kaburns1214 and UHCoog's Mentor Group-Closed (Page 30)

I have picked most of mine based on location & cost. That said, Lake Placid is near and dear to my heart and I would have signed up for that no matter what. Now we are 'empty nesters' I am hoping to do a few races a little further from home.

REI was having a great sale and I took a chance and bought the Giro Air Attack that IM Scott had pointed out online without doing a demo because nobody locally has it in stock. Plus the guy at the local REI said I could just return it there if I didn't like it. Love it. So light weight and fits like a glove.I can see why its going to be so much more aero and why the cooling is so good. I got it with the shield which is also awesome.

I won't spend money on traveling to small races unless I will already be in the area, just doesn't make any sense financially. For longer races, I want it to be a fun race/venue, doable for my capability, and scenic adds to it. That is why I asked about the IM venues you have done. IMFL or IMAZ might make the most sense for me from a capability perspective if I do one, but maybe I would have the best experience overall with a different race. If I am going to do an IM, I want the best experience overall possible because while I know I would accomplish something big and I need all the distractions (crowd, scenery, etc) possible.

Just my thoughts ...

This is a recovery week for me and the week I do all my assessments. I just finished my spinervals threshold test and I'm kinda bummed my numbers dropped. Tomorrow is run assessment day. It should have been the other way round, I just didn't fancy running in the rain again.

Agree! I for one will highly recommend IMLP (and I heard IM mt trembling is like placid but somehow even better!!!). After researching the different IM, I decided the heat sounded the most scary to me, so that is what I was trying most to avoid (Scott, hats off to you dealing with that texas heat and still getting 12 hours!!!). Funny as I am a Bikram yoga fanatic (for those of you who are not familiar it is yoga in a quite hot....sometimes up to 117 or so at my studio.... room with humidity). The heat seemed to lead to the most Do Not Finishes.

I will warn that IMLP swim is super crowded.

speaking of Lake Placid, excited for you! I remember starting to feel rather overwhelmed this time 2 years ago, so hang in there if you are

Thank you, Scott.

3900 in the pool this morning with lots of fast 100s. Grueling session. I have some Z3 intervals on the bike today. A few more days of hitting it hard, and then I have a recovery week and olympic tri. We're traveling to my parents' house for the weekend so the rest of today will be spent getting ready for tomorrow's drive.

How many weeks left until Lake Placid?

Anyone racing this weekend?

This recovery stuff is for the birds.

My baby girl Reagan turns six today. Wow so grown up. We narrowly averted a crisis by finding her American Girl dress to wear to school today so she can "Look extra pretty on her birthday."

Ear rings, worried about looking pretty for school, where'd my baby go????

I had that same swim this morning. I am going to feel that later. Grueling is right! Just a 20 min ZR run later for me.

We are staying local this weekend but wife's parents might be coming up.

To quote a country song "You're going to miss this..." each step along the way enjoy it because you will miss it. My girl is 12 now and it only gets worse. I am waiting for the fight of "I hate you dad!" I hope to be a rock start dad and that never happen though haha.

The many 100s workout? One of my faves.

My fave is the middle distance speed set with lots of fly and back. I also love to do band work. My abs always feel so sore, and I dig that feeling.

First session with the Masters program that Larkin does this morning. Ugh my shoulders are sore. This whole breathing without a snorkel thing is rough work. I was very pleased with the input from the coach though, it made me feel as if I'm not so far off as I thought. With their practice days I'm going to have to look at adjusting my workout schedule. That or just swim a whole lot more than I originally planned.

Michele asked a really good question via e-mail so I wanted to answer here:

1. What makes a race different when you start late versus starting early ; and

2. If you are starting late when should you be eating breakfast?


What makes a race different?

There's a pretty big difference from starting at the beginning of mutliple waves snd statring at the end. At Eagleman specifically, its usually very hot and humid. If I get to start at 7 a.m., I'll be off the bike and on the run by 10:30 a.m. and will be finishing around 12:30 p.m., before the day gets really, really hot. I essentially get to bike on a fairly shaded course and run during the late morning. If I'm starting at 8:30 a.m., I'll be starting the run at noon and will be running until about 2 p.m. Essentially doing the run in the hottest part of the day. Other issues with starting at the back include dealing with slow swimmers. I'll likely swim up 3 or so waves during the swim. That's a lot of traffic to swim through and I won't be able to get a clean line. Now on the bike, starting at the back can be an advantage. I will be passing people all day and there is a "slingshot effect" from contiuously riding (legally) in someones slip stream as I pass. While there's no slipstream effect on the run, it is nice to be constantly passing, it helps mentally.

When should you eat breakfast?

You want to eat breakfast about 3:30 before an IM and 3 hours before a HIM (give or take a half hour). So with my 8:30 a.m. start I'll be looking to eat breakfast between 5:30 and 6 a.m.

Breakfast before a long course race should be low glycemic, hydrating , sodium rich, low in fat and high in BCAAs. Essentially you're looking for about 120-160g of CHO. The purpose of the pre-race breakfast is the improve race performance. I know many of you have heard this from me before but this is my pre-race breakfast of choice:

3 cups of unsweetened applesauce
1 banana
1 scoop of whey protein
1 24 oz bottle of sports drink

This breakfast is low glycemic, low in fiber, low in fat and low in protein and topps of glycogen, sodium and fluid stores. Obviously there are other ways to get in everything you need, but I think this is the easiest.

If its an IM I'll then eat a Power Bar 1 hour before the race starts, if its HIM I'll take a gel 15 minutes before my wave starts.

Swimming is great in that there is no impact to the body. It is not a bad recovery workout either. I say swimming more is not a bad thing just make sure that you have easy days in the pool. I know when I first started with them it was mainly just form work and then I went in later to get the 'workout' in.

Edited by kidtri33 2013-05-23 1:05 PM

Arguing why water is a bad option as your sole hydration source on the bike for a day like last Saturday with an exceedingly stubborn gentleman in the IMTX thread.

ETA: Kelly got a kick out of his tri club of choice when she was down here. Jockstrap Catapult.

Edited by uhcoog 2013-05-23 1:07 PM

http://www.geekweek.com/2010/02/fu.html

Yeah, I was thinking of sticking with my normal swim schedule and adding the Masters on top of that. The only issue is that it will push my biking from Tu/Th mornings to the evenings (don't have time to do masters in the morning, bike, and get to work on time), and that impacts time with my wife. I'll have to figure out a good balance. I'm trying to get as much swim time in before June 2nd as that is my next Sprint and it's my first OWS.

Bwahahahaha

LOL! I used to watch those shows all the time when I lived in Japan. They can be really dumb, but hilarious.

I am not a fan of the new BT! I miss a lot of what is going on in the thread. I know you all were talking nutrition a few days ago, and maybe I missed it, but does anyone have any suggestions for breakfast before doing a morning long run? I'm trying to get back into the swing of things.

So what should you use and why not water?

It's 9 weeks on Sunday. I'm scared silly and feel ridiculously undertrained.