Wurkit_Gurl's Group - CLOSED (sssh...we're training) (Page 7)

Okay. HOw long did you go for? How hard? What had you been drinking and how much? (were you drinking sports drink, water, while on the bike? etc) What was your last meal before you rode?

Eh, probably just a side stitch. Could be any number of things. Your positioning on the bike, the fact that you'd eaten 6 hours ago and might have been a little hungry, the fact that you ate ham salad...Not sure how hard you were riding. An easy 30 minutes shouldn't be enough to cause any issues.

You don't have to practice them a ton - just run through them a couple of times, to get the idea. ESPECIALLY if you keep it minimal. The biggest thing is to know what you are going to have in transition and the order in which they are going to happen.

It's fairly easy to transition from bike to run, in practice. You can do that in your driveway after a quick bike ride - or take the extra time to toss your bike in the car and go for a quick run. You should be practicing "bricks", which are bike rides with a short run directly after. That's a decent time to practice transitioning. (Note: you don't have to be practicing bricks from the start of your training - closer to your race is fine, and you don't have to do them all the time).

With the swim/bike, it's a bit more difficult. If you are going to wear a wetsuit, practice with it in the pool a few times, and practice taking it off quickly, every time you wear it. If you HAVE a place where you can swim and then immediately ride, do so.

The night before your race, lay out your transition area and make sure you have everything you need, and know where it all will go. To be honest, if you mess it up during your first race, it's not a big deal. Racing more is good practice and you learn to get the routine down pat.

Here's the dumb question of the day.  When you first get to the race site, do you leave your gear/bike in the car, check in, get marked, then set everything up? Or take it all in with you? What is the logical order? Is it different for different venues?

Depends on the site set-up. Often, the parking lot is far from the check-in and transition area. Generally, packet pick-up happens the day before the race, though some races offer morning-of packet pick-up as well. Either way, to get into get your chip, get body marked and put your stuff in transition, you need your race number. So if you don't pick it up before the race, go there first. You can always leave your stuff with a friend/spouse or just off to the side where you can see it while you're waiting to get your packet.

At that point, it really depends on your preferences. If they do not enforce any specific order (like bodying marking on the way into transition, or something), I will go and set up my transition area first. Then go get my chip and get body-marked. That way I don't have to lug all my crap around with me. Keep in mind that with your actual race number, you will also get a number for your bike and one for your helmet, so it's best to put those on your bike/helmet before you rack your stuff in transition.

The most important thing is to make sure you get there EARLY. It never hurt anyone to get there too early and sit around for a bit waiting, than frantically try to get everything done at the last minute - especially if it's your first race.

steph94483 - 2009-04-15 3:46 PM I'm picking up my race packet on Saturday, so I should have my bike all set before I get there. I guess the rest of that makes sense.

We have a chance for rain on Sunday, so keep your fingers crossed that it isn't terrible.

In that case, go and put your stuff in transition first, then get your chip and get body-marked.

It's supposed to rain on my race on Sunday too, so I will cross my fingers for both of us! Of course, the Oly the day before is supposed to have great weather.

JJackson07 - 2009-04-15 5:11 PM I would have to agree with the theory of ham salad= cramps on bike.

Yeah, mayo + training = icky.

Whoa!!!  It has been one of those mornings...been up with the baby on and off since 3 AM he has a fever again and is stuffy and coughing again, we only just finished antibiotics for an ear infection...then I was hoping to rest for a little bit before I had to get ready, and our 3 yr old came out at 5:55!!!  Then while getting breakfast, he poked himself in the eye with his Easter card!!!  I think he's okay now, we've had a compress on it, and it doesn't seem to be scratched...still hoping to get to the gym at 8:45, hoping that will wake me up for the day!!!

Hope you all are having good days/mornings!!

Sorry to hear about all the commotion. Hope you manage to get in a good workout.

It's FINALLY sunny out today and I can't go for a bike ride after work because I don't have time. My roommates wanted to have a "roommate dinner" so we are having one at 7:15 - I feel bad saying "no, sorry, have to train", but this is a race weekend and I haven't taken my bike outside since last fall and I just had it refit. So I REALLY need to get it out on the road - I live in an area with heavy traffic and the main roads are NOT safe to cycle on. So I have to battle traffic to the multi-use trail in order to ride. So I don't have time after work since I can't leave any earlier than 5:30 because I have a doctor's appointment this morning, so I have to make sure I am here for a decent number of hours. I can take the bike out tomorrow, but I really wanted to get it out there today. Arg.

