Gray Guys/Girls Maturing Triathlete - Always OPEN (Page 5)

Hey Bryan,

A couple little tips that may help you to get your wetsuit on and off more easily. 

Putting the wetsuit on -

Take a plastic grocery bag, which will reduce friction, put it over your foot before you slide the wetsuit on.  When your foot comes out the bottom of the leg, take the bag, put it on the other foot, and repeat.  Do the same with the arms if you wetsuit is sleeved.

Some people also swear by PAM cooking spray but I have found the bag trick works really well and I don't have to worry about chemicals on my wetsuit.

Taking the wetsuit off -

To take it off, unzip and pull it down to your waist, grab the wetsuit at your waist and pull it all the way down to your ankles. Step one foot on the crotch and then pull the opposite foot out of the suit. Repeat for the other leg.

Hope that helps!

Never too late to get the moment back!

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Scott, George - others ... thanks and I'm glad to be back.  I'd like to see some light shined on weight loss and how ones are doing with it.

For me, I leave Saturday for 2 weeks (going skiing) and so my focus will be on eating well; trying to maintain and/or lose slightly 'til getting back home.  While I have access to the treadmill, I just don't know if I'll have the legs after a full days worth of skiing .

Ciao ... Dorm

And so it begins!

Finally I got outside for a short run today.  Nothing too hard.  I was expecting a lot of suffering (or at least a lot of coughing and wheezing) for my first run since November 5th.  I was actually able to run fairly comfortably.  I probably could have run another 15 min or so without suffering but I figured I'll try and ease back into my normal run routine.

I also managed my first two sport workout day also in several months.  I almost felt like an athlete.

He Steve,

It seems we've had this discussion before.  I just don't get it.  What's the allure for an age-group cheater?  I could understand if there were millions of dollars on the line.  It still wouldn't be right, but I could understand.

It would be an interesting study for a psychologist - the mind of a cheater.  Inadvertently cutting a buoy on a swim or getting to close and incurring a drafting penalty on the bike is one thing - genuine honest mistakes happen.  But to deliberately subvert the rules rises to a different level.  The thing that I really don't understand is how brazen and blatantly obvious some of the cheaters have become.  This guys a good example.  There was the woman last year that let air our of her closest competitors tires in T1 - under full view of recording security cameras.  There was a girl a couple years ago who had NEVER run a sub 5:00 open marathon, yet ran a 2:45 marathon at the end of her first 140.6 - on closer inspection she had run only about 5-miles of the course.  The list goes on and on.

I keep hoping and telling myself this is just a few isolated disturbed individuals and not a broader statement on societies changing moral compass.

Hello Ed!

Welcome to Gray Guys/Gals.

The "Fight for Air Climb."  That's impressive you did that off the couch.  I keep thinking maybe I kinda sorta might wanna do one of those someday - then I snap back to reality and realize triathlon is crazy enough thank you!  Seriously though, there's nothing like running stairs to develop a number of muscle groups and your aerobic engine.

We've got a couple of true runners in the group so ask any questions you might have about marathons and I'm sure they will chime in.

Again welcome!

Hey everyone!

Here is an updated lost of the Gray Guys/Gals.

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It seems we have one common desire among us this year - to lose a couple pounds.

In the past we have done "weight-loss challenges."  The obvious question is, who wants to do a weight loss challenge this year?

The second part of the question is - should we tie working out to the weight loss challenge?  A couple seasons ago we did 5-points for no weight gained, plus one point for every pound lost.  To that we added one point for every five-hours of workout time (we kept this low to balance out the high volume people with the lower volume people).

Please let me know if there is interest and whether you'd prefer "weight-loss only," or "weight-loss/workout time."

It's 44 degrees out, I can see the sun, and there is no ice on the road, so I've taken my bike off the trainer and am heading out the door for a ride - because I can!  Tomorrow is a bit dicey because we are expecting rain - but it'll be RAIN and well above freezing - which means I don't have to run on the treadmill.  Good weekend for me!

What's everyone else have on tap this weekend?

That's funny!  I cough and wheeze after every run so you have me beat!

It always amazes me how quickly it comes back.  I'll refrain from listing all the biological reasons why, but the human body is preprogrammed to come back quickly after brief lapses in training.  In no time at all it will be like you didn't take a break at all.

It isn't warmer because the weather has broken for the season.  We just have a weird little spring-like break.  They use a brine solution on the roads so when the roads dry, there's nothing left but pavement.  I figured I'd get an outdoor ride in because in a couple days we have snow back in the forecast.  Even with tights, a jacket, and gloves it was still cold, but I was outside!  I didn't expect to see the ground until spring - that I could cried out for skinny bike tires!

Not laughing.  That crazy person you hear cheering you on is me!  2,000 yards is a heck of a lot further than all the people that chose not to swim today.

Hey Mitzi,

Having some apprehension over an upcoming race, especially when you are stepping up in distance, is normal.  Remember "the difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination" _{(Tommy Lasorda).} Trust your training, it will have you ready for the race if you follow the plan.  One piece of advice - don't fall into the trap of thinking, "Maybe I'll just do an extra run (or ride or swim) on a rest day."  You're going to need the rest and more importantly, you will need the recovery time.  Contrary to what many believe, you don't get stronger and faster when you train.  You get stronger and faster when your body recovers.  Follow your plan, and before you know it your apprehension will turn to anticipation.

You mentioned, "slowly increasing times."  I'm not entirely sure what you meant by that as it can be taken a couple ways.  Hopefully you meant you were increasing the duration of your rides and runs.  The other possible meaning that popped into my mind was you were increasing pace.  I know that isn't what you meant .

However, for anyone else thinking they need to increase the pace of their runs/rides at this point in the season, I thought I'd make a comment.  Ideally, you (metaphorically, not YOU Mitzi) will be training with HR on the run.  At this point in the season most triathletes are working on their base - training to make their aerobic energy systems utilize fat more efficiently.  We do that through long slow runs.  If you are using a HR monitor, long slow runs are typically done in zone 2.  In general, the most common training mistake age-group athletes make is that on "easy" days (those Z2 run days) they go too hard, and on hard days (those Z4-5 run days) they don't go hard enough.  If you go "just a little bit harder" on your Z2 days you end up in zone 3.  If you don't go hard enough on your Z4-5 days, you end up in zone 3.  When you are in zone 3 you are training too hard to force adaptation of the aerobic energy pathway and you aren't going hard enough to force adaptation of the anaerobic energy pathways - you are doing a LOT of work, for very little return.  The easy solution, assuming you are training by HR, is to strictly keep your HR within the target range.

Happy training!