Pilgrim's Group - Full (Page 6)

I put my bike shoes on and clop as do most people. You can clip your shoes to the pedals and then run out barefoot, or sock footed, and then strap in on the fly but this takes a lot of practice to do well. I've seen plenty of people who messed it up and took more time that would have been necessary.

Matt, can I just say how much I love your picture! CUTE baby

You guys are inspiring! Have been reading all of the great info!

Finally got off my butt this week and into the gym. Did a few small, light, workouts to get back into the swing of things. Sore, but feels good to be active again. Baby steps!

I have a few days off this coming week and am going to try and sit down and make some sort of a schedule for training. I know some of you said you were on the "couch to sprint" (??) plan, and that sounds like something I should look at!

Just a side note -- I definitely would second what Brian said about not worrying about getting too much for your first tri. I had no gear when I decided to do one.. and I kept it under $150 total -- that included a bike, tri shorts, and a tri sports bra/swim top.

This sport can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want depending on your budget and goals. I decided to keep it cheap my first go-round, and it worked out OK in the end!

Happy weekend and training everyone! Thanks for all of the info. and inspiration!

Kris

Thanks Juls, that's Jacob. He wasn't too happy, but I couldn't help it, it was too funny of a face to let go. He's 10 months and he has a sister inbound in May. (14 months for those of you trying to calculate). I have off and on pushed him in the jogger which is good to give my wife a break, but I think I'm taking choppier steps when I run with it so my legs are sore when I finish a run.

Brian, Anyone, any recommendation on the joggers? I'm also looking into bike trailers. I'm sure it'll be a little resistance, but won't it feel good to take the trailer off for racing?

Some good running music download recommendations for you Ipoders:

-Explosions in the Sky, a band from Austin TX, featured in Friday Night Lights:
songs- First Breath After a Coma, and Your Hand in Mine

-40 years of Autumn Thunder, NFL Films music. I like all of them because I'm a big football fan, but the music is very rythmic and keeps you pretty motivated.

Knew I said I'd be gone for the weekend, but Jacob's actually taking a nap for a change.
Happy Training everyone.

Wow, another on the way - your wife deserves a medal I have a friend who prefers the bike trailers. She trains regularly and her hubby is gone a lot. She uses the trailer quite a bit. I had a jogger but also found it strange to run with.

Thanks for the tune suggestions. On my run yesterday I was thinking I needed to search for some new songs. I love to run to fast paced, good beat, dance mixes, techno stuff. If you ever run across any good ones I would love to hear them

Edited by juls2bfit 2008-01-27 10:14 AM

The baby gear is something that I don't have any experience with since my son is a teenager. However, exposing your kids to fitness early in life and consistantly is an excellent thing to do.

Good Morning Group

If you are looking to buy a stroller/trailer I HIGHLY recommend a Burley.... they are expensive... but very light, and the front wheel turns so turning it gently doesnt require a wheely... and the front wheel also pivots out of the way so you can mount it to a bike... good stuff...

Had a pathetic weekend of training, as in none... but I had a great time camping... I will be running tonight and tomorrow morning, I know I'm not supposed to do "make-up" training, but I need to do something today, and I got up late this morning...

hope everyone else had a good weekend and I'm looking forward to another good week of training!

Sarah,

You nailed-it. I have to do wheelies everywhere I go with him. I think the front wheel doesn't turn to keep you from doing an endo with the stroller because if it went sideways, it would stop the stroller up-front. Jacob doesn't mind it, but his mother really likes the peace and quiet when I take him out there. Bike trailers look pretty expensive, but for my wife's sanity, I may have to fork the cash.

I tried to take the day off yesterday, but saw the beautiful weather and thought of you guys and that you'd be happy for that weather so I felt I owed it to you to get out and ride for a while. It was really windy, but I know I'll get no sympathy because even with a 20+ mph wind, it was 70 degrees +.

I think next weekend, I'll do a longer ride up and down A1A "Beachfront Avenue" (any Vanilla Ice fans in the house?-He lives about 15 miles away).

Officially registered for the first race Feb 10. Sprint Tri. Looking forward to it. I'll be wearing the scuba-shorty wet suit because apparently the lakes are pretty chilly 59 degrees at last check. Ocean temp took a dive recently as well. Dunno what happened to all the warmth...

