RFP GROUP 2013 - CLOSED (Page 28)

Good Morning Team.

Troyboy - I love the bricks.

OK Team - I had a nice swim this morning. I have another curling bonspiel this weekend so I am going to do the ride I will miss tomorrow morning because of curling this evening and get my short run in first thing in the morning so I don't miss my workouts. Glad this was a recovery week. Can't believe I am 4 weeks in to IM training already - but I am starting to settle in to the routine again and believe it or not I like it. I think we are all nuts.

Have a great weekend everyone - trian safe and stay healthy.

KC

G'day Team,

I hope you are all feeling fit and fabulous!

I finally got around to trying out my new Garmin 910XT last night on a run and this afternoon on a bike ride. I absolutely love it and already am excited about the many features which are going to help me improve my fitness. Knowing my pace at every stride last night was awesome and kept me honest and stopped me slacking off. Every time I saw it slip back I pushed a little harder to keep it around what I had set myself. I ended up doing a PR for 5K so I was pretty happy.

Today's ride was a fun off road jaunt on the MTB to see how things are healing. Happy to report everything is fine and again the Garmin is just the cat's pyjamas to take on a ride, no more iPhone apps and run down batteries after a couple of hours. Once my next race is done on Sunday week, I am going to do a threshold test for the run and bike and really start using the HR training method outlined in Joe Friel's book.

Pierce - Good work on finding a better gym, when you spend so much time working out I think you deserve to have a nice environment to work out in. Good luck also with your triathlon training for this month, it wont take long for the 24th of March to get here.

KC - Congrats on getting through the first month of IM training, I knew you would smoke it!

Troy - Can't say I love bricks, but I am certainly learning just how important they are!

I hope everyone has an awesome weekend of training!

Pierce - Glad you found a new gym with a decent pool.  Hopefully that will also help feel  more comfortable and easier to get the swim training in.  Keep working on the bilateral and it will eventually come.  One thing to also focus on is to when you are not swimming bilateral try to keep the rotation the same.  I was once told if you breath to only one side as long as you focus on your rotation to the opposite side you can keep a more balanced stroke.  Nice work on the 11 mile run.

KC- Seem like a lot but that 170 days will be here before you know it and Kathy will be on her 170 day count haha. 

Troy - Bricks are good workouts to get hat feel.  I try not to really push it on them until I get closer to my race to really simulate my nutrition.  Before then I keep the runs short - usually just 1-2 miles or no more than 20 minutes just until the legs don't feel "heavy".  but then again I am a preventative  injury freak haha.

Simone - glad to hear you are back at it again.  Just take it easy and don't push too much.  Plenty of time before November and you "A" race.

My 3 week training streak came to a streaking halt yesterday.  I had some customers in town from CA on Wed//Thu and had a marathon rehearsal on Thursday night with our new bass player.  Needless to say Friday I woke up with headache and was just exhausted and skipped my swim.  Ended up also missing my run at lunch because of work also.  Figure it is not the end of the world and I will just hit the reset button and get back at it next week.  

Today I am volunteering with a really great organization called Dare2Tri.  I have volunteered twice before on swim clinics with disabled military vets from the VA Hospital.  Today is a full clinic for para-triathletes so I am curious to see how it goes.  The girl who co-runs the organization actually won the womens gold medal this year at the ParaOlympics women triathlon in New Zealand so I think htey will have some elite athletes there today. I saw this group last year at the Chicago Triathlon Kids Triathlon and actually got involved from a post on Beginner Triathlete.  I realized last year during my IM training that this sport can be very selfish and decided to give back a little bit - especially to people who are not as fortunate as me and have a disability but still the drive and desire that we all have.  

So I have to drop the kids off at in-laws at 10am, be at the facility at 11:30am, clinic goes until 5pm, then I have to somehow get dressed jump in the car and be at a private event we are playing at by 6:30 then play until 11pm, break down equipment drive home and hopefully be in bed by 1am.

Have a great weekend everyone!

My swimgym is closed for a IL tourny.  F'n hate that.

Today was a 10 miler neg split run.  Teh awesome.  Curshed it at 1:18:50.  Tomorrow rest day, but I may goto do some core weights.

