Scott's Mentor Group-Closed for training. (Page 5)

You have 2.5 months.  That is more than enough time to be able to complete the distance.  Besides,  you said that you are very comfortable in water.  There is no shame in a little breast or back stroke if you absolutely have to.  I did for my first race.  Either way, you still have plenty of time to get enough fitness to complete that distance.  Get to work!

The only thing that I've come across for improving running in the heat is running in the heat.  It's not fancy, but it makes sense to me.  Hydration is key, but also just slow down a bit. 

I used to use a regular watch on my wrist that had a stop watch feature.  That worked very well for the intervals.  I use a gamin 910xt now.  

Thanks for the vote of confidence. My plan is to swim twice a week with one day dedicated to a long slow warm up and some drills and the other to base intervals and some more drills. 

Nicole, it's not a stupid question. I wear a basic Timex Ironman Triathlon 30 lap counter. It has a stopwatch and a timer. For my interval swimming, I use the timer. It counts down from whatever you set it for. I am currently doing 2:05. I keep it on my wrist. I would hate for it to accidentally walk away when I am at the other end of the pool. Anyway, I do my hundred yards and rest for whatever is left of the 2:05. I was resting for 2:05 every 500 yds. Now I rest once at 1000 yards. That is how I can tell I am improving because the need for rest is not as bad.

Another thing I do is bring pennies to set on the wall. I constantly lose track of how many sets I do. I take 5 pennies and line them up. After every 100 set, I move a penny over during my rest.

I'm going to try to bring it down to 2:00 minutes May 1st and see what happens. I am definitely seeing improvement with this simple interval training.

Hit the road tonight for a group bike ride. There is a huge cycling club here with 3 groups- A pacers, B pacers, and C pacers. I am a B pacer (14-17mph). We did a 28 mile ride out through the horse country that I had never done. We finished at a 16.75mph pace. I liked riding with a group because it pushed me to keep up at certain times when I might have relaxed on my own.

I have a 5 mile run planned for tomorrow. Gonna try and hit an 8:30 pace.

Train smart, my friends!

All this talk about swim training I wanted to post this. This is a link to Master's swimming.  They list different workouts daily.  They also have different levels depending on your current fitness.  Good luck all.  Some pretty cool workouts here.

http://www.ntcmastersswim.blogspot.com/

Ash? So you live in Kentucky and you get to ride in horse country??? How do we spell J-E-A-L-O-U-S!!! 

I took Scott's suggestion for cutting down on the rest this morning with my 100s and adding some 50's at the end of my interval training in the pool. Whoa doggie could I feel it at the end! Great work out! Of course my times slipped a little towards the end but it felt great when I got out of the pool. Hoping to get in a 5-6 mile run at lunch if the rain holds off.

To quote Hill Street Blues, "Be safe out there people."

-Matt

Matt, this is probably one of the nicest places in the country to live for road biking. Lexington is the horse capital of the world. There are horses here that have nicer places to live than I do. You literally can go ride in any direction and pass farm after farm after farm. The riding is one of the things I will miss most when we leave here next October. It is pretty country.

You are in the Baltimore area and can go eat fresh crab cakes whenever you want. You can also go fishing in the ocean. J-E-A-L-O-U-S!! I would trade every horse in KY to be by the ocean.

What is everyone doing today??? I'm runnin'. Let me hear ya, people!

Good morning crazy tri people.  I had a 50 minute session on the trainer last night doing 160% intervals.  They are as yummy as they sound.  I actually hit 564 watts for a very brief moment.  I have an easy run set for this evening, but I'm feeling just on the verge of a sore throat that's bit my wife and daughter last week.  I'm going to play it by ear.  I haven't had a day off of training in close to two weeks.  So I might just take the night off, get to bed early and take care of this throat.  

Train hard and smart!

Hi. Any room for one more here? I'm going to be running the Laguna Phuket Triathlon in November so my formal training won't start until July. But I'm beginning work on Swimming and Biking now, the two disciplines I've never done, and would love to have people to talk to as I go along. If there's room let me know and I'll post all my info. Thanks.

Andy

Andy,  Welcome aboard.  It's always good to get a head start on the weaker disciplines.  Feel free to post any questions you have as well as what you're doing on daily basis.  We all improve by learning from others.  

Yeah....you're hooked.

Scott - Thanks for the swim workout link. That is a useful resource when trying to come up with workouts.

Welcome to the fellow newbies!

Yesterday, I got in a 2500m swim workout at lunch. It is still a little disappointing seeing the interval times higher for the long course pool versus short course. But the the total distance is nice in meters compared to yards. I was planning on getting in a bike ride last night as well but unfortunately that did not happen. My bike was in the shop to get a spring tune-up (new bar tape, new chain, new brake cables) before tri season gets here and saw one of the guys at the shop that I hadn't talked to in a while. So by the time I got home I did not want to get changed to ride for just a few mintes before it got dark. But I am looking forward to getting a ride in tomorrow to feel crisp shifting again. Plus it is looking sharp with the new bar tape.

Tonight I have a downhill road mile running race. Several of the people I do track workouts with are racing as well, many much faster than me, so it will be cool to hear some fast times. I have never raced shorter than a 5K, so anything is a PR.

Wishing everyone good training!

Ugh- I hate going from hot to cold. It makes me feel lazy. But I'm going to bike today anyway. I only have to go 6 miles. I definetely have to get a trainer for next winter. I HATE starting over with the biking every spring. It's time to start acting like a triathlete even if I'm not one yet.

On another note-am I the only female in here now?

Veggiekate is welcome back anytime.  I know she was starting to come around more before we moved back up to this forum.  So I'm hoping she comes around again.  But for now it is up to you to balance the male energy around here Nicole.  Can you  handle that?