Whoa, 59 degrees is cold water! That is apparently about the temperature for Lake Couer d'Alene when I'll be doing Ironman Couer d'Alene this year. I have heard that it is a good idea to have an insulated swim cap for that event but you should be fine for a sprint.

The coldest swim I ever did was in Bend, OR. I don't know what the temp was but the swim took place in the Deschutes River and it is basically snow pack melt water. It was freezing and by the time I got out of the water my face was numb. On the up side, however, it was a down stream swim and the water was moving very fast. I had my fastest swim split ever with a 1:10 per 100 meter pace!

That race, the Deschutes Dash, took place on a triathlon vacation that my wife and i took. We loaded up the car and drove to Flagstaff, AZ and did the Mountain Man sprint the first weekend and then drove through to northern California and did some training and sight seeing around Moro Lake and Lake Tahoe and then headed up into Oregon and did the Deschutes Dash the second weekend and then headed home. We had an awesome time!

My bad, 59 deg was the air temp at 6am. I looked at the wrong section. It was kind of a butterfly ballot of a temp reading if you remember the 2000 election in Florida, we have a problem discerning the columns and rows.

It looks like water temp is 71 at Cape Canaveral (1 hr north) and 74 in Miami (1 hr south) So split the difference. But that is the ocean. I may just take a trip down to the lake where the race takes place and take a swim and a ride. It's about 1 hour away, but I've never been down there before. Again, I'm spoiled, I don't have to drive from Albuquerque to Lubbock, I just have to roll out of bed an hour earlier than normal for most of the races this season.

On an unrelated note, there's a pretty great section in the Runner's World Magazine that I saw and although my sexual preference has been called into question because of the cover (by my wife), I picked it up. It has a bunch of good core exercises including one bast@rd of an exercise designed by satan himself called the Turkish Get-Up. I tried the workout this morning after a short run and I'm dreading tomorrow morning's payback. The article had a lot of good points about how if you strengthen your core, you have more stability and that helps to keep your legs focused on propulsion. Something like that at least. I used to pick up Golf Magazine like that, but now I guess I'm addicted to this. Good trade in the long run. Tri Spending can't be anywhere near as bad as Golf Spending.

I have no idea what Golf spending is like though I can guess that it is very high. I think it was in Triathlete magazine a couple years ago there was an add that had a beat up old junker of a car parked by a curb and there was a $5,000 carbon fiber tri bike on the roof rack. It was a cool add, hit close to home though I have since gotten a new car but it was a less expensive model and it was selected with the sole criteria that it would be a good triathlon car.

As a matter of fact when we went to buy my wife a new car we asked the salesman if we could test drive it over to our house and see if our tri bikes fit in the back!

I am happy to report that they did. FYI, my wife drives a Honda Fit and it can swallow our tri bikes and all our gear plus a cooler full of food and clothing for traveling. That is the car we took on our two week triathlon vacation. I drive a Honda Element and that car hold both our bikes and all our stuff and I don't even have to take off the front wheels!

Water temps in the low 70's are very nice. At those temps some real good swimmers opt out of a wetsuit because they get less benefit from the extra buoyancy of the suit and any time lost to competitors is made up with a faster T1. Some people also opt out of the wetsuit at those temps because they feel that the time savings of swimming in a wetsuit are all lost in trying to get out of the wetsuit in T1. The shorter the swim and the closer you are to being a good swimmer the more likely this will be the case. It is a good idea for you to practice getting out of your wetsuit quickly.

If you are able to drive out to do a bit of training on the course you will be racing that's great but don't think of it as a necessity. You should try and make sure to get to the race early enough the day before so that you can at least go out and drive the bike course. This will allow you to get an idea of the texture of the road, look for any trouble spots like traffic circles, potholes, crumbling shoulders, intersections where dirt and gravel may have collected and you get a good look at the terrain...where the climbs are located, how steep, if there are turns at the bottom of rapid descents etc...

Driving the bike course is very important for planning race strategy and psychologically. It can hurt your race if you are expecting the bike course to be in good condition and then during the race you discover that it is bumpy, filled with potholes and has piles of lose gravel on it...better to know what you will face so you are mentally prepared.

So we have our group's first race coming up February 10th, awesome!

Does anyone have any questions or thoughts about race strategy?

Brian, Thanks for all the pointers on pre-race. That's great stuff. I hadn't thought about it that way. The course is along a park road so I should be able to ride it after a quick swim. And like you said the swim is so short, I may just jump in for the 400M even if it's a little chilly.

