Gat's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 3)

Moose,

I travel a lot as well and understand your frustration.  I joined a Fitness Center with clubs nation wide and now I actually get in more workout time when I am on the road than at home. Since I am typically alone in the evenings and no kids with me to help out with, I just go workout. This works out nice because that way when I am home I do not feel like I am neglecting the family.

When traveling I hit the lap pool, spin classes, treadmill and weights and at home I focus on the road running and bike from right around the house so it doesn't take up as much time.

Hello Gat.  If you'll have me, I'd love to be one of your mentees  I was in a group over the winter and received lots of great advice, but I think they were all pretty advanced.  Me...not so much.   I too have a family (husband and 3 yr old) and plenty of weight to lose.  At present, I qualify for the Athen category by a fair margin.   I started biking last September, running in February and have always been a swimmer.   I just completed my first sprint tri last weekend, loved it and dominated every sport....at a snails pace  My goals are fairly simple.  Carve about  30 minutes off of my sprint time, lose 35 more pounds and stay motivated to do so.  So, what'a'ya say...will you have me???

MM,

Unless I am not understanding your question, in order to post on others blogs, also known as inspires, you simple go to their logs and click on the inspire button and type away.  You should be able to look at everyone's logs, unless they mark them private.  This way you can see how others are training for certain types of events.  You can encourage and motivate them through your comments.  This is also a good way to share information in more of a one on one situation.  If I have missed the boat here and not answered your question, let me know.

Red Dragon,

You are in, so recharge your battery, share a bit more about yourself and let us know what your goals are. 

I believe now is a good time to close the group.  If everyone stays involved and active, I believe that we are at about 12 right now.  Seems like a reasonable number to work with.  I know that some groups like to keep it small and quaint, but I think a slightly larger group is good to keep it fun and active.  If you have shared some background information to include your current fitness level and goals, great.  If not, now is the time to share.  Again, please consider using the training logs on a regular basis.  This is a great tool to track progress and to learn from each other.  Finally, if anyone has any questions, issues or topics that they would like to discuss, fire away.  Let's start the sharing and learning. 

Current fitness level is fairly low:

swim ~ 500yd in 8:20    bike ~ avg 14-16mph depending on route, wind, etc.   run - 14 min/mi

Goals are as follows:

swim ~ 500yd in 7 min      bike ~ avg 18 mph      run - 11 min/mi

I have no idea really how to improve speed on the bike or the running.   I will manage the swimming.  I just don't practice that often.

Carla,

These seem like reasonable goals.  Well, stating the obvious, improving takes practice.  We can talk about how to get better on the bike and run.  Now, if you can just help me swim faster.

 I don't use a plan.  I get workouts in when I can and try for a better time/speed each workout.  I'm sure there are better ways...

how much does sticking to a plan help.  I've been consistently swimming and running twice a week.  Each time I try to push myself a bit faster/further.  Do i need an external plan?

 PS it sounds like swimming is a nightmare for almost all.  I used to be a lifeguard but now I can barely swim 850 feet without needing to stop.  Does it get easier as you continue to train? 

YES it gets easier...but with HARD work.

I started back to swimming in January after  MANY years break and it took me "about" 26 min. to swim 800M.  My best I have done so far in a lap pool is 16:13 now and I think I can do a lot better than that.

I found some training plans on BT and used the drills they listed, give it a try and I bet you will get it back too.

Duffers, the answer to your question about training is that it depends.  If you know the types of training sessions that you need to get in each week, then you can keep it lose and not have a formalized plan.  This assumes that you are disciplined enough to do the different types of workouts.  For example, if you are preparing for a marathon, you would likely have a couple of shorter runs, a mid-size run and a longer run.  The lentgh of these efforts will increase over time until you begin to taper.  If you know what you need and you can get it done, you do not need a formal plan.  If you are doing a shorter race, like a sprint or oly, you just need to know that you can cover the distance.  There are many plans out there, and here on BT, that offer up two swims, two runs and two rides a week.  That is the plan.  It really depends on the type of person.  I am very analytical and type A, so for me, I like having a plan written out each week with exactly what I would like to do each do.  I never stick to it, because I believe that you need to keep it flexible.  However, I always start with a plan and I note what the key workouts our.  If something has to give, I try to not make it the key workouts.  I know a guy that is pretty talented at tris and his quote is "I just fly by the seat of my pants".  So your approach really depends on what works for you.

As to your question on swimming...the answer is yes.  Spend more time in the water.  Your stroke gets smoother, your body relaxes more and your breathing is easier.  At some point it will click, or at least that is what the good swimmers tell me. 

Hey all... I was planning on posting my results and learnings from two tests that I had done recently at SCS Multisports here in Minnesota, but it is too late tonight.  Basically, I had a full video swim analysis and did a 10k Timetrial on a computrainer...  short and sweet... I can easily gain time on swimming and my power to weight ratio for that time trial was 2.48 (and I am far from "lightweight"!!!      Hopefully, what I learned will help some of you out!!!  Have a great night!

Aero bars-

I'm a real newb on the bike.  My first road bike was a mid level tri bike w/ tri geometry, very laid out, which I got in June of '07.  I started riding w/ a group of experienced cyclist and triathletes.  This helped a lot because I just shifted when they did and tried to keep my cadence to match.  I spent quite a few rides at the back of the pack.  Because my bike was a tri bike I spent most of my time on the aero bars, not knowing any better.  I climbed in aero (I was too far behind the other to see that the sat up on the climbs) and stayed in aero until my rear couldn't take it.  I'd sit up to shift around, then back to aero.  Now that I'm MOP (w/ my training group) I notice that I stay in aero a lot more that the other guys.  Aero has become my comfort position.  I don't know if that's a good thing, but I'm not as bothered by the wind as some of the others, and I tuck real well for drafting and descending.  I guess for me ignorance kinda helped.

ball6135

in your log you mentioned that you needed to focus on flat hand entry, what does that mean?