TRI (Totally Radical Improvement) - Clydes/Athenas to competitors - Re-Opened (Page 4)

Still getting used to this format, my comment was for Paul's 17 miler.

3 more sleeps till Half Ironman time! Getting excited down here. 

I've been having a light 'taper' week, which is frustrating. I know that I need to be resting, and long or hard workouts this close will only hurt my race day. But knowing that doesn't make sitting at home instead of riding my bike any less frustrating. Haha. 

Wednesday was close to a day off, only a short after work swim. And today I copied Tuesday's 45min/15min brick. 

Tomorrow I'm planning on a swim, and possibly a short ride. And for Saturday, I'm thinking that a day of rest is in order... Maybe a very, very easy jog to settle the nerves. 

Paul's workout schedule sounds familiar to mine- got in a swim yesterday, a couple 500s.  Tried out a finger-held lap counter.  I'd suspected I was miscounting some laps, and a few more laps turned up on the counter than I counted in my head.  

Question or two about swimming instruction/form:  I haven't used a tri coach, but does anyone have experience with one?  I'm curious what kinds of things swimmers can do to go from intermediate to advanced.  I am really comfortable in the pool; I average around 51 seconds for a 50 yard lap, but I have no idea where this stacks up against other folks who have done a few tris.  After watching a few youtube videos I have focused on keeping my elbow higher during the pull.

I've got some interval runs planned for today- two sets of 400s.  I'm in NC so I can only imagine its warmer than NY, so I'm curious how folks do intervals in colder weather- are you doing intervals on a treadmill?  Did that take a while to get used to?  Any tips/lessons?  I rarely use a treadmill to begin with, much less for interval efforts.

So excited for you, bullfrog.  I can't even imagine what must be going through your head right now.  Have a fantastic time, and I hope you can make it fun.

You have done the training.  You're ready.  Smile. 

Oh, and tell us all about it!!!

My training plan has changed a lot by everything I've recently signed up for.  I joined a Tri Swim Clinic on Sundays, and Master Swim Program for evenings.  Since I swim well, but never technically learned HOW to swim, I think this will help with stroke development and getting a lot quicker - which I need to do.  Thank goodness I don't have to worry about running yet. 

For my HIM Aquabike, I just need to fit more bike into this schedule:

Sundays – 2 hours triathlon swim clinic

Mondays – 1 hour turbo kickboxing, 1.5 hours coached swimming

Tuesdays – 1 hour strength training/boxing, 1.5 hours coached swimming

Wednesdays – 1 hour turbo kickboxing, 1.5 hours coached swimming

Thursdays – 1.5 hours coached swimming

Fridays – rest day

Saturdays – Zumba, long ride (cycling) (usually about 2-3 hours)

Thursday seems like the obvious choice for at least one more bike workout. 

Also a concern - with my Saturday long bike being 2.5 hours or so, I bonked on my 26 mile ride last Saturday and it was no fun for a couple days after.  Insufficient hydration & food back at the car =  bad plan.   I plan to do 36 miles this Saturday, and I'm concerned about being hydrated enough and having food with me (lesson learned).

I plan to hydrate well all day tomorrow, and bring nuun electrolyte water along on the ride - maybe in a camelback.  I'm thinking a solid breakfast of yogurt, fruits, nuts and oatmeal.  Last week's coffee and a Larabar didn't cut it.  For the ride I'm thinking pb, honey & banana sandwiches on multigrain.   I don't have a sensitive stomach, and I prefer real, whole foods.  Maybe some chocolate milk for after? 

Any other recommendations for a 3-ish hour ride?  Other than remembering to bring a gator and gloves this time.  Brr!

Hi Kimmy, 

Thanks for the support. At the moment what's going through my head is a mixture of excitment, and self doubt. But you're right I have done the training, I haven't trained perfectly, or as much as I had planned, but there's no doubt that I'm fitter than I ever have been. Which has to be a good thing!

As far as your training plan goes, You've clearly got swimming under control. You're going to be much more prepared than I am if you keep that schedule! But, I think that you are very short on cycling. I've been working with 3 rides a week, 2 short mid week of 60-90 minutes and a long weekend ride 3 hours. And I wouldn't want to be going into the race with any less than that. 

I'm assuming from your schedule that you like the group gym classes? (kick boxing etc) If you don't want to give that up maybe you could switch 1 or 2 of your classes to spin class? That would be a lot more beneficial for your eagle man training.