I had to laugh at one thing though... Steep and Climbs are two words that are just not normally applied in talking about South Florida. I think we're more likely to see ice storms on race day and have to wear spikes than to see a climb of significance down here. We have to use bridges for climbs. But I knew exactly what you were saying. Just thought I'd let you know that I got a chuckle out of that.

I keep meaning to ask but keep forgetting. What's the connection to Lubbock? Just like it there or do you have a connection? I see a lot of your events are out there. I'm in and out of that part of Texas often with the wind business. I'm actually going out to North TX (Red River area) on Feb 18th and will have to resort to running in hilly terrain, using stationary bikes, and swimming in itty-bitty hotel pools for a week.

I'm sure I'll have funny stories from the race. Stay tuned for more on 11 Feb.

Oh yeah, I forget how flat Florida is. Every where I go there are climbs of varying degrees.

My connection to Lubbock, I race in a series or triathlons and duathlons called the Southwest Challenge series. There are about 25 races in New Mexico and West Texas that belong to that series. You earn points based on the number of series races you do and how well you place in the races you enter. There are a few races in Lubbock in the series and I really happen to like those races.

If you do end up in Lubbock at the right time and have a chance you should seriously consider racing there. Take a look at the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon website, all the races are there though I would skip the intro. http://www.buffalospringslaketriathlon.com/home.php

I don't workout with music but my wife likes to take it running. She uses a repacer program that will take your favorite songs and repace then to your running pace. I thought I'd bring it up just in case folks were interested. http://www.bestworkoutmusic.com/

Great music sites...thanks so much. I am going to go check them out now! I love the idea of repacing songs....I know my instructors at the gym do that to popular songs for the workouts there.

Any suggestions for shin splints. I killed my shins on my run this weekend. I have iced them but they hurt to touch. I could use some feel better suggestions and how to prevent them suggestions. Thanks!

There are a number of reasons for choosing various types of wetsuits. I will wear a full wetsuit in any race where wetsuits are legal and this is mostly because I chafe badly under the arms in a sleeveless. I have not had problems with over heating in a full suit even in the warmest water temps where wetsuits are still legal. Full wetsuits can also be faster but I am not convinced the differnece is significant especially at shorter distances. Another thing to consider is that it does take a fraction longer to get out of a full wetsuit so and speed difference in a sprint or Oly would probably be negated.

The other thing about a full wetsuit is that you are more likely to have trouble with range of motion through your shoulders and any restriction in your stroke will make you work harder and slow you down. Because of this I think it is best to go with at least a middle of the line wetsuit because the extra expense goes to having more varried thickness throughout the suit so the legs and torso will be thick and the shoulders and parts of the chest will be thinner.

A sleeveless suit is great for short races with water temps above, say 65 degrees or so. They are faster to get out of and provide almost all the speed advantage of a full suit.

I know I am rambling a bit but I think the main things to consider are:

1) how much money can you spend on a suit? If you don't want to own two wetsuits and you live in an area where water temps will tend to be cold or if you plan on doing half-irons or iron distance races I would go with a full suit.

2) If you know you are prone to chafing under the arms go with a full suit.

3) If you are mostly in a warm water area and are more likely to do short races the sleeveless is a good chioce.

4) If you are on a budget a sleeveless wetsuit is a good choice.

I have owned both sleeveless and full wetsuits and like I said all I wear now is a full because the full is more versitile across long and short distances and warmer and cold water. However, I have done triathlons at all distances in a sleeveless and aside from the chafing felt it was a fine choice. Actually, the coldest swim I have ever done was in a sleeveless and the only thing that went numb was my face. I won't lie, I would have liked to have a full suit but I was fine.

As far as the shinsplints go I have to suggest that you see your family doc. I am nervous about pain because I have really been bitten bad by not being cautious enough. I fractured my hip in two places 2 years ago and was out for a month and a year ago I fractured my foot and was out for another month. I have also pulled a muscle in my calf and that has continued to cause me problems. I take much greater precautions now and hustle off to the doc right away but I have also learned to tell what kinds of pains I should pay attention to and what I can afford to rest a bit and then go back to training.

I would say though that you should try and impress on your doc how important triathlon and training is to you. The standard advice for everything is to give it a couple weeks rest. Sometimes you can afford to do that and sometimes you can't.

