Ontherun's Group -Full, off and running :) (Page 3)

my turn. as for the question about spinning vs bike, it realy is a matter of preference. The only reason one would not combine the two is if you wished to keep your bike numbers for milage on equipment. this could also be done by the equipment tracker. I combine my drainer and bike times, as they are one in the same to me at the end of the day. The only thing the drainer or spin bikes do that outside biking dose not is no costing.

As for over loading on the weekends to make up, DON'T! You have a greater risk to injury by doing so. I have read many posts and articles by pros and medical personel reguarding the matter. The bottom line is, if you miss the workout, it is gone, forget about it and get right back on track again. I know it is hard to make tiime for the workouts. I miss more than a few. I will take a 30 minute workout over none anyday. The best suggestion I have is choose a program that fit from BT, import it if you can and make a hard copy. I keep the hard copy handy so I can see it at a glace for reference each night. That way I can plan what is comming the next day without getting sucked into the computer for the entire evening

how much racing is a good question. I have read of a person, who I believe was a clysdale, who would race in a sprint or olymipic tri every week of the season. He was able to do this by only doing light workouts durring the week and racing on the weekends.

I myself try to do at least 3 tris per season and 2 or three road races to balance things out. My personal goal is to race about every 2 mos. Sometimes this ends up closer to every 6 weeks and longer time off durring the winter. The bottom line depends on a couple of things.

First, what is the distance being raced. At this point I think you could handle a sprint distance race anywhere from once a month to possibly every two weeks with a couple extra days off between races. If somehow you were thinking of going into Oly distance I would think about every 6 weeks for you at this time. More than that would not allow your body to adapt to the increased distances and stresses involved.

A second issue is what type of race it is A,B or C. A races happen about once or twice a season. For Pro distance racers it would be IM Kona. For us it is very individual. A B race would be a tune up race. You would not go full speed, but would be looking to fine tune things like transition set up and race pace. These are good races to step back just a little and anazlize how things are going and what you could do different. A C race is mostly just for fun. Get out, be social, meet new friends. No PR is even on the radar, heck finishing could even be optional. So be honest with yourself, are you going to want to try and win each race, finsih each race, or have lots of fun trying.

A third issue, and of great importance to me is $$. The longer the distance the more $$$ they tend to cost. I have done free fun runs, and I am paying close to $200 for my 1/2 IM this year. IM races go above $400. So unless you have very deep pockets or a suger daddy...

Personal, if I had the time and money, I would love to race every month at some level, just to test myself or go for PR's. For now I work with what I can with my family schedual and financial restrants.

Hope this helped and have fun racing.

Amy, in regards to cadance, it is something to be aware of in all 3 sport. I am not sure which you were thinking so I will address all 3.

Swim- It is all about efficency in the water. The more ground you can cover in the least effort the better. If you could just jump and coast the whole distance it would be awsome, but not as much fun As triatletes, we want to conserve energy. The less times you have to move your arms through the water the better. I was once told that your energy output has to be cubed to double your speed. Not a good trade off in effort. Being efficent and keeping your heart rate down with as few strokes as possible is a big key.

Bike- There are a few schools of thought on cycling. Most triathlets go around 90-100 RPM on there bike. Norman Stadler makes that idea go away. He loves the big gears and hammering away. Pure cyclists like Lance go 100-120 and up for sprints, but they do not have to get off the bike to run. Most convetional wisdom says you should average the 90-100 RPM range, and when getting close to transition back down a gear and spin with less effort to get the blood back into your legs a little to get ready for the run.

Run- I  can not remember for sure about the number of foot strikes in running. For some reason 45 left foot strikes per minute rings a bell. Depending on the school of running this dose differ. I have taken a few pages from the Chi Running philosophy. In short, a runner makes sure not to over extend the forward motion of the foot so it strikes the ground under, not ahead of the runner. One of the best ways to achive this is quick feet.

I hope this answers your questions on cadence.

Bricks. Very useful. I know one BTer whose coach told him to run for 10 minutes after every ride. This helped him keep good running legs after the bike. I tend to try for a brick about every two weeks if not more. A lot depends on what training program you are on and time. I would like to do more, but time is a big enemy of mine, and my overall goal is weight loss/ maintanance, so I tend to make sure I get a good cardio in.

