Entry Level to Ironman Fly Tri Racing (Tri Ritter's Group) OPEN (Page 4)

Hey Jimmy,

Sorry for my delay in replying to your story, it would freeze up every time I would try to reply by using the quote button. I thought the whole site was freezing up on me. Sounds like you traveled quite a bit. We also recently bought a house last year. 

You may be one of those like me who also suffers in  heat considerably more than others.  Getting your nutrition strategy dialed in would be great for you. Sounds like you a good and fun racing schedule ahead of you too. 

Since I thought BT was acting up on me the last few days here is the pro tip I shared with the athletes I coach yesterday. 

Pro Tip: Dealing with negative self-talk during training and life, you need to be constantly combating your negative talk with aggressive positive talk. Constantly give yourself props. Tell yourself that you did well. The parts you didn't do so well, make adjustments to work smarter and harder to get it right or do better.

Pro Tip: Use visualization to your advantage. Most athletes who practice visualization before key races are more confident and end up doing better, study the course so you can have a vision of what it looks like, especially if you have never been there. Visualization is kinda like a day dream. This is how I've been doing it personally, close my eyes at night and I'm in Galveston I vision myself putting wetsuit, goggles, jumping off the pier. Starting, swimming hard and but I'm in total control with good form. (Most of the time I fall asleep before I get out of the water, visualization helps you fall to sleep fast) Out of the water onto the bike tucked into aero position I'm speeding along the sea wall with a tail wind. If I'm doing bike intervals on the trainer then I can close my eyes and vision it there). Onto the run I'm floating along the multi loop course almost effortlessly holding my goal pace, it's humid but manageable, I trained for this. Boom I cross the finish line, find Calley and give her a salty kiss and give Evan a big hug and lift him onto my shoulder.

Hey  Justin,

Welcome to the group man!! Super excited to have you. Sorry for my delay. I have been out of town due to my grandpa's passing over the weekend.  

Congrats on your recent accomplishments! The biggest one is probably talking your wife into letting you do a half ironman. Sounds like you have your hands full with 3 young boys. Me and my wife, Calley have an almost 8 month old and she has an almost 16 year old teenager.  Which half ironman  did you choose? 

I hope the knee is  healing up alright. It's important to let it rest but keep it moving with strengthening as long as it doesn't hurt. 

Howdy Cody! I'm from Texas USA.  haha. 

That's awesome on your first triathlon! It is addicting for sure!! Sorry for my delay in the reply to you. I've been out of town on and off the last few days due to my 94 year old grandpa's passing over the weekend.  

What other triathlons do you have lined up or thinking about? Let me know if I can help answer any questions!!  Some of the best triathletes in the world are from Austrailia, I'm sure you heard of Chris McCormick and Craig Alexander.  

Sorry guys I've been out of town the last few days due to my 94 year old Grandpa's passing over the weekend and I've been keeping up with coaching and training. 

Here's how my training has looked the past few days and I'm heading to a big 15K local race this weekend and first triathlon of the year is next weekend. This week is bike focus with some light running, not much swimming due to my wife's travel schedule so I'm also with our 8 month old and getting him to daycare. I'lll swim again on Friday. 

Saturday I got in 4 hours on the bike including 2x45 min @ 70.3 watts (240-250 was my goal) I went 261 and 256 both with a 149 heart rate (that high zone 2 for me) but it was on the trainer.  Off the bike I ran 5 min easy, then 6 miles (goal 6:30-6:45) just shy of half ironman goal pace holding a 6:33 pace. I've been dressing in layers to get ready for the heat at Texas 70.3 in Galveston in April.

Sunday followed with a 2 hour run in the afternoon on a mixture of grass, trail, and a little road, including a 1x10 min gradual pickup near the end, I was surprised how quick I started moving with the heavy load this weekend. Followed that with a 15x100 choice recovery swim in an outdoor pool. 

Monday: REST/Travel

Tuesday: Bike 8x2 min hard / 1 min easy, run easy 20  min. 

Wednesday: Bike 3x10 min @ 280-300 watts (I actually held 286, 280, 284). Run 4x2 min @ 10k effort, 2 min easy.  

Pro Tip: With the Fresh 15 this weekend, when you get tired focus on your technique instead of how far you have left. Focus on having your feet land underneath you, quick strides, make sure your arms aren't cross over and you're not rolling your head. Stay in the moment! Most of all smile! Be tough on Dueling Oaks road and focus on your technique. Go from mailbox to mailbox. Let it rip. 

Thanks Cody! Sorry for the delay here. I wouldn't worry about the distance or even hills. It is what it is. I'd learn the basics of cycling first. Use the trainer to ride on and do some single leg drills and mix in some high and low cadence work. Then get outside and learn to handle the bike through curves and making turns and just get efficient.  

Simply plyo's definitely complement like box jumps, squat jumps, long jumps, single leg hops. 1-2x a week of strength type training. 

Running speed work is definitely important during certain phases of the season. I would need get more review of you as am athlete as any specifics. 

I use some aids but not too much of it. 