Just wanted to touch on a quick topic that I thought of while posting in Steph's log. If you aren't in the habit of timing your runs, do it every so often. There is definitely something to be said for just running for the sake of running - going out and running without all the gadgets and technology - esp. if it's a pretty trail and the weather is nice, or you just need to go run off some angst. However, it is important to learn how to PACE a run. Esp. once you get into more elaborate training sessions, or train for a longer distance, or even just in "racing" the 5K portion of a sprint. You don't need tricked out heart rate monitor data to do this. So far, I have been doing it simply by time and RPE (rate of perceived exertion).

Time your runs, know the distance and log that data into the BT log to spit out your average pace per mile. Do this regularly and you'll start to get a feel as to what your "normal" pace is. And by normal, I mean something that you can sustain for a long time. For now, that will be your pace.  Try the talk test - if you can run and carry on a conversation with someone, getting out 4 or 5 words at a time, this is a good pace for a lot of your runs in order to build a good endurance base, and as you get better, your pace for easy runs or longer distances (at least in a conservative/moderate training plan). A harder effort would be only 2 words or so at a time, but still not an all-out sprint. Right now, some of you might not be able to hit this, and that's all right. It's good to have a general idea of what those paces feel like and what approximate time it takes.

For now, the most important reason to learn your average pace is that on race day, you can make sure you don't go out too fast - the excitement of a race gets your adrenaline going which makes your mind think it can go a lot harder than it's physically capable. For a short time, that's okay - but not when you are spreading it over 3 miles, after riding a bike! Luckily, there are mile markers at races, generally, so if you are wearing a watch and you see you've run the first mile in, say 10:20, and your normal pace is 11:20/mile, you may want to slow down a bit, so you don't run out of steam too early.

Pacing is a lot more technical than I've explained here and there is a wealth of information as to how to pace various runs for various purposes, theories on pacing a race, etc. And like I said, it's not necessary to be bogged down in the numbers. And if you can't run a mile straight yet, don't worry about it! But I mention it because a lot of newbies (and I did this too) try to run too fast, too early. This can either lead to frustration or possibly to overuse injuries.

Any other questions drawn from this, please feel free to toss out there - will do my best to explain or find the answers. Like I said, there is A LOT of information out there on this topic and at this point, most of it is complex beyond your needs (or mine, for that matter). But it's still good to have a basic idea.

Bump for the afternoon folks reading.

It's okay to run for time rather than distance. Different people do it different ways. And it's been posted on here by various people that your body knows time, not distance. (I am anal, like most triathletes, and like to know both!) The point of knowing how to pace a run is to know at what point in your 60 minute run you can try to push the pace and still survive the entire 60 minutes. Does that make sense? Over time, you will learn to feel what various paces are like - "easy" vs "pushing it a little" vs "pushing it a lot" etc. Knowing your approximate pace-per-mile is one way of quantifying this, and as you improve, it can be very useful.

Like I said, at this point, for some of you, the goal might just be being able to run the entire 5K of a triathlon. However, knowing how long it might take you to cover the distance is helping in knowing when to push and when to hold back so you don't blow up before the distance is over.

steph94483 - 2009-04-16 4:03 PM So, would you recommend something like the Nike +. That way you know what your pace is while you are running, or just "feel" it and measure it when you get back home?

I usually do map out my runs, but my neighborhood is so twisty I don't know the route I took. My feet just carried me around, and somehow I ended up back at home.

No need to drop a ton of cash on a Garmin or other GPS device, if you don't want. I don't have a GPS watch. I will either do it at home, or I will sometimes hit the lap counter on my sports watch when running on the multiuse trail (with milemarkers), or if I am running on the track. Or you can totally go by feel and just run the same unit of time (30 minutes, 60 minutes, whatever) and play with pushing it a little, backing off, etc. Personally, I like quantifiable data, but that's just me. And there are times when I don't run with a watch and I just go. Play around with a bunch of different stuff.