For your 3 hour rides, here's what I've done; Breakfast 2 pieces PB and Honey toast. during the ride gu and muesli bars to eat, only water to drink. And post ride, often I reward myself and head off with the GF to the local cafe for bacon and eggs. Good luck for your ride this weekend!

Thanks Paul,

Glad to be a part of the group.  I reside in NYC, and in the past have used a mixture of the pools at the "City Gyms" and group swims with CIBBOWS (Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers) to help get me acclimated to the swim. 

Thanks for the reminder about NYC SWIMS.  I may also participate in one of their or CIBBOWS races that would help get me acclimated to swim racing.

As far as the bike, I have heard of and reached out to NYCC (New York Cycle Club) that operates in the city.  Based on their website, they seem to have rides every weekend, and break up attendees into three aptitude levels.  Their next club meeting in is Feb, so I have that scheduled.

I plan to kick off my training this Saturday, starting with a conditioning program to facilitate my butt from the couch back to the gym.  I will be self-training again this year, using the plan that I followed in the past from Tri-newbies website.  I am doing this while doing a job search, so I am trying to keep my expenses to a minimum and have a tight focus on workout time and so most of my workouts will be bricked into one session.  I would love to have a Tri-Coach, but maybe one day.

Team:  I am putting you all in my BT friends list.

Speak to you soon!

Ony

This has been an exciting day and week for me.  I had been thinking about doing a triathlon for a while now but finally on Monday committed to it by signing up and paying for one.  I found this TRI group on Tuesday and signed up for it for the support.  Tuesday I also got on an exercise bike for the first time in ever and cycled for 35 min. Cycled again on Wednesday for 45 min. 

Going into this I knew one of my earliest and biggest obstacles was going to be training for the swim, both logistically and physically.  There is not really a club or YMCA that has a pool that is convenient to get to from my home.  But then yesterday I found a community college that is less than 10 minutes away from work that has an aquatic center with an open swim during lunch hours. And it is only a $1.50 per day.  So that eliminated the logistic hurdle. Now I just got to decide to go.  So this morning I packed up a swimming suit and towel and came into work. I tried to do a web search on what to do once  I get to the pool,  training wise.  I pulled up this web site that had a bunch of lap pool rules of etiquette. I aint going to lie, I was getting really nervous and intimidated reading them.  It was talking about being observant of the fast, medium and slow lanes and choosing accordingly.  That when you go to overtake a swimmer tap them on the ankle and if your ankle is tapped to continue to the wall and get in the corner.  I was just envisioning a pool full of speedo wearing, body shaved, Michael Phelps looking swimmers and I would be totally out of place. Well lunch time came and I almost talked myself out of it, but I ended up driving to the college campus and reluctantly walked inside the aquatic center. It ended up having two pools, a deep pool and a shallow side.  The deep pool did have about 5 or 6 swimmers but the shallow pool had 8 lanes with only one elderly lady swimming using a kick board. It was wide open and I was so relieved.

Wow what a workout. There was no stroke development or working on form and the pull that you guys talk about. It was all about not drowning, not swallowing too much water and making it to the other side.  I ended up swimming 22 lengths of the 25 meter pool. I know I didnt run a 5k the first time I went on a run, so I guess its not too bad for my first swim.  I am still alive...very sore, tired, breathing heavy, but not on the bottom of the pool. And most importantly I am looking forward to my next swim. Although I need to invest in a pair of swim goggles because my eyes are still bothering me and this monitor is blurry and bright.

So my training is starting to take form.  I am thinking about trying to stick to the following plan...During my lunch break I am going to do the bike trainer on Mon, Wed, Fri and Im going to the aquatic center on Tues, Thurs. I will go running in the evenings on Mon and Wed, and do a little lifting on Tues, Thurs evenings.  And I will have my long run and bike on the weekends.

Good luck Andrew on your race on Sunday. That is awesome that you are in the best shape of your life. That is something I definately aspire to be here in a few months.

Oh, and thank you Paul for allowing me to join your group.

Take care,

Matt

Wow - love the activity in here guys!!

Andrew - I know what you are going through brother - I was chomping at the bit before my HIM - literally going nuts in the taper leading to the race.  As mine was a destination race I decided to go early and volunteer at the first day of the expo - was a really awesome experience and I met a TON of cool people.  I also took my bike and rode an out and back section of the course that was flat and fast ... just got into aero and banged out 20 ... not killing it but one final "test of the machinery and my legs".

