Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 58)

That's pretty awesome of you!  I don't think I could rescue someone - I don't know how and I tend to sink if I'm not actively swimming.

When you do an OWS in the ocean don't you have to go out past where the waves are breaking? I've never done so even though I grew up near the beach and find the idea of going out alone intimidating.

I use pretty well padded bike shorts. I don't have any problem with saddle sores (yet). Just sort of a bruised feeling on the bones/muscles on which I sit.

Felt much better the past 2 rides I've had than when I first started out. So (as most people have mentioned) it really was just a matter of time in the saddle!

Yes, swim out past the break.  Actually, on Edisto, the groins end past the break, so you have to go further, about 400m in places (less in others, and depends on tide of course), to get clear swimming (also from the guys fishing from shore).  I was taught the basics of lifesaving when I worked at a summer camp in college -- they didn't let me lifeguard because I was not a good swimmer.  (I was strong in the sense of being able to avoid drowning, being comfortable in the water, etc., but I didn't actually learn to swim until I was 40...)  But I know the basics.  Flip him on his back, one arm around his chest, swim with the other arm.  With a kid who isn't struggling against you, it isn't hard.  (He was calm once I grabbed him and he probably would have made it back without me anyway...probably.  It was more just me helping out someone who had ventured a bit too far for his own abilities.)  I'd bet that it would be pretty tough with a panicking adult, though.

Good morning everyone!

Great swim save Michael!

Had a bunch of weird triathlon dreams last night.  Most were related to transition blunders. In one I had forgotten to bring any nutrition for the bike. During the swim my wife had gone and bought 2 bags of Fritos and a bag of mini 3 Musketeers candy bars. It was all piled up on my aerobars  Really sweet that she would do that......but I'm not crazy about Fritos. She did nail it on the 3 Musketeers.....its my favorite candy bar.  Hope my day goes better than my transitions did.

Track workout on the schedule tonight.  Have a good day!

Randy    

Randy, love the dreams, I can relate.  My recurring dream is running in an IM race not knowing where to go, and going through mazes, tunnels, climbing ladders, all the while I just can't seem to join the others.

Started out the day with a 9 mile run.  Now off to work but I feel good!

Bike shorts-when I go out to do a long ride I will usually wear Desoto 400 mile shorts or bibs.  When riding at home on the trainer I use some Specialized shorts with a thin chamois type pad. The Desoto shorts/bibs have more padding but I like the thinner pad better.  I don't think the thicker pads really provide that much more relief and tend to cause more problems with saddle sores or raw areas due to the more padding=more material to rub.

Along those lines...what type of saddle does everyone use? I have been using a Cobb for the last 3 years. Messed with an Adamo for about 6 months but never found the "sweet spot" of comfort that so many who use Adamo are able to find.  

I have not yet signed up for Augusta but that is the plan.  I think the recent number of triathlon related dreams is related to my thoughts about doing the race, training etc...  As I get closer to a big race my mind spends way to much time calculating splits, trying to figure out how fast I can s/b/r and worrying about crap beyond my control.  Keeps it interesting....I guess.

Randy   

Shorts -- I tend to prefer the thinner pads.  My regular bike shorts have thicker, but still pretty thin, pads.  My tri short are typical tri shorts.  I rode around 90 miles yesterday in them.  No issues.

Saddle -- Adamo on my tri bike and Selle Italia on my road bike.  I got the Adamo because I thought my 'issues' were saddle-related but Im' pretty sure, now, that they were due to (poor) fit and (lack of) experience.  But, in the meantime, I found that sweet spot on the Adamo and so see no need to change.

I took the boys canoe-fishing this morning.  Fortunately, their cousin was asleep when we left so I had the perfect excuse for not taking him along.  We had a great time and caught some flounder.  Dinner!  We also caught a frog fish -- NOT dinner!  Man, those things are ugly...  We also tried for some sheepshead and even had one on the line, but lost him (they are escape artists...).  Too bad.  Those things are fantastic.

Nap time for me.  Then a bit of work.  Then a run.  If the ocean is calm, I might try for a swim.  Have a good day everyone!

I prefer to ride my bike with trishorts with a small amount of padding. The regular bike shorts seem to have the stitching in places that just rub to much. I also invested in a Planet Bike A.R.S Competition saddle which helps with the numbness factor dramatically. 

- What other tools do you use on a daily basis? Are the tools on this website enough for you? 

- I decided to get a Retul Fit done to figure out the right bike for me. I found a Tri Store within 40 minutes of my house. It's $225 which will be waived if I buy their bike within 6 months of the fit. Everything I read and hear from people its the right thing to do. 

Just wanted to share something with you and get your take on it. I am trying to improve my running speed. All my triathlons I have left this season are sprint distance. I just finished the following sprint/hill workout on the treadmill. Any input is appreciated. Sorry for the lengthy table ... :-)

Next sprint is on Sunday and I am going to challenge myself and go all out so that I won't have anything in the tank at the finish line ... 

I like the profile design saddles.  Ironically they are one of the cheaper ones.  It's the saddle that came with my first Cervelo, a P2SL.  I've used this saddle since.  Just got a new one this year so both my tribikes have it.  I tried a Cobb  saddle and despite trying to make it work, including calling the company it just did not work out.  I can ride for hours on the profile saddle, no issues!  I think it cost about $30 on line.