The best thing you can do is follow which ever training program you choose. BT has tons for free and that is how I started. The begginer sprint programs dose not stress bricks and that is ok for the first few tris.

A side benifit of bricks is to workout the timing and layout of your equipment for a transition. The first time you enter transition will be a very different experience. It is hecktick, gear is eveywhere, and you do not want to miss anything. So do not be affraid to practice the transition part of the tris as you do your bricks.

Good luck to all.

Amy, in regards to cadance, it is something to be aware of in all 3 sport. I am not sure which you were thinking so I will address all 3.

Swim- It is all about efficency in the water. The more ground you can cover in the least effort the better. If you could just jump and coast the whole distance it would be awsome, but not as much fun As triatletes, we want to conserve energy. The less times you have to move your arms through the water the better. I was once told that your energy output has to be cubed to double your speed. Not a good trade off in effort. Being efficent and keeping your heart rate down with as few strokes as possible is a big key.

Bike- There are a few schools of thought on cycling. Most triathlets go around 90-100 RPM on there bike. Norman Stadler makes that idea go away. He loves the big gears and hammering away. Pure cyclists like Lance go 100-120 and up for sprints, but they do not have to get off the bike to run. Most convetional wisdom says you should average the 90-100 RPM range, and when getting close to transition back down a gear and spin with less effort to get the blood back into your legs a little to get ready for the run.

Run- I  can not remember for sure about the number of foot strikes in running. For some reason 45 left foot strikes per minute rings a bell. Depending on the school of running this dose differ. I have taken a few pages from the Chi Running philosophy. In short, a runner makes sure not to over extend the forward motion of the foot so it strikes the ground under, not ahead of the runner. One of the best ways to achive this is quick feet.

I hope this answers your questions on cadence.

Bricks. Very useful. I know one BTer whose coach told him to run for 10 minutes after every ride. This helped him keep good running legs after the bike. I tend to try for a brick about every two weeks if not more. A lot depends on what training program you are on and time. I would like to do more, but time is a big enemy of mine, and my overall goal is weight loss/ maintanance, so I tend to make sure I get a good cardio in.

The best thing you can do is follow which ever training program you choose. BT has tons for free and that is how I started. The begginer sprint programs dose not stress bricks and that is ok for the first few tris.

A side benifit of bricks is to workout the timing and layout of your equipment for a transition. The first time you enter transition will be a very different experience. It is hecktick, gear is eveywhere, and you do not want to miss anything. So do not be affraid to practice the transition part of the tris as you do your bricks.

Good luck to all.

I am so glad you are making progress with your swimming!!

Now, just to add a rinkle to everyone. If you are feeling comfortable in your ablilty to swim lengths in the pool, try to breath on both sides. Bilateral breathing will be very helpful in a race situation. First it allows you to avoid excess waves/splash from other competitors in certian situations. Also, as your heart rate goes up you can add a breath as needed on either side to help out. When I am swimming will I tend to breath about every 7th time my hand, left or right, hits the water. By breathing on the odd stroke, you can develope a well ballanced bilatteral breathing technique. Also, being able to take breaths less often without gasping allows your body to stay more steamlined, meaning once again, less work.

Please only try adding this once you feel like you are no longer drowning doing the crawl stoke

Sorry to be a bit of a ghost the last few days. I have been fighting a combination of a good chest cold that has been messing with my training and sleep along with a scale issue or two.  I too live by the scale. It helps keep me honest with myself. I do not get too worked up about any one or two days of weight, but it helps me chart and graph progresss over time. I know I am higher than this time last year and I am not happy about it, but I will get past it.

One suggestion I can make is make sure you stay hydrated this time of year. The air is dry and that is bad enough. I find in the cold, I do not drink as much, and crave extra food to find the fluids my body is craving. So next time you open your fridge for a "whatever" consider a drink of water, or crystal light first. I find that helps alot for me. Hope you are all doing well and will try to check in again soon.