Props to my Trainer Eric Hatch @ Iron Mt Guru too.  I met him this last weekend and he was teh awesome!

G'day Team,

I've had a great weekend of training, did a long MTB yesterday and a long run today. Getting use to the new Garmin and I absolutely love it! I think I've also found the solution for my achilles as the new orthotics are working nicely and the soreness is pretty much gone now. Everything is still going well on the weight loss front too, I've now lost 12.5 kgs (27.5 lbs).

I hope everyone is having a good weekend and getting some quality training sessions in.

Good on you for giving back Tim, I hope you have a great day!

One missed day or two, no big deal.  We just don't try to make them up.  Invitation to injury.

I ran 20 miles continuous yesterday, yes I freaking did. Long slow distance.  Sub 10 min miles like the coach wanted.  25 degrees, 15 wind chill, icy snowy trail.  He thinks I'll do 45 secs to 1:30 better on a marathon than that.  HAHAHAhahahaha.  But he can dream.

Turned around and had a really good bike today.  Short and intense. 

Swimming seems to be a topic.  I got a new book Swim Speed Secrets.  The author is all about the catch, propulsion. She says we have the technique at this point probably but we lack propulsion skills.  Good stuff really.   I took lots of semi private swim lessons with a triathlon coach here over the last 6 months and my technique is much better.  But I want to go faster and that means better propulsion.  Working on it.  Central Illinois is supposed to be due for one last storm tomorrow and Tuesday, then climb slowly through the 40s into the 50s in two weeks.  I can't freaking wait. 

Hello Team!

Hope everyone is doing well. I had a good 10+ mile run yesterday with my wife and today I rested. I'm getting ready for my first half marathon of the year on the 17th so I am beginning to dial it all in so that I can have a good race. 

I have a question for the group:

Is it important to shave? 

I have only shaved my shoulders once but that is it. Most if not all the guys I ride with shave their legs and arms. Is this really necessary or is it a thing to do if one is a triathlete or cyclist? I consider myself a hairy person and I need to shave my face everyday but that is as far as I go. 

Do other cyclist for example expect me to shave my legs because they do or can I continue to get away with it?

At what point should I consider shaving? 

Thanks and I look forward to the responses. 

Gil, nice job on the run and good luck with the half marathon!

As far as shaving your legs go I would say it is personal preference, I am a chick so it is a no brainer. However most male bike riders I know shave their legs because if they have a prang, the wounds are easier to treat and keep clean, plus they don't end up pulling the hair out by the roots pulling plasters off! (youch) My brother was a football player (Australian Rules) and he shaved because he strapped his ankles and couldn't bare the pain of taking the tape off with hairy legs.

From a female's point of view, I kinda think male triathlete's with shaved legs look, hubba hubba, especially if they have nicely formed calves, but that is just me being  a perv!

Good Morning Everyone!

Tim - You are awesome for giving back!  At times I do believe we are selfish but in the long run we know we can't race without volunteers so I like to hope we in turn all give something back.  I am looking to volunteering at a few races this summer since I won't be able to race them.

Gil - great job on your 10 mile run.  As for the shaving of the legs, it is a personal preference.  I trained with cyclists who do road racing and some don't shave but like also what Simone said it is harder to keep the wound clean with hair.  

Had a terrible 10 mile run this weekend, but that is okay as my half marathon is this Saturday so I like to believe I got my bad run out of the way.

Have a great week!

Haha - good question! The first thing I was told when I started biking is not IF you will crash but WHEN you will crash.  I have been pretty lucky so far and no major bike wrecks (even with amount of riding I did with IM training) or road rash but... I have thought about that "WHEN" and have considered shaving my legs this season.  Plus it just makes my IM tattoo look so much better haha.

I am very sad to hear about the death of a swimmer during the Alcatraz triathlon over the weekend, as I always hate hearing stuff like this.  I am curious what your thoughts are on this, I have read several things where they are saying the frigid water temperatures caused the man to have a heart attack, while the race director is saying that the guy must have had a heart issue that wasn't discovered that caused the heart attack.  

The reason why I am following this one so closely with all the talk about the IM starts and how Ironman is thinking about going away with the mass start due to deaths in the swim portion and I wonder how this will come into play.