I really like thinner pads on my tri shorts.  I get less pain, and no longer get that awful numbness in the privates I used to get with the thicker gel pads. 

Had a great day.  AM run and finally got my butt back to the pool this evening and had a good swim.  Weight is down to 189!  Last January I was 211.  Uggh, I did not like how I looked or felt.

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!  Jim 

Good morning all-easy spin on the bike this morning now headed out for a busy day on the road. Look forward to catching up this evening. Keep at it everyone!

Randy 

Michael: So glad the kid had you around. We recently lost a young boy to the waters. He was with family at a gathering at one of the most dangerous beaches. A bunch had gone out and got caught in a strong current. Most were doing well to get back to shore, but one kid was struggling. It was his cousin visiting from the states. He started swimming towards him to help, but he didn't make it. The boy who initially struggled finally relaxed and floated towards rocks and survived.

The kid had so much going for him. Great family, heavily involved in middle school sports and Guam soccer. He made a very unselfish decision. His father spoke of being heartbroken, but also very proud of him.

Monday I got a terribly painful 3 mile run in. My calves were tight through the whole thing, and the stupid birds attacked me again. I have the worst times with animals on my runs. Dogs, snakes, birds, oh my! Got in 1500m in the pool that felt good to make up for it.

3 miles yesterday and another 3 today. They both felt much better. Training for my next 1/2 marathon in October started this week.

Jim -- congrats on the weight loss.  And I say whatever saddle works for you, is gold.

Blanda -- so sorry to hear about that loss.

Michael -- that workout looks like a pretty good way to get in some harder efforts with not too much risk of injury.  A bit like 'hills plus strides on steroids'.  Please don't take this the wrong way -- it was a solid and tough workout!!! -- but I think you can do better.

I think you'd do well to separate the hill and the speed portions.  In other words, do one or the other.  Hill repeats are a great way to built run strength, and also carry little risk of injury if you keep good form on the hills.  (However, they carry great risk of cursing whomever told you to do them...)  I would then consider doing the speed portion more like standard strides, just a bit longer.  So you could do something like 8x1' on full active recovery, which might mean something like 2' or so (or even more) at recovery pace.  You will get exactly the same benefit as if you had done them closer together, with much less risk of hurting yourself.  (I would also do the hill repeats with full active recovery.)

Now, you might be thinking "but I won't be breathing as hard for as long" -- that's right.  Challenging your aerobic system is not the primary goal of these workouts (though you will certainly gain a lot, aerobically, from doing them).  For hills, it is primarily strength.  For the extended strides it is form and (related) economy.

The thing to try for a serious challenge to your aerobic system is a 'tempo run', which means a lot of different things to different people, but here, for you, what I mean by it is something like this:  Warm up for 10 minutes or so, including 2 or 3 30" strides.  Then run at 10K race pace for 20 minutes.  Then cool down for 10 minutes.  That is a tough workout that will leave you feeling like you did something!

In short, what I think you did in that workout was to combine three ideas into one (strength, form/economy, aerobic stress), and while you accomplished each of those things to some extent, I think you'd be better off (i.e., get better results) focusing on one at a time (one session of hills, one session of extended strides, one tempo run).

I guess the coffee has kicked in -- I wrote more than I intended to!  Nice workout!

Back from a delightful week in the mountains of NC.  I did a whole bunch of endurance training such as...  how many hours can you sit in the same chair without moving and playing Irish tunes? How many days can you go on 3-4 hours of sleep and still function?  I took my swimsuit and running shoes in a bag and told myself if I felt like it they were there (and, in the past I have managed to get a few quick workouts in).  This year, never touched the bag.  Kind of telling.  Anyway, attempting to get back in the swing of things this week.  Hope everyone had a great week+ of training and racing!

Stu

Good morning all.  I had a different kind of run yesterday am.  Started out at an easy z2 pace then incrementally increased my pace every mile for 10.5 miles till the last mile felt like a sprint (well the last mile was at 6:30 pace which is a sprint for me).  I felt great the entire run and felt like I could have gone even more (at a much slower pace).  Not sure what prompted me to do this type of session.  Many times I like to just experiment. 

Morning all.

Jim, in case you don't know, what you did was a progression run.  It's a really great workout, and especially good for teaching yourself to run hard when you are tired without totally killing yourself (by running hard the entire time).

OWS and run for me today.  Hope everyone has a great day.

Hey gang! I'M AN IDIOT!  Been meaning to go ahead and sign up for Augusta the last few days but just didn't get around to it.  Now its sold out.....time to reevaluate the Fall race schedule.......for those that don't know I'M AN IDIOT!

Randy

Sorry to hear about that Randy.  I did the same thing one year with a half marathon -- a friend and I had reserved a beach house and everything.  We ended up just going to the beach house anyway...

Time to find another race, I guess.

There are plenty of other races to do.  I will likely do a sprint or 2 and maybe an olympic.  There is a new HIM north of Birmingham in early October if I'm still itching to do something longer.  Oh well, maybe subconsciously I wasn't ready to commit to it.  That's me rationalizing....I'm pretty good at it. For instance, I am about to eat a bowl of ice cream and am justifying it by the longer bike workout I have tomorrow.

Trying to shuffle training workouts this week due to work schedule. Will be back down at the beach this weekend so trying to do my long bike early tomorrow morning so I don't have to take the bike to the beach.

Do we have anyone racing this weekend?

Randy