Hey Cody! Build into it slowly nothing crazy. The bike is usually the easiest to adapt to pretty quickly especially when your bike fit is decent.  The running will need to be really slow and gradually. You  maybe ready to advance mentally but not physically.  A good coach that you can stay in touch with regularly can certainly help! I have a couple spots available but haven't worked with anybody in different countries before. For swim spend the time learning the swim  technique first and find a good local "hands on" coach for that especially if you have hardly any swim experience. 

Hey Cody, things are going well. I raced a sprint tri last weekend and was 4th overall. Coming off a  15k road race the week before my legs were still fatigued so my run wasn't that great. I did have an athlete win overall and we started the bike together and he rode away from me. We've been working on his bike all winter, he doesn't have a power meter so it was nice to see those race day results and hard work paying off for him. 

How have you been? 

For training possibilities...what is your email and I can send you a questionnaire form to start with to learn a lot more about you and your life situations and then we can arrange a call after that.   My email is [email protected] to send me a line over there. Have a great weekend!!! 

Hey Justin,

As a family man now I also do all my training in the mornings.  I've been on the trainer almost the entire time even on the weekends so I can get used to heat better for Texas 70.3.  It does take a few months to really ingrain into your lifestyle and CONSTANT communication with your wife. Don't let your other duties slack at all....I'll leave that there. 

Hmm in my experience...if I could have done something different. 

My first tri was almost on a whim. I wasn't really prepared for the swim, even though I'm athletically inclined that was a total shock to me. I near vomited in the (pool) swim. I spent time pinning my numbers on in transition and didn't have speed laces. I was fourth overall in my first triathlon and I think third was maybe 10-20 seconds ahead.  

When you do go purchase your fit bike. Remember most fitters are terrible. lol, (I work under John Cobb by the way).  You ideally, want to get on a fit bike to find your measurements for the best stack and reach numbers so you know which frames fit you the best. Spend the money on the fit first then frame. That can save you money in the long run!!  Chat soon! Thanks for joining the group here.  

My name is Curtis.  I took on Triathlon a little over a year ago.  Like William I come from a long running back ground.  I won my first competitive race over 30 years ago and have been a competitive AG runner ever since.  My cycling and swimming background are not as impressive.  I did the cycling and swimming merit badges growing up, but had never trained for any events or competed in any events in either.   I did my first 70.3 triathlon in my home town last spring on 4 months of training.  I did well at that distance and plan to stick with it for several years until I get bored of it and want to try something different. I like trying things that other are experimenting with to see for myself what works and what doesn't work.  I value advice born of personal experience over anything else.  I find research interesting and look at it as a collection of personal experience of many people but am not impressed with textbook formulas or cookie cutter training plans because I don't feel they are understood well by most of the people that are discussing them and think that many of them come from experience with groups of athletes who fall into a completely different molds of Triathletes that what I fit into.  I will share my experience with the group and hope others will too.  I like an active group it looks like William is the right person to keep ideas moving on this thread.  Thanks for taking the time to mentor this group.  I hope we have a productive group this spring.   I am getting close to 40 years old.  I recently moved from Marble Falls, TX where I did my first Triathlon in my home town to McAlester, OK.  

Originally posted by jimmybags Hello! I was in one of these mentoring groups all year last year, but I think I want to mix up the group this year. Everyone was super awesome in my other group and doing it again this year, but why not give something new a try? Are you still accepting members?

I am switch it up too.  You learn something new from everyone you meet so a new group is sometimes a good thing even if your old group was great (I really like many things about my group last year too, they got me through my first Triathlon).

I am definatly one of those guys that doen't do well in the Heat. 

Hey Curtis, thanks for sharing your background info and welcome to the group, even though it's starting to wind down.  How did your half ironman go? That is a hilly area in Marble Falls. Was that part of the HIT Series?  I agree, personal experience dominates always but I can't coach everyone like me either just because I trained a certain way or the way I perceived my personal experiences. I have to adapt my coaching to the athlete.  Please let me know what other triathlon/run races you have coming up this year. I'm also from Texas by the way.  

Hey there,

The first half of your paragraph it sounds like you might not be eating and hydrating enough. It's important to balance sleep, nutrition, hydration, and recovery  methods. 

As part of life little hiccups with your kids getting sick will happen and you need to have some flexibility to adapt. The main thing is that you're being over consistent. 3x a week per discipline is basically a minimum. 

Like you, I also have to do all my training in the morning. 

I hope everything else is going well. 

Hey guys thanks for joining the group!

I enjoyed getting to learn about you each of you and the individual differences we all go through in order to compete in our sport.  Feel free to keep asking questions in this thread throughout the year and I'll check from time to time. Also, you can connect me with me more socially on my facebook www.facebook.com/williamtritter  and my email is [email protected]  

If you're interested in coaching please feel free to reach out to me and I can do a  promo on the third month for you. At this time I only have two spots left I'm willing to take on (maybe a couple of more in May or June). I current coach beginners, aspiring Ironman, age group athletes who want to get faster, an elite amateur who wants to go pro, and a high school track/cross country guy.  Check out the website here. www.flytriracing.com or www.facebook.com/flytriracing.com  

I'll be at the following big races: 

Texas 70.3
Ironman Texas (spectating)
Buffalo Springs 70.3 ????
River Cities Triathlon 
Redman Half Iron
Austin 70.3 

Good luck to each of ya'll. Please don't  hesitate to contact me! 

William