Other sad news was a triathlete who was racing this weekend was killed during the bike portion.  I forgot which race but the guy was on lap 3 out of 10 when he was hit by a car heading the opposite direction.  I would think if they are having to do 10 laps that they would have closed the road.  There is very little news on this one and these are things I just hate to hear about.

My heart goes out to both families.  

Hi Team.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I had a blast curling and a few to many bevys  but it was a great time. Week 5 started today and I was up and in the pool at 7 am - felt a bit sluggish but I got it done.

Simone - I welcome back to the saddle . I love my 910 but I do find the HR monitor may be a bit off - does anyone else find that the Garmin is not the best for HR?

Tim - you ROCK giving back and helping out and you are a great mentor.

T-royboy - nice work.

Iceman Scott - nice to see you and you are amazing as always my friend.

Gil - Shave it all  - you will like it. I have to be honest - have not shaved since IM NYC and I am looking forward to the warm weather, an outide bike and a clean shave   . How else are you going to look good in your red bike shorts and speedo - right Tim?

KTC - very sad to hear someone passed in Alcatraz - always incredibly sad. A swimmer passed in NYC this past summer as well. I don't know if there is an answer to it. As some of you may remember I do have my heart monitored on a yearly basis for my bicuspid aortic valve and will be back to my heart specialist in a month to have the annual hear tests and ultra sound. I know things can happen to all of us that we can not control but I would tell everyone that annual check ups to learn more about our health may help prevent this kind of thing from happening. 

OK team - only a swim on the plan for me today - back on the ice tonight for my regular curling league on Monday evening. I will check back in tomorrow.

KC

(ps - sorry I don't have the software or editing skills of our Mentor)

(timandkc.jpg)

Good Morning Team.

Short bike and maybe a short run today - if it does not snow.

KC

PS - whats up - no one like my picture

Week 1 of Ironman training is in the books.  I only need to get a couple of strength training sessions added in this coming week.  I forgot how much laundry piles up with two people doing Ironman training!

Has everyone firmed up their race schedules for 2013?  We haven't quite decided what we are doing for sure.  Initial thoughts:  May-20K run early, 50K bike in mid-month, 1/2 Marathon end of month;  June-one tri of some sort, and a 100K bike; July-one tri; August-perhaps the Rev 3 Aquabike as a race sim workout.

Any input is welcome.  We decided to eliminate a half iron from the schedule due to poor timing. 

Apparently I must have missed something (nothing new here).  Congratulations?????

LOL....KC love the photo!  

Recovery week thank goodness. 

Bonked on my 10 mile run this weekend. Oops. Over training how are you doing today. At least I have figured out when to back off and know what that feels so I can slow down and make the proper adjustments to mitigate damage. 

Now for a nice easy maintenance week, foam rolling and Blackhawks hockey. 

Lori - nice job on the IM training, keep up the good work!

KC - lol, that pic is a classic!!

KTC - always so sad to hear about people losing their life in a race. From the various stories I've read about such incidents they always seem to blame an underlying heart problem combined with the panic of a mass swim start. I have to admit I worry about the panic factor. I've done several open water swim starts in the past when I was doing tris, but getting caught in the 1500+ human washing machine is a worry for me and something I'll be very anxious about.

On another note, good luck with your HM this Saturday, I'm sure you will rock it!

Long ride and a couple of swims and a short run for the rest of the week for me, then a day off Saturday before race day on Sunday. Can't get here quick enough!

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Good Morning Team.

Simone - I am jealous you are racing - have fun.

Swim this morning - visit to chiro for a look at the IT then a run.

Hope everyone is doing well.

KC

That is what training is all about, learning how we feel and what we need to focus on.

Enjoy the recovery week.

Happy Hump Day!

I am so ready for spring, I am tired of the cold damp days.  

I am a bit nervous as I asked to take a break from my coach for 2 months.  She just had a baby and I know that her mind isn't totally focused on my workouts so I thought it might help her out.  I am really not training for anything till Sept and Nov so having the 2 months to do whatever I pleased sounds fun but also scary. There are several bike groups I like to try and I want to go back to that speed track group and see how things work out.  We will regroup when it is time to start training for IMAZ.  Do you think I did the right thing?

Have a great day!