Chris' Group - Closed (Page 3)

Chirs -

Great walk through on the transitions. I really got a lot from it!! I will start mentally preparing and eventually find some time to practice it. As usual, there is more to it than I was thinking there would be (as is the case I'm finding with this entire goal of completing a tri!!) Also, thanks for wetsuit info. I'll head to 'the big city' to find a store with several to try on.  I did find a place in Seattle, WA that rents them -mails them to you. But, it would be an absolute shot in the dark to guess at what size/kind will work.  

On the bright side, I did my long bike today. I was able to ride about 32 miles - obnoxious head wind the entire way.  I haven't even looked at my average speed... I know it won't be good.  But, I did it!!  That's what counts today.  That being my first really hard ride in years, I found myself needing the engery that I didn't have. I look forward to your nutrition write up (as well as starting to do some research on my own.)

Arin

Hey Chris, are you guys still accepting new members??

I am 24, completed two sprint tri's last season.  Then, I broke my femur in a freak fall off my bike in August   I am cleared to start training all disciplines, as long as I agree to take it slow, and "not fall off my bike"... lol  

Outside of tri'ing to tri.  I am a full-time grad student, Masters in Social Work.  This summer I will be Director for a local day camp and doing respite care work for a 17 year old.  I live in Northern California and am hoping to be ready for a tri in Crescent City in August.

If you're up to having another member, I'd love to join. 

Laura

Boy, you were up late last night, Laura!  Must be a student thing.   Sure you can join us - we'll show you the secret handshake later

That must have been a pretty nasty fall you had, glad you're recovering well enough to consider tri's again.  Going back slowly is a great idea.  August sounds like a reasonable goal for a tri - will it be another sprint? 

Chris 

Hey Laura! Just wanted to say Hi - I'm a social worker too. (Started in the field with my BSW in 1995 and got my MSW in 2001). I'm currently supervising a MSW practicum and have supervised a few BSWs too. Welcome to the profession!

I do find exercise to be such a great stress management tool. I'm usually so focussed on not perishing during my runs (and swims and bikes) that I find it takes my mind completely off work!

Hi Chris, 

It says that your group is still "open", and I hope it is.  Your profile attracted me primarily because of your sex, your age, the fact that you have a teenager, and a little experience under your belt.  I just turned 50 last September, and as part of my midlife crisis, decided to sign up for a triathlon.  I have been a runner for 30+ years, and decided that cross training was a little bit easier for my 50 year old body. 

I competed in my first Sprint Triathlon March 29, 2011, and to my surprise, came in 3rd in my age group.  I don't think that I am exceptionally fast- there were a lot of newbies at the race.  I am searching for another triathlon to participate in, but I am very intimidated by an open water swim (my triathlon was a pool swim).  For now, I will stick to the sprint distance.  A long term goal will be to move up to an Olympic. 

I am married, and I have a 21 y/o son (away at college) and a 17 y/o son (a junior in high school).  My husband recently had meniscus surgery on his knee, and it is unclear if he will ever be able to run again.  He has been doing a lot of swimming.  So, I train on my own.  I work full time at a very stressful job, and have to fit my training in around my work and family. 

I am looking for some encouragement in my training, as I have been feeling kind of unmotivated to do my swims lately.  I guess it's the fact that I don't have an immediate goal in sight.

Let me know if your group is still open, and if you'd like me to join.

Hi Punkster - do you maybe have a different name too?

Yep I'm old with a teenager (which seems to age you even faster).  In fact, like you, the triathlon thing was one of my many midlife crisis' - it was cheaper than a corvette.  Unlike you, though, I was NEVER a runner!  Had to start from scratch.  I hadn't biked since high school - so that was almost starting from scratch.  The swimming thing was easiest for me as I had grown up on the Chesapeake Bay and spent my summers (and many days when I was supposed to be in school)  at the beach.  We didn't have organized swimming, per se, but we would swim out to the crab pots and back or some other foolishness, along with skiing in the lakes with boat drivers who would make you swim to the boat instead of them coming to pick you up (brothers-- sheesh!).  I also scuba dive so with all of that behind me,  the OWS never was an issue for me.  Not that I'm a great swimmer, just not afraid of non-pool confined water. 

Running gives you a distinct edge if you're competing for placement, so you have that going for you! And congratulations on your 3rd place!  That's a great start on your triathlon career!

If you've read through any of the other posts here, you might have seen that I suggested closing your eyes in the pool for short periods.  That will force you to pick up your head to see where you're going instead of mindlessly following the line.   I don’t know if where you are located but some of the early season and late season triathlons are wetsuit legal.  If you don't have a wetsuit, try renting one.  The provide some buoyancy and help you to float higher in the water.  The down side is that they are a bit restrictive so you may have to work a little harder on that stroke. 