The other thing is that sice we have three sports to choose from you can focus more on your swim and probably your cycling and still rest the shins. When I fractured my hip I took it as a chance to challenge myself on the bike and I ended up with just over 1000 miles in one month.

Juls... on the shin splints... did you get fitted for shoes? Mine killed me in one pair of shoes but dont bother me near as much wearing a different pair... both feel fine if I have my arch supports in... just a thought... might be as simple as the shoes... but I'd still take Brians advise and talk to the doc or at least an athletic trainer if they are that painful...

They are killers! They are much better if I ice them right after running but still sore to touch. Thanks all, I will make an appt to the doc in hopes they won't tell me to stop running I will also try to go to a good running store and get checked out there for shoes. Josh, any suggestions on a good store?

Edited by juls2bfit 2008-01-29 8:10 AM

Don't forget your insoles in your regular daily wear shoes. I had some foot problems for a while until I realized it had less to do with my running shoes than my boots that I wore everyday. Once I fixed that, my legs felt a lot better. Just a thought.

Any thoughts on how I should "taper" for the 10th? I don't think I should take too much off, but I never get that right and usually end up paying for it. I was thinking about a quick swim and quick ride the day before. I've tried doing nothing the day before a running event, but I don't think that works for me.

Oh yeah, Abs hurt from yesterday's buffoonery. Maybe that's why my workouts were so hard this morning...

Matt, I left this comment on your training log but it may be helpful to others since it is a general taper for a sprint.

"At this point you are about two weeks out from your event. Go ahead and find a day this week to take off completely and think about shortening your workouts this weekend.

Next week plan on an easy brick Saturday before the race, maybe 5 mile bike and 1 mile run, easy, it is only to get your legs feeling "activated". You should probably plan on taking off Monday, Thursday and Friday all together and then doing something light on Tuesday and Wednesday."

I'll clarify a bit. Really a one week taper should be plenty for a sprint distance race and that week should begin the weekend prior to the race. You should do your long run and long bike on the weekend before but shorten the distance by about 1/3 and do the workout at race intensity.

Take the Monday off completely and then do a nice run on Tuesday, maybe half distance, say 1.5 miles at race intensity. Take Wednesday to do a good bike and swim, again race intensity and about half distance. Take Thursday and Friday completely off. If you really want to you can throw in an easy swim on Friday and you can head out for an easy walk both days. Sometimes a nice walk can help you beat the taper blues (I'll explain).

The day before the race like I said earlier get in a nice brick, maybe 5 miles bike and 1 mile run but go easy, maybe 60% effort. The purpose is not to get in any training but to get the feel back in your legs and just to kind of limber up a bit.

Ok, many people suffer from what can be called the taper blues. When you are tapering for a race you have become used to much higher levels of training and so when you pull back you start to feel like you haven't worked out in a while and doubts start creeping in..."Did I train hard enough?", "Did I train correctly?", "Am I really ready for this race?" etc...

Also, depending on your level of training some people actually become depressed. Prolonged and high levels of training have a very positive impact on emotional health and sometimes when we cut back we begin to feel depressed and irritable. Recognizing that as a possibility is usually enough so that you are at least not taking it out on those around you.

Another aspect of the taper blues is that you may start noticing little nagging aches and pains. It usually is not something that you may have noticed in training before. It is usually something more along the lines of "My left knee has been fine for the past 12 weeks of training and now all of a sudden it is hurting the week leading up to the race!"

I don't have an exact reason this is so often the case but I believe it is at least partly psychological and I have also been told that it is simply feeling you get as your body recovers from prior high levels of exertion...somewhat like a house settling into its foundation. At any rate, don't start obsessing about these little aches and pains, you will be fine.

I would also leave you with the reminder that no matter what you do you WILL NOT improve your fitness the week before a race so don't feel panicked thinking you should have run more and then head out for a 10 mile tempo run, you will only ruin your race.

Mentally, I would suggest that you DO NOT try and "psych yourself up" for the race. Don't walk around like one of those TV wrestlers growling and posturing and acting mean. That kind of psychological pumping up is great for explosive sports but terrible for endurance sports and yes, a sprint triathlon is an endurance sport even though it is done and a relatively high intensity.

