Tri-Curious - -full (Page 7)

It's nice here too! I am seeing the highest temperatures so far this season and no rain.

Cool idea..I've had the kids rent a canoe at the lake near us, and they make sure no boat traffic comes my way I'm hoping to swim across the lake this year..haha..not sure how long of a swim it is..hard to estimate that.

Yeah..awesome weekend..got out on the bike again and got a decent 10 miles in. No running though, the ITBS pain on my last run freaked me out. Will hit the treadmill tomorrow (crosses fingers).

Pace:

I'm seeking advice on how to increase pace while biking and running.

In your opinion should I be running faster over shorter distances eventually leading to longer - or slower over longer leading to faster?     Same problem with biking.   Shorter distances harder or longer easier to improve.

Currently I'm running a 9 min/mile and biking at 16mph.  Both are nice and comfortable - but I'm not going to win any races.  So how to I get better?

As far as swimming - pace isn't a big deal for now.  Main goals are not to drown or get eaten by sharks.  I started with more manageble goals there...

Thanks for your time in advance.

Nelson

Nelson,

Unfortunately there is not a single answer to your question.  Some people swear by shorter, faster, high intensity workouts.  Other people say you need to practice at or beyond 2 times the distance of the race and endurance will get you through it just fine. 

My approach is to do some of each.  I try to do at least one intense workout for running and biking once a week, and I try to do a longer less intense workout once a week.  For the bike everyone says the way to get better is to spend more time in the saddle.  For running you have a lot more options like increasing stride length, changing upper body positioning (leaning forward more), and smoothing out your stride to eliminate unnecessary movement like bouncing up and down.  You Tube videos on "how to run" and you will get so much information that will give you plenty to think about while you are trying to increase your pace.

I love kayaking. It's nice to have people with you open water swimming for the companionship and just in case you need assistance. My husband doesn't like me open water swimming because he doesn't swim well and can't go deep so we decided we would get him a blow up raft or something this year.

You could always take breaks at the canoe if need be to help you your first full width swim.

It's been really nice here too with some spots of rain, but overcast warm and sunny for the most part.

Great answer! I think a blend of both training styles (faster/shorter, slower/longer) will be most beneficial. You can also do intervals, which many people find effective. For example, run regular rate for 5 min, faster for 2, etc.

From what I have read, faster leg turnover is more effective for increasing running speed than artificially lengthening stride length. Also, increasing stride length sometimes leads to increased injuries. I would suggest trying to stay upright for the most part, except possibly when going up a steep hill, because good posture uses less energy and you will reduce your chance of injury. Have someone else check your form and see how much bouncing you're doing. Reducing bounce is a great way to go faster and spend less energy.

I hope we've been helpful!

Thank you guys.  Excellent info. 

Okay people...... let's discuss nutrition a little bit.

I am admitedly stupid on this subject.  It seems the more I read, the less I know.  Sugar is bad, unless it is good sugar.  Carbs are bad, until they are good, but they are only good if you can burn enough calories to need the carbs without becoming caloric deficient.   The only thing I know for sure is that saturated fat is in everything that tastes good, and it is bad.  Eggs were bad but now they are good. 

My goal is to drop my body fat %, not neccesarily my weight.

So can anyone sum up for me what I should be looking for in my nutrition plan?

What nutrition plans are other people in this group using?

Nutrition is hard...constant struggle.

I try to eat alot of egg, chicken, and vegetables...lol.

Ultimately it comes down to calories in calories out. If more calories come in you gain weight, usually in the form of fat. Choose foods that are nutrient dense and eat in moderation. You can have "junk" food, but only eat a little eat day and fill the rest of your day with whole grains, veggies, fruit, low fat dairy, and lean meat.

At first you might find it beneficial to count your calories consumed so that you can see how much you're currently eating. It can be scary!! If so, make a few changes, stop calorie counting and wait to see if anything changes in the next few weeks. If you're still not loosing, reassess and lower caloric intake again.

Here are some very simple ways (depending on your tastes) to reduce calories: reduce/eliminate consumption of beverages other than water, reduce/eliminate use of condiments, increase consumption of fruits/vegetables.

Find recipes that you ENJOY. Don't eat cardboard because it's good for you... If you aren't satisfied by your menu then you won't likely maintain it. It's about life long changes not short term if you want to change your body composition and maintain it.

I hope this helps!

Eating with other people can be so challenging! I have a husband who sometimes eats like a 9 year old... Don't tell him I said that!