Another suggestion is to go to a local lake with the idea that you are just playing, not for a specific workout.  It’s counter-productive to your workout if you are thrashing about because you’re fearful.  So go play.  Stick your face in the water and look about, see what you can see: fish, plants, tires (hopefully not), whatever.  Watch how the sunlight penetrates the water, see how the clouds make shadows.  Just make friends with the water. 

After you’re on better social terms, do a few strokes – not a full workout yet – swim around and see if there’s something different over there a bit, but not too far yet!  Then come back.  You’ll have to pick your head up and look in order to navigate back to your starting point.  As your comfort level increases in the playing around aspect, it will increase in your workouts too.

Most importantly NEVER GO SWIMMING ALONE!  Always make sure there is someone with you, no matter how good you are.

Oh and welcome to the group!

Chris

Hey guys!  Thanks for such a warm welcome from the group.

And Christie, great to meet a fellow social worker   Running has always been my coping mechanism, its a great distractor and gets those endorphins flowing.

I'm looking at doing a Sprint distance triathlon in August, and hopefully starting training here in another few weeks (the last two weeks of the semester are not the time to add in anything new).  Although I run periodically as my leg tolerates it.  Completed my first race back (after healing) a 2M run in 21:23 (15/46).  It wasn't great and definitly not my old running times, but it was good to get back out there.

In the ambulance, I was asking how long till I can train again and I saw them exchange looks over me and tell me, "Just wait till after surgery, and the doctor will have to let you know."  It was scary to think of never running again.  So my goal is to be back and finish a sprint triathlon by the one year mark of my injury!!  Its a lofty goal but I'm excited to get back out there.

Glad to have all of your support.

I took a rare workout break for the past couple of days after I tripped coming off a step ladder Saturday night. Had a sore neck, shoulder and hip. I did get in a good ride earlier that afternoon, 28 miles in wind and NE Kansas hills! Back to my regular schedule today.

Interesting thought on the bungee cord swimming. My pool does have a few eye hooks so I should give it a try! I love all the information on the transistions. It will be very useful!

Thanks, Chris.  Yes, I do have another name- it is Cathy.  My husband calls me punkster because it is a cross between "punkie"- his nick name for me, and "buster" -the name I gave the minister's wife when I was 3 years old when she asked what my name was. 

Thanks for the tips on conquering my fears regarding open water swims.  I live in California, and grew up going to the beach, and dodging the waves.  The open water ocean swim is what kind of freaks me out.  I found a triathlon in September with a swim in a protected bay that I'll think I'll do.  I have a lake about 10 miles away that I can probably go to during the summer to "make friends with the water". 

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more questions for you as my race gets closer. 

Wow Doug!  You're quite an accomplished triathlete and with what sounds like a great path to an IM!  Not sure that we can help you a lot here other than to give you a cheering section but we'll gladly do that!  I'm sure you can answer a lot of questions here too so feel free to jump in with advice or suggestions.  We'll have your back during the week

Chris

Great milestone, Laura!  Hope your leg is feeling good today. 

Chris

Workouts

I was cruising the internet highway yesterday, with the top down, the sun shining on my face, and my hair getting hopelessly tangled in the breeze… oh – sorry, got carried away for a minute.  Anyway, while I was supposed to be working, I learned something new about workouts, although this may be old hat for some of you.  I’m sure most of you must incorporate some strength training into your regimen.  I try to do two or three a week (but am not always successful despite practically having my own gym at home).   But did you know the order in which you do your strength and aerobic workouts makes a difference?

According to this article that I ran across the best workout combo is a ten minute low impact aerobic warm up, followed by a half hour of weight training and then a 30 minute intense cardio workout.  I’m sure they meant to add a cool down period.  The theory is that after the warm up, the weight training sort of wakes up your system and lets it know that stuff is fixin’ (as we say in the south)  to happen. Sort of a prime the pump thing.  Apparently, getting your muscles all firing ahead of time makes them hungry while it powers through your sugar supply.  Then, when you kick into high gear on the cardio, what you are now burning is stored fat and I guess hungry muscles love fat as much as sugar.  Hey I’m all for anything that burns fat – anybody got a match? 

Chris

See the whole article here:

 http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201104/warm-cardio-then-go-weights-right-wrong

Hi Chris 

Have you got room for a Brit in your group, my name is Dave and live in Essex, England. Started Triathlon last year after 25years of smoking and drinking and no exercise. Completed 2 sprints last year and have a couple planned for this year with an olympic in September. Married with 2 boys.

regards

Dave

Sure Dave - you're in by the skin of your teeth!  Tell us what possesd you to begin triathlons. 

