Scott and Kelly's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 4)

I'd get clipless even with a hybrid.  It just facilitates a more natural cycling motion.  You can get a good pair of Shimano or Look online for cheap at places like Nashbar.com and they're really easy to install.

You want a set of paddles that will take your hand out of the pull entirely and forces you to use the forearm as your propulsion get some Finis PT paddles.  Maddening.  http://www.finisinc.com/pt-paddles.html

Form work in the pool and some water running today for me.  First workout without any pain in my knee in weeks.  Encouraging. 

I'll be honest in 2:30 is a pretty sporty bike split, borderline elite.  Racine isn't all that hilly, but the amount of turns on the bike course is going to slow you down a bit.

I prefer not to set time goals this far out.  Time is a product of effort, plus conditions, plus a myriad of other influence.  Yes you can have a ballpark idea of what time you should lay down prior to going out race day that is based off your training, but those time goals should be set right at the beginning of your taper IMO.  At this point in time you should be laying out a smart training plan that moves your fitness forward on a regular basis and gets you to the starting line healthy.  By setting definitive time goals now you set yourself up to either A) have the perception of falling behind and push the intensity of some/all workouts unnecessarily or B) have the perception of being ahead of schedule and not realizing all the potential you have.  Rare is the training arc that goes according to plan.

BTW get the aero bars prior to the fitting.  They will change your position.

So Jim alluded to a topic that we haven't discussed in what metrics do you train by on the bike and run?  Heart rate, power, RPE, etc.  Why those metrics?

I love heart rate training.  It gives you data to judge progress, it tells you when you need extra recovery, gives you hard targets to train by instead of feeling, etc.  It takes a little getting used to.  You'll feel like you're going slow for a while.  In the end you'll get more efficient aerobically so the same effort level yields better results.

So I've never really looked at Fink's plan.  I'm going to assume there are deload weeks or "rest" weeks.  Ideally you use these weeks as faux taper weeks and put races at the end of those weeks.  

As far as swimming 2 or 3 times a week it's really a personal preference.  I have a lot of athletes swim only twice a week.  You can spend a boatload of time swimming and only make up :05-:10 per hundred meters.  In the long run that isn't that much time.  Whereas if you put that time in on the bike it would yield exponentially better results.