McFuzz's New Athlete Group (CLOSED) (Page 4)

Lana...getting a new bike is so exciting!!!  You'll need a good name for her!  My three are Judy, White Lightning and Ruby.  

You've been given great advice on the clipless pedals.  They can be challenging but you'll get it.  Practice, practice, practice.  Just know that we all have fallen and we all will fall again!

So, I might be the first one in the group to jump into my race season!  I'm doing an indoor triathlon tomorrow morning with my older daughter Sydney.  She is 14 and an amazing athlete.  Quick brag--she is playing Varsity basketball as a freshman and tonight she'll break 200 points--she's at 198 right now.  She's a beast! She's never done a triathlon before so it will be interesting.  I'll be so mad if she takes to this like she does everything else and kicks my butt--triathlon is MY thing! Lol!  I'm just thrilled to do this with her. 

We'll start with a 15 minute swim session with someone counting laps for us.  Then, a mandatory 10 minute transition to dry off and change. Next, we'll jump on training bikes and ride as many miles as we can in 25 minutes.  Then another 10 minute transition in which we'll walk to the Olympic Ice Oval and run as many laps as possible in 20 minutes.  I'm hoping to spot some Olympians...and possibly, bestill my heart....Apolo Ohno! 

What's the training plan for the weekend for everyone? 

You aren't insane, at least not in my book...

I didn't have a trainer the first winter between triathlons either, and I managed to still be ready for a HIM that second summer.  If you get "decent" (clear and dry) weather, you might bundle up and get out for a 30-45 minute ride.  Even 2-3 of those in Jan-Feb-March will be good for when the weather does improve. 

Personally, I think you're missing a swim workout.  Where is the swim workout where you focus on "fun?"  Ask your swim coach what you should do for the 3rd workout.  Repeat some of the drills and swim intervals from earlier in the week and pay close attention to form.  As you swim longer or faster, it's easy to let your form degrade in small ways and you reinforce bad habits. 

Thank you Joe! 

I think it's cool that we've got people from 4 continents in our little group! 

  This is an example of a trainer.  Some people hate using the trainer, I love it.

This is a big question!  What will your first distance be?  I'll give you a run down of my typical routine.

My races are always in another city so there is always travel involved.  When I pack I make a list and run through my transitions in my head and mark things off my list as I physically put them in my tri bag.  I always get to registration with plenty of time to register, scope things out, etc.  

Set up:  again depends of race distance and the venue.  At one HIM I had to set my bike up the night before because T1 (swim to bike) and T2 (bike to run) were in two different locations.  Most times T1 and T2 are in the same place, makes things a lot easier.

Morning of race:  I am an early early riser so I always get up hours before I need to.  I like to be up and awake.  I'll eat something (again, depending on distance of the race this can differ).  Typically I eat a banana or bagel and peanut butter and a cup of green tea.  The routine is always the same--the food, the tea.  Once you find a nutrition plan that works for you, stick with it.  Don't add in some freaky food the morning of the race...this can be bad.  Very bad.

Pre race:  Get to designated TI area with all my gear.  Rack my bike (you will be given a designated area where you are to hang your bike.  This is your transition area). The space under your bike is your area, where you keep everything you'll need.  This less stuff you have the better.  You don't want to clutter your area, or your neighbor's.  Chances are you'll have people on either side of you and you don't want to impede on their space.  After I rack my bike I always look for a mental landmark to help me find my bike.  I'll look for a tree, a sign, something that will help me get right to my bike. When you come out of the water the adrenaline is pumping, you might be a little dizzy (normal) so running right past your bike is easy to do. Once I pull out my wetsuit, goggles, towel, I set up my transitions.  I also identify  the 'swim in',  'bike out/bike in" and the 'run out' areas are.  I walk through those to see what direction I'll be coming in to help orient myself as to where my transition area is 

I put my helmet/sunglasses on my bike seat.  I place my bike shoes and socks under the bike along with a tank top/tech shirt (depending on weather) with the race bib already pinned on. I'll unvelcro my bike shoes so they're ready to be put on quickly. Under my wetsuit I wear a sports bra and bike shorts.  Next, I set out my running shoes, hat and fuel belt already loaded with a water bottle and GU (if it's longer than a sprint distance) and my race watch.  My bike already has a water bottle loaded on it as well. That's pretty much it! 