Going to Vancouver for the next few days..probably no training for me. Will try to get out for a run though. Talk to you all next week.

Have a good time!

I completely agree with the comments above.   I was discussing nutrition with a co-worker.  He was indicating his research showed he shouldn't eat bananas because they had too much sugar.  Then for lunch he ordered a cheeseburger with fries and splashed ketchup on it!   Does that make any sense?

I lost a lot of weight by tracking what I ate.  Turns out when you put a pencil to it, a person eats more calories than they think.   Randy, if you write it down you will be surprised.    For me, if I tried to keep the calorie count reasonable the other parameters like sat fats and sugars just fell in line.  

Also, a weekly meal plan goes a long long way.   It is so much easier for me to eat resonably healthy if I have the week planned out. 

Good luck and great question.

There is a fun challenge happening in the challenge forum this June that I think many of you may benefit from. You choose a sport (S, B, R) and set a goal, then with your team who are working on the same sport you compete against the other two sports and see who has the highest percentage of their goal complete at the end of the month. I am on the bike team!

Newcomers are always welcome!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=254472&posts=11#M3526497

You can join past June 1st if you don't see this message in time!

I'm back!

I have a ton of catching up to do. I didn't work out, I ate horribly, and had a few too many drinks. Hopefully the weather holds up, and I catch up on some sleep.

Haven't checked in in a while. Dunno if I should be happy or sad that it took such a short amount of time to catch up! Paper went well- I did hand it in a little late, but my teacher didn't seem to mind considering I scraped an A- in the class. The class basically was just the paper.

Um, I have been exercising since I've gotten out of school.. which was two weeks ago now. Probably not enough though D: I've had a lot going on. Finally bought the road bike, and picked it up from the shop today. They took me to the cleaners though- I think they really jacked up the price on everything except for installing the water bottle cage. It's nice having a road bike and I'm looking forward to mounting the bike rack on my car tomorrow and driving down the road. My friend and I are going for a bike ride together. I hope it's mostly flat since I'm sure I'd fail at shifting. I'll get the hang of that later, I need to get used to the steering first. It should be fun though. We're crossing our fingers for ~18 miles. It may be a little much, I don't know. We're driving into town, which is 9 miles, but then we'll have to go back to our cars xD. We'll probably take a bit of a break if we reach town.

As for running, I went to a Runner's Club they are having at my local Y. I haven't been running much recently- I've just been trying to jack up speed I guess, so I'm doing interval-style Couch to 5K type stuff. I'm not getting far, but I do think it's helped quite a bit. I could pretty much stay with the middle group. I was about 20 yards back or so. It was a bit complicated cuz there was five of us in the group but two were not keeping up so the three of us who set the pace kept doubling back to find the others. We only got a little bit more than the half of the 5K loop done. After we found my friend (same girl who I'm biking with tomorrow, I go to the gym with her regularly), we just walked back to the Y haha. Whatever, I was dead exhausted. We found a spigot with clean water. Felt great on our faces- needless to say, it was like 90 degrees even though we were running at 7 pm. Although I thought I performed decently in the run (intervals helping more than I expected they would), I was madddd dehydrated last night after the running club. Had a terrible headache. I think I'm gonna invest in some gatorade to drink after the workouts outside each week. I do want to continue going, I think it will be good. Especially since I do so much of my exercise indoors. At least running and swimming-wise.

As for swimming, that's a bit tough. The Y doesn't have many lanes, so it's hard to get one. My friend also, although she really enjoys swimming, gets bored with laps. I feel like I'm gonna have to keep pushing myself to swim more because I don't think she's really into the whole laps thing. It's more of a few 25s with a lot of breaks. It is fun though- we have a sauna and a hot tub at the Y. Also- I used a pull buoy for the first time last time I swam. It was interesting. Definitely felt like my stroke was worse though, haha. I want to work on that since it seems like the buoy will really help with balance in the water.

Anyway, that was a long post. *needs to update logs*

That's a lot to digest! You need to come by more often.

It sounds like your training is coming along great. Congratulations on the new bike! I took my new beast out for a 45 minute ride yesterday and learned that high wings and road bikes don't mix well.

Let us know how your ride goes! Also, consider an energy drink besides Gatorade. The sugar content (and taste) is produced to please the masses rather than athletes. If you get (or make) athlete specific formulas you'll find they have much less sugar and are easier to digest. Plus, when you're working hard sweet things tastes sweeter and sometimes Gatorade can be overwhelming.