Transitions are free time.  You have to do nothing but practice a few times to gain that free time.

I realize that many of us are simply enjoying triathlon as a way to improve our physical fitness - which is fine.  For those of us who are competing against ourselves and trying to improve - paying attention to all seven disciplines is a good place to start.

I was thinking about that on my ride this morning and there is an eighth one: Shopping!

There is that!  That's how my wife passes the time at longer races!

Well, yes, that too, but I was thinking more about shopping for bikes, wetsuits, tri-suits, etc. It's an integral part of the sport

At least the manufacturers and vendors marketing departments would have you believe so!

Kelly ... awesome picture.  It's hard to tell who's the proudest - you or your daughter.  Thanks for sharing.

 I got in a short, easy ride with one of my daughters this morning ... her first ride in a loooong time.  It's always interesting, how a person may be "in shape" (she's a Crossfit person) but also lacking the wherewithal for endurance type activities.  We rode 12 miles; I hardly got the HR up, and she suffered all the way .  I'm thinking too, come October she may be the one who's dishing it out.  We're planning to ride in an event in October: Tour de'Cove to support a local hit-n-run cyclist, who survived, but struggles with traumatic brain injuries.  We're sad for the event, but happy to give something back and at the same time raise awareness regarding cycling, cycling safety and the risks posed with our sport.

Hope all have a good weekend.

Ciao ... Dorm

Just checking in...I was out of town the last week of July so the first week of August I started my 7 week count down to at 70.3 Race that I will be doing next month.  I was should be more worried about the short time I have to build up volume from the shorter distance training I was doing earlier in the year but I remembers an article written by Ryan Hall about his 7 week marathon training plans.  Where he said that he started with 30 minutes in the morning then added 30 minutes int he afternoon, then slowly build up to an hour ever morning and an hour every afternoon over his 7 week preparation period.    

I also looked back at some of my totals for the year and was surprised to see that I already have done more swimming in 7 months in 2017 than I did the full year in 2016.  I was feeling under prepared in the water, especially after having major leg cramps on the swim in my last three races (always in races, but never in practices), but seeing what I have done this year has given me a new confidence.   I am going to be working on consistency over the next few weeks.  It is crunch time.