I don't know. You guys are a bunch of Tri junkies so the testosterone is a little much but I'll try. I wonder if Kate even knows we moved?

Nicole, I second that feeling! We had 90 down here two days ago, today I had to run in a rainy 52? I got in a slooooow 7.5 mile run today in the rain at lunch. Weather has been a mess lately, too hot, too windy, now rainy. I'm just being careful not too complain too much as we had a very mild winter with minimal outside runs affected. I don't have a trainer either, but I broke out the heavy clothing and mountain bike whenever it was over 40 and got out there. I'm sure I scared quite a few drivers in my area! Nothing like a large male all bundled up on a bike with his head covered in ski mask and sunglasses to get your attention when driving!

-Matt

Pics or it didn't happen.  

Too funny! I put on my cold gear AND a windbreaker today and as soon as I got outside I realized it was too much and went back in to change. End result was I got back home and realized I had worn my shirt inside out for the whole ride! As if I'm not a big enough geek with my big sunglasses and bike helmet. It's good to be visible on the bike, though. At least I don't have one of those crazy aero-helmets that look like a gigantic sperm on your head. Just kidding, guys, they're super-sexy...

Did a nice 30 mile bike ride on Monday ... 

Got stuck at work late Tuesday ... so did nothing but ice my hip/use roller on my leg/ try to stretch.

Today _ I got out with enough time to swim and figured I would pound out 2200-2400 meters ... jumped in the pool and after less than half a pool length I relaized kicking would be an issue as each flutter would send pain from my shin to my hip on the right.  Grabbed that floatee thing put it between my knees and went 400 meters.  Figured I would try to do a 400 again with no floatee (since that is my swim distance for this Sunday's race) ... struggled mightily, could not push off the wall with my right leg at all, swam slowly ... over 10 minutes to hit the 400 when I have been making 8:30s without going hard just two weeks ago.

Depressing - my primary care physician thinks I am suffering from sciatica but I will be seeing a specialist to verify/find a course of treatment.  As of now the only "activity" I am comfortable doing is cycling ... the swim and the run are full on painful.

I plan to try to swim again tomorrow and Friday - get a nice soak in the hot tub after ... try to stretch.  If I can get my swim decent for Sunday I will go through with the race - have never had a DNF or DNS - and unless I can make it through two segments I don't want to embarrass myself.

Ridiculous that this is happening - I haven't been overly exerting or training poorly - frustrating and disappointing!

I sent kate a message that we moved back to the beginner mentor group so we could pick up some folks.

Hit the road today for a 5 mile run. I finished in 43:30 which is a 8:41 pace. I was hoping to knock off 30 seconds or so. It was hot today but I don't think that was a factor.

I have a 2000 yd swim planned for tomorrow with my 2:05 interval.

Troy, where are ya?

Hi Scott,

I am a newbie to endurance training and certainly Triathlon training. About 5 years ago I was 250 and over 35% body fat. I woke up one day and realized the damage I was doing to my body and made a change. I am now 192 at aprox 20% bf. I bought my first bike a year ago and have since really enjoyed road biking. I have never been a runner but started running last winter to keep my cardio up. I recently rode a 25 mile cycle event and loved it. Last week I ran a 5k last weekend and really enjoyed it. I have always wanted to do a triathlon but never thought it would be possible.

Current Training: Weight train 3 days per week, road ride 30-35 miles on Saturday morning, run 2-3 miles 2 days per week.

Triathlon Goals: I plan to compete on Sept 15th Sprint Triathlon  650 meter swim, 14.1 mile bike, 5k run

I feel like I can do the run and bike part right now without any additional training however when it comes to swimming I am lost. I know nothing about swimming. I called around today to see if I could find any private lesson instructors but haven't had any luck.

My nutrition and workouts over the last 3 years have been geared on loosing weight so I don't really know much about lifting and nutrition for endurance. I also still need to lose about 20 pounds.

Jonathan

  Greetings,

    I am 27 years old and just last May decided to stop my unhealthy lifestyle. I replaced my poor eating habits and smoking with exercise. I am currently 5'11 155 lbs and 9% bodyfat. I admittedly like to move fast and am more addicted to exercise, particularly endurance, than I ever was to smoking. I was a runner in high school so naturally have gravitated back to that as my strong point. I ran a half marathon in January in 1:40. I ran a full marathon last weekend in 3:54. Both of these were my first races at this distance. At the beginning of february I had a bad flare up of hip tendonitis that slowed my running down alot. I am still working my way back from that. As part of my injury recovery my doc suggested biking and swimming.   So..... why would I invest my time in biking and swimming if I wasnt going to race. This led to my interest in tri's. I have two planned for this year one is at the end of June (1000m swim, 28mi. bike, 6.2 mi. run) I would also like to tackle a half Ironman at the end of September. I am making that a tentative goal based on how I do in the June triathlon.

   I am a terrible swimmer, but have been taking lessons with a local tri coach who is working with me on drills, he is confident he can have me built up to 1/2 IM swim distance by September. I bought a Giant defy in February and have been riding it 2-3x a week. I can comfortably ride distances of about 35-50 miles, the distance obviously depends on the terrain. I love the bike, but must admit I am not confident on downhills and have a tendency to hit the brakes when the bike feels unstable, I know this is something I must overcome.

  I am a Paramedic by trade and have an extremely hectic work schedule, seeing as I am also an instructor. I have a beautiful supportive wife and my biggest fan is my 6 y/o son. I have to arrange my workouts on a week to week schedule based on my work schedule, but am usually able to follow a layed out plan with some modification. In my build up to the marathon I became lazy with my diet and gained a few lbs. I would really like to get my diet back under control and would love to weigh around 145lbs and be at 5%  bodyfat by the end of September.  I hope I was not too longwinded . Thanks