Instead of getting pumped up for the race I would prepare mentally but trying to foster a sense of calm confidence, strength and power. Triathlon is a thinking persons sport full of self monitoring and race tactics. You need to be fluid and poised like a Ninja. Believe me, there will be plenty of adrenaline rushing through your body on race day. Your goal is to harness that power and excitement with your mind and let it feed your body for the duration of the race like a drip system feeds a plant over time.

Keeping a reign on yourself will help prevent you from going out too hard, too fast and will allow you to preserve a nice even maximal effort from start to finish.

I also wanted to comment on the swim. It is extremely common for people to panic in the water when they are inexperienced open water swimmers. The triathlon swim start is often referred to as the human washing machine because, well, that's pretty much what it's like. Don't worry though, you may get hit but most likely you will not get hurt and you will not get pummeled incessantly. Usually it is more like a bump or an arm comes up and lands on your back or someone is slapping your feet or calves. It is a waste of energy for them to do this so when they feel someone they try and move away. All of the athletes are simply looking for their own bit of water to swim in.

Weird related swimming story. Two years ago I was doing the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon Aquabike (swim and bike only) because of my hip fracture. At the last buoy some guy literally landed on my back and pushed me about two feet under water. I came up and rolled over to see who the heck did it and there was a guy floating there and he said "Sorry" and I just swam off. I think that as we were turning the buoy he popped up to sight and I swam right in front of him and when he went to start swimming again he came down on me. It had never happened before and has never happened since.

I don't remember if I have posted this before but it is related and funny:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3S0wu4Zbfk

If it doesn't come up you can Google "Cliff bar triathlon swim"

Ok, so if I have left you with a mixed message about the swim, sorry, all I'm trying to say is that there will be bumping and there is more bumping at the start and whenever you are rounding a buoy.

Nobody is out to harm you and everyone is just looking for a little open water.

You are WAY more likely to come away from the swim with a funny story than an injury. One of my favorites is from when a good friend of mine somehow got turned around in the swim and ended up swimming almost the full course and then swam most of it in reverse and then had to turn back when an official told him "You don't have to round the buoys twice" It took him about 25 minutes to cover 500 meters. He's a terrible swimmer so he wasn't immediately curious when there was nobody swimming near him.

Until you get used to the swim it might be a good idea to count to 3 or 5 before you start your swim after the starting gun or whatever goes off. This will not add significantly to your swim time but it will add to your sense of comfort and calm.

That video was hilarious. I particularly like the fact that the guy broke the paddle on him. I can't wait...I think... It almost seems like it's going to be like some of the water-safety quals from the Corps. But without flak and kevlar and weapon and no annoying MCIWS jerk yelling at you. (I was Q twice in 8 years by the way-no worries).

At last check, there are 91 people, in 26 divisions registered (Men every 4 years, Women every 4 years, Athenas, Clydes 185, 200, 225 under 40 and Clydes over 40). I'm guessing it'll probably double, but a small sprint race none-the-less. Do you think they'll break up the starting waves? 50 at a time? 25 at a time?

Seems like the divisions are like Wrestling Divisions in Summer Tournaments where you'd show-up, they weigh you, then they lump the wrestlers into make-shift divisions based on what they have on that day. Sometimes you luck out and wrestle in a lower weight, sometimes not. By the way, I wrestled 158 Freshman year in College, weigh 248 now (12 years) and ran my PFT (3 miles) in 19:09. My how time is cruel huh?
Anyway, below is the website, doesn't really show too much stuff, but good none-the-less.
http://www.multirace.com/triathlon/tradewinds.htm#Course%20Descript...
The overall website for all of the local races is www.multirace.com.

Thanks again for all that gouge, I printed that off and put it into my gym bag and wrote next week's training plan according to it.

Hi- I've been MIA for a week- down the coast enjoying some surf and sunshine. Haven't done any training, so feel bad, but have aching muscles from a couple of long surfing sessions- so think I've done my body some good. I borrowed a mate's wetsuit yesterday as it was a bit cool- a full body- and the thought of actually swimming any distance in it was a bit daunting- though the floatie effect was great and it kept me nice and snug. Coming into winter here and the sea coming up from Tasmania can get pretty nippy- so I'm looking at a 3mm full body - cause I'll wear it in the surf anyway (we've just relocated here from Sydney where I never really need a wettie) and I'm hoping that will be suitable...
Want to get back into some regular training now we're back home...
Happy Training
Maree