JohnnyKay and Fred Doucette's HIM/IM focused Mentor group-CLOSED (Page 37)

I actually think olys are better IM prep racing than HIMs for most people.  Lots of near-threshold work in an oly.  And, again, generally less recovery time after (or cutting back before) to interfere with the main long-course goal.

Another good luck to everyone racing this weekend! I hope you all get great weather. I'll be cheering from my computer.

Great info here today. I'm hoping that the training I'm doing for the HIM will also help me race a better Oly. Just pushing myself out of my comfort zone a little. The Oly distances are right in my comfort zone but I need to learn how to pace the race better.

I'm finally feeling better so I got my long ride in that I missed over the weekend. It went fine but not great. We ran into a road we were not familiar with and it suddenly changed from paved to gravel/rock. We were half way to the main road trying to make a giant loop. If we turned around we would be back tracking a lot so we decided to try riding on it. We could see the main road and it really didn't look that far away . Oh man, that really slowed us down. Reminded me of the old days when I used to ride my mountain bike over anything- dirt, gravel whatever. Tri bikes are not made for that! Finally a farmer came by and let us hitch a ride in the back of his truck. Thank goodness because that gravel went on for another 2 miles.

In case work is too busy tomorrow for me to get to this...farewell for a while. Tomorrow is my travel day. CAN'T WAIT! I hope I packed everything I'll need.

For tracking, I'm #817. Shooting for a 1:05 swim, 6:30 bike, 4:15 run, 10 minutes for transition, 12 hours total. Send me your good race vibes!

Had a good ride today, and I think I'm back to 100%.  Top end power was there, as well as my sustained power as I had to time trial for about 25 minutes to catch up with the group since I came late.  Averaged about 260 watts during that stretch and still had enough left in the tank to ride strong the rest of the way.

Feet are finally starting to feel better, and I'll likely run tomorrow.  Got me thinking though...all that running on rough asphalt in transition...was it worth it?  Well, I looked at the results and realized I was T-33 overall out of 705 competitors for total transition time (T1 + T2).  I gained 17 spots overall and 3 spots in my AG (66 in my AG) simply because I had faster transitions.  I actually beat a guy by 1 second because I was 2:18 faster than him in transition.  So I guess it was worth it.  The top 200 finishers averaged 1  minute slower than me in transition.  That's real time.  In an Oly distance, that's like swimming 4 seconds per 100m faster, or biking 0.4 mph faster (or somewhat close to the effect of race wheels), or running 10 seconds per mile faster.

I would agree with that.

Excellent points - I realized in my first year of Tri's just how much time could be made up or lost in Transitions.  My training partner is consistently faster than me even though I feel like I'm going as fast as possible.  In our last race he beat me overall by 22 seconds - 10 of those came in transition.  But the top guys in my AG are beating me by 30sec in T1 alone - I don't know how they get in and out in 45 seconds.

I actually think the same thing can be applied to HIM & IM transitions.  You don't have to sprint through those--and you certainly want to take enough time to make sure you have everything (apply sunscreen if needed, etc).  But don't 'lollygag'.  Don't sit on the chairs (or ground) and rest.  Don't eat a snack.  Know what you need to do and move with a purpose.  If you really do need to 'relax' for a bit, do it as you start your bike (do some coasting) or run (do some walking).  In other words, keep moving as much as possible.   It's amazing how long many people spend in transition.

I have actually never done an Olympic this year, but I plan on doing about 2-3 this year (first one is in 4 weeks). I have heard great respsonses to the distance, espcially recovery and how it really pushes your body and tests it limits. I am curious to experience this first hand next month.

With that said I have heard of people that think doing an Olympic 2 weeks out from IM is the best way to head into your taper, little recovery needed, and a final jolt to your body with the threshold work. I am thinking about trying this out next year for IMWI.

I'll be in and out on Saturday watching, Good luck and can't wait to hear about this race!

For those interested, my RR from A-Z is up now.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=252861

Ha ha ha, I'll have to go back and read through. I posted this morning and the whole time I was thinking I should just erase it. Forgot all about it since we've been gone all morning. Some threads are just irresistible.

I have somehow resisted even opening that one so far.  We'll see if my endurance can hold up.