Chris

Nutrition – The Big Bugaboo

As I mentioned in an earlier post, nutrition is a highly individual aspect of triathlon.  What seems to work well for some, don’t work at all for others.  To wit:  There is a drink here locally, that is known as an oyster shooter.  The complicated recipe involves a raw oyster in a double shot glass, topped with a shot of tequila.  Not being a fan of either ingredient, I don’t indulge.  Anymore.  I did once – and only once  - on a dare.  I can tell you that it goes down fast and comes back up twice as fast.  Sports gels tend to have the same effect for me.  Maybe it’s the consistency, I don’t know, but I have only rarely been able to get one to stay put.  It’s one of those things you have to know about yourself.  I also know that if I don’t like it, I won’t eat it.  Especially, if I’m already hungry and running low on the blood sugar scale.  And it doesn’t matter if I liked it yesterday, if I don’t think I like it today, it won’t happen.  For an Olympic length, I’m sure most other triathletes would have cardiac arrest over the veritable picnic I break out. 

An early part of our triathlon training was figuring out what could and couldn’t be eaten before the race, on the bike and run, and afterwards that wouldn’t have any adverse effects.  We tried a lot of stuff and ultimately we each came up with our individual plans that worked for us.

So the moral of this story is to start early to figure it out, and, as with all things triathlon, never go into a race with untried equipment  - including nutrition.  Now, that said, there are some excellent articles to be found here on BT, and elsewhere too, about nutrition and hydration.  Here are a few highlights:

A pre-workout snack 5 minutes to an hour prior to exercising can be helpful.  Try to limit the caloric intake to 300 calories or less with about .5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight – e.g. 75g for a 150lb person.  This should be sufficient nutrition for a work out of between and hour and an hour and a half.  Don’t forget to hydrate!

For longer workouts (2-3 hours) they advise an intake of 30-60g of carbs or about 120-240 calories in either liquid or solid form, while you should up that to 60-90 grams or 240-360 calories per hour for really long extended type workouts such as all day hiking, IMs etc. 

And don’t forget recovery fuel.  Something like 20grams of protein from tuna or chocolate milk, etc.

Here are a couple of articles on BT:

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=2254

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=2093

Chris – eat well and run

Accountability

Triathlon is not a three sport event; at least not in terms of training.  The most important aspects of triathlon are not competed on the course.  It’s not even competed.   Strength training and stretching are the building blocks we use to become better, stronger, and more injury free athletes. 

These are also the ones that we, as a general rule, tend to let slip by us.  Strength training is the one we drop in favor of an extra run, or bike, or swim.  Stretching is so easy to make time for that, ironically we seldom do.  I’m as guilty as everyone else.  Perhaps even more egregiously because I have a pretty darn good gym in my house. 

So let me throw down the gauntlet.  I challenge each of you to do six  20-minute strength training workouts a week.   They must consist of two upper, two lower, and two core workouts. .  You can do two or three at once, or all individually, except you can’t double up on the same segments on the same or consecutive days.  That doesn’t buy you much. 

In addition to the strength training, the challenge includes nightly (or daily if that suits you better).  Warm up your muscles a bit with about 10 minutes on the bike or walking and then do some easy, relaxed, and unrushed stretching.

On Friday’s come tell us what you did, how it felt, what you want to do better, and what you did better than you thought you would.  Make sure you’ve added it to your training log too.  Accountability comes from having to tell us what you did (or did not) accomplish this week. J 

We are most often inspired by others, so when each of you accomplishes something – a good workout, finishing a race, climbing Mount Everest – it calls to each of us to do something better with ourselves.

Start now!

Chris

"In addition to the strength training, the challenge includes nightly (or daily if that suits you better)."

 Sorry -  should have said nightly (or daily) STRETCHING! 

You'd think I'd learn to proof these posts before I hit the button!

I wrote a long post yesterday on my phone and the site wouldn't take it... 

First, wanted to say good job to Laura.  It's got to feel good to get back out there.

I wanted to let eveyone know about how my swiming experiment is going. I bought a bungie ski rope the other day. It made all the difference. Swam in place for 30 min. One more tweak to make -- having the rope attach to my waist area brings my legs downward. I need to figure out some sort of harness around my shoulder area to attach it to.  The rope rubbed too much.

I've read the reviews about De Soto T1 wetsuits. Does anyone in our group have any experience with them?

Chris - I'm trying my hardest to follow a lot of your advice. Today I went to the gym for strength training, and a mile run on the treadmill... Foot isn't perfect. I'm also stretching every chance I get.  I don't always do a pre strech to my workouts, but I'm getting good at consistently post stretching.  Baby steps count??

Arin

@ Arin:  ALL steps count!  And good for you on both the swim and the workouts!

 I have a ProMotion wet suit (as does my husband)  we both like them.  I think maybe they're entry level wetsuits, but that doesn't matter to me.  I don't have any experience at all with any others so can't help with the De Soto.

@ All: This tiny bit of learning from tonight's run.  Three hours is not long enough to wait before running after eating lasagna and cheesecake (birthday dinner for my teenager).  Actually, three weeks might not be long enough.  I learned this same lesson a few years back with BBQstuffed potatoes with jalepenos.   One of these days I'll learn... 

Chris