Preswim:  get wetsuit and swimcap on, goggles on my head.  You'll get your swimcap with your race packet.  Different colors for different age groups.  Pay attention to when your group is to enter the water.  Enter the water when it's time, get goggles set, spash around a bit and BOOM..swim!

T1:  Come out of the water and head to transition area.  Try to remember where my darn bike is!  Get to bike, peel off wetsuit, take off swim cap/goggles.  Put on tank top, put on socks, bike shoes, sunglasses.  Put on helmet.  Grab bike and jog with bike to the 'bike out' area.  Get on bike and away I go!  Pedal, pedal, pedal!

T2:  Come in to T2 with bike, head back to rack spot, hang bike.  Take off helmet (always always!) Take off bike shoes, running shoes on, fuel belt on, hat on and head to the 'run out' area.  Run, run, run...get to the finish and DONE!  

The key is really to be prepared and to mentally go through everything you'll need.  Once transition is set up, it's easy!  It's just swim, bike, run!

This is my routine in a nutshell!  There are probably some small detail I may have left out that others can chime in on!

The plans were: Run 1hour today and rest tomorrow.

Whaty probably will happen: 2 days rest.

I had an afterwork reception which kinda went crazy and a colleague had to drop me off at 2am this morning pretty hammered up...

I use a forerunner 305 from Garmin. I think its not sold anymore. But I also have a bikeGPS from Garmin and I really like their equipment. There are cheaper watches. I think it also depends on what you want to do with it. The basic POLAR watches look great too but they aren't ANT+ so its not compatible with my other gear.

Okay,

my first real question. I have been reading up a lot of stuff on how to train and i put some general ideas on how to do it. Now i want to slowly put these general ideas in to a concrete plan. The first discipline I want to tackle, is swimming. This is because at the moment my running is focussing on just running for an hour straight and get used with that before turning it up a notch to get some speed. And biking is something which is hard to plan at the moment because I live in a cold rainy country and I need better weather. So for the moment if the weahter is okay, I just do a trip to wherever I like.

So swimming.... At this moment i'm doing this session:

Warming-up: 300m relax
                         4x50m technique, 15" rest
                        4x25 sprint, 1 minute time to do the sprint and to start next one.
                        100m relax
Kern: 3x200m progressive, slow - moderate - fast, 15" rest
          100m relax (any style fits)
          3x200m progressive, slow - moderate - fast, 15" rest
cool down: 400m relax (any style is okay)

Total: 2400m

I try to do this about 2 to 3 times a week. But when I see other people who uses a coach, there is off course a lot more variety. So what could I do to bring in some variety. And what are good drills?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUULNJEdKU8

Are these any good? I understand how to do them but I don't see the advantage of doing them. And is 20% drills into your total swim training not much?

At this moment I also have paddles. But they are fairly huge and rectangle shape. (They are 19 years old now but still in good condition, thank you Speedo) Are they good to use and what exercises should I do with them?

And lastly. I've never been much of a leg user. If i'm doing a 25 or 50m sprint, i kick the water to pieces, though if I'm going for longer "sprints", I find myself to only do a "body-roll kick". I don't know if this si the correct term for it but it basically is i do not really do a propulsion kick, but more of a tiny kick to make my body rotation go smooth. Should I worry about that and try and do more kicks? I consider myself a very good floater and don't really need my legs to stay pretty horizontal in the water. Even at slow speeds, i have a good "feel" for the water. Or do I praise myself lucky to have a swimming style which saves my legs for the biking and running part?

A lot of questions but I think a lot of starters with no swimming coach will know at least some of these problems.

It's always godo to stick with something you know and trust. Congrats on the new gear! I hope it serves you well.