enginerd's group - CLOSED (Page 4)

Great race, Robin! Sounds like you rocked it!

Nice work getting out there, Syndi! That first ride of the spring can be tough.

I did my first race of the year today, a short du.  The full report is up.  Short version, the run was uber-hard but the bike was good. 

Pattie

 Awesome job on the race, Robin. Sorry about the bees!

Way to get after it.  I had a 12 mile ride also and struggled on the hills.  The cold weather did not help. 

A lot of activity with our group.  Cool!

Jim - how was the OWS in beryessa?

Pattie - that's some crazy weather.  I'll have to check out the RR on your du.

Anne - That incident at the pool is totally gross.  I'm not sure if there's enough chlorine to make me not think about it every time I went in.  Glad you were able to get our for a ride today.

Tanya - great job on your bike ride.  80 miles i huge.  If you can do 80 now and get another couple rides in like that before your IM, you'll have the bike covered solid.  Bryan also has the Adamo saddle and loves it.

Robin - congrats on your finish.  That's a perfect tune up for next weekend!  Sorry to hear about the bees.

Syndi - glad you were able to get outside for a ride.  Do you log our workouts in your training blog?  looks like you received a couple inspires from the group here that you might want to check.

My ride on Saturday went well (finished it!) and my marathon today went well also.  All in all, an action packed weekend.

Thanks everyone   I am really looking forward to next weekend.  Wildflower, here I come!!!  I'll be taking it easy this week.

Donato, sounds like you had a great weekend!!!  I'm sure you will kick butt in your upcoming IM.

Question out to the group - of the three disciplines in triathlon, which is your strongest and which is your weakest?  For your weakest discipline, what questions or concerns do you have about it?  In your strongest discipline, what advice would you give to others?

I think biking is my strongest and running is my weakest.  I spend the most time on the bike because I can push myself without getting injured (unlike running) and I really enjoy it (unlike swimming).  I live in a rather hilly area, so my rides contain a lot of climbing, which is great for my leg strength and overall endurance.

Swimming comes fairly naturally to me, I am slow but I can go long.  Pool availability is a limiting factor, and then once I get in the pool I usually do about 1500-2000 yards or so and then get bored.  I think I could be a pretty good swimmer if I went to the pool more than once a week and got coaching to improve my technique, or maybe tried some drills or something.

I have a love/hate relationship with running.  I used to hate it, then I started doing a lot of it, and now I love it, but my knee is killing me.  I think after Wildflower I'm going to take a few weeks off from running and possibly get my knee looked at.

Since I only learned to swim a few months ago, that's definitely my weakest link. I struggle with relaxing and breathing easily.  Some days it all falls into place, other times it's as if I can't get enough oxygen and have to swim on my side to relax a bit.

It would be good to hear suggestions from some of the accomplished swimmers in this group (and I know we've got quite a few!!).

I have a pretty decent running background, but biking is my strongest suit. It just seems to come naturally to me. I do think (hey Rowdy Paint) that growing up riding horses helped immensely with developing a good sense of balance and learning to pick your line and keep the eyes focused ahead, rather than looking down. I do a fair amount of mountain biking and believe that helps with balance, turns and just confidence in general.

With the bike, I truly believe in the importance of having the bike adjusted to fit your body properly. Just a few small tweaks can make a difference in comfort and performance.

I agree it is a good idea to get an expert opinion on your bike fit, especially if you have been riding your bike for awhile and something feels wrong or uncomfortable and you can't seem to figure out what it is.

As far as how to get faster.... other than a good fit, I don't know if there is anything else that you can do besides putting in hours on the bike ("ride lots" or "T.I.T.S." as I've seen others say).  Road, mountain, hills, flat, trainer, I think it all helps.

Lots of great advice from everyone!

For me, weakest to strongest are the same as the order in a tri - swim is weakest, then bike, and then run is my strength.  The one big advantage of this in a race is that I'm net passing people in each discipline

The advice I'd have is:

Swim: on the swim, technique is critical.  Swimming is the most technical of the disciplines and because you are dragging your body through water (instead of air), you can literally go faster with less effort if your technique is good.  re: fear of OWS, the general advice I have is that calm and confidence can come from familiarity and experience.  The more you become familiar with the situation (i.e. the fewer unknowns), the less likely you'll panic; start with smaller steps (e.g. maybe do some OWS with a friend or with someone in a kayak so you have a safety net, venture out on your own) and build your way up.

Bike: since the bike is non-impact, you can do huge volumes without injury (assuming your fit and biomechanics are okay).  endurance only comes from putting in the miles.  long on the weekends and consistency during the week are key.  over half of any tri is on the bike, so it's worth putting in time here.  don't hammer the bike ride during a race because everything you do sets you up for the run and if you toast your quads during the bike, it'll be a miserable run.  You want to maintain a high cadence (e.g. 90 rpm or so) whenever you can (exception being bigger hills) so that you are engaging your slow twitch muscles for endurance.  Because biking has the most equipment, it can be daunting. Being familiar/having experience (maybe a class on basic bike repair) with how to use and even repair your bike will give you a greater comfort level with it.

Run: running is tough because your soft tissue all takes a pounding.  running needs to be approached with a gradual build up to allow the body to adapt (e.g. 10% rule) and strengthen to handle this impact or injury can easily occur.  The key to building endurance is also your weekly long run.  A couple of you have mentioned building base first and then later building speed; I wholeheartedly agree.  Honestly, I don't ever truly focus on speed/strength for anything and have really spent the last 2+ years just building base.  As you get more fit, a lot of speed will come automatically as you drop weight, improve your biomechanics/run more efficiently, and naturally gain strength.

Two things we haven't mentioned are nutrition and rest, which are almost the 4th and 5th disciplines for a tri.

I used to do some upper body strength training, but I stopped doing it just because my weekdays are so jam packed, it's all I can do just to fit in s/b/r..... so if I find myself at the gym, I'm going swimming.

Ok, so I'm a little late in answering the question of strengths and weaknesses, but here it is.

Without a doubt, swimming is my weakest discipline.  No matter how many yards or time I put in the pool, I can never get sub 2 min splits.  Donato, I know you mentioned that technique is everything with swimming and I've tried to read/watch as many articles on swimming technique as possible.  I guess I'm just going to have to join a masters swim program and get someone to help me out.  The problem is always time though, so we'll see if I can fit it in.

Running is my strongest, but I enjoy cycling the most.  Cycling has never been too big of a problem for me in races I think because I get out and ride quite a bit in training.  So getting that endurance base has probably been the reason.  I've always tried to ride at a high cadence (90-95), but sometimes I'll catch myself riding at about 80.

As for running, someone once mentioned to me that cadence is something I should pay attention to.  It was recommended that it should be around 85-90.  The theory was that if you always run at the higher cadence then all you need to do is lengthen your stride if you want to go faster, or shorten it to go slower.  The logic also followed that it's easier to lengthen your stride than it is to pick up the tempo in a race.  I've been doing that and it has seemed to work, but I'm curious as to what everyone's thoughts are on this technique.  Does it make sense?  Will it help/hurt? 

Thanks,

Scot