Just stay calm - you got the distance ... we are all dying to hear how it all goes!  My little 5k this Sunday is not worth a mention against a 70.3!

Going to go through a few points to a handful of you guys ...

Chris - today was my first day doing interval training indoors.  I did my gym/weight session first and then went to another location to do my intervals.  The way I did it was on a treadmill (I never run on a treadmill).  Typically I can run outside even if the weather is in the teens - not a big fan of the treadmill - but this put me through the motions and kicked my butt.  Started at a good tempo and then adjusted incline to 3% brought it back down, then up to 6%, then down, then up to 9%.  Each time he was documenting my hear rate and trying to keep me for 2 minutes in each "challenge".  After spiking out at 9% he then started doing speed sessions then bringing it back down.  We did 42 minutes on the treadmill and I was drenched - the treadmill was drenched and I felt like I had run a 10k at full effort.  I was so beat that after I showered and picked my kids up from school I was out cold from 3-6pm when they woke me up and asked what was for dinner ... can't wait till next week!

Kimmy - it i early in the season and you are putting in 15 hours of training already ... please be careful.  You might be bonking on the long bike because you lose to much liquid during zumba?  I don't know but your workload is heavy already - great you have a rest day in there but please don't push yourself too hard.

Ony - I have been here a while and I have no idea how to add people to my friends list ... can you talk me through that?  I am planning a bunch of the NYCSwims ... when you get close to planning your schedule let's see if we can "race" together.  My brother has talked me out of all the Coney Island stuff the last two years - how do you find the swimming there?

Matt - nice job conquering your fear and jumping in with both feet - even if it was the shallow end .  Don't worry about drills - or even form so much yet but get in there and get wet.  I buy most of my swim gear from Tyr - I am extremely biased towards their goggles while my brother swears by Aquasphere.  I have several of the same model - some in clear (for the pool) and some in tints (for sunny races) ... once you find a goggle that works for you chances are you will stick to it.  If you decide you want to do drills - you can get kickboards, pull bouy, and fins from Finis or Tyr ... I actually need new fins (for kick exercises (no its not cheating) and plan to get zoomers from the Finis site.

Mike - a bunch of my friends are in Texas this week for a tattoo convention - not sure what city it is in but if you see a group of 5-6 tattooed goons that look like they belong up north doing a run - chances are I know them.  I wimp out on cold rides and will have my bike on the trainer until March - nice pace for a windy day - impressive!

From someone who struggles with swimming, 22 lengths is awesome for your first swim!  For my first race, I didn't focus on anything except for not drowning.

Paul, I'll look out for them,  

This morning had a good swim, only about 850 yards, then a good weight circuit workout.  Tomorrow I should be able to get a swim, bike and ride in.  First of the year all  in one day.  Excited about it.

Kim,  I know exactly what you are saying since I have been there too.   I really do enjoy working out too and find it really hard to take rest days - feel like I am being lazy when I do. I normally will walk on rest days just to scratch the itch so to speak.

Hope you are feeling better.  We have been trading a sinus cold/sore throat thing around the house now for close to a month.  I've had it twice and now both boys are sick again.  I am just glad that it is not the flu or rotovirus.

Had a long swim this morning 2150 continuous with speed sets mixed in but have a serious case of jelly arms from my cardio-kickboxing class so it wasn't too speedy.  Due to the arthritis in my shoulder I can't punch the bag because of the impact irritating so I hold 3lb dumbbells and do the boxing motions.  After 45 minutes of jabs, upper cuts and speed "bag",  my upper body was seriously aching.  I am just happy to have finished my swim workout. 

^^

My planned races work almost exactly like that!

As far as being nervous to register, see if you can register for it online at Active.com. For the olympic race I'm doing, if I register before Feb. 15 then I can pay and extra $7 for a full refund guarantee if I cannot attend the race for any reason. Yours may offer the same.... It may seem like I'm not fully commited to racing that day, or I'm doubting myself, but in reality, I have an extremely demanding job that works 7 days a week most weeks, and I may not be able to get off work that date. So the insurance is awesome for my situation!

Today I did a 30 minute swim. I've been trying to focus on form and technique in the water and can already see a difference. I feel like I am swimming slower because my arms aren't spinning around like crazy, but I've actually added a couple of hundred yards distance to my 30 minutes.