MJEWEN Summer 2013 Mentor Group - OPEN (Page 7)

Thanks for those kind words - it is really impossible to imagine what these parents must be going through. I think all of us who have kids just can't even fathom the pain of it, so it's definitely been an emotional few days.

Tom - good save, I would say! And that's actually a good example of another benefit of leaving the shoes clipped in and having bare feet. Imagine trying to regain balance with a clompy, slick bike shoe on your foot.

So, I have just had 2 bike rides within the last 18 hours - not bad! The first was a 10 miler with the kids yesterday. Then this morning, I went out with an organized ride for 20 miles.

Tomorrow, I plan to do a memorial event in the morning. Let me just tell you a little about it... the coach whose son passed away is one of a group of runners who love to organize running events that are a little bit ... out of the ordinary, shall we say! Some are very long (50k was a recent one), some involve lots and lots of repetition (on a recent trail run, they ran the bridge and a short bit of trail 8 times in a row!), or have some other crazy obstacle or feature. So to honor this coach, we are meeting him at his weekly Couch to 5k training group, but the kicker is, we have to get there from our own couches and then get back to our own couches afterward. It is called the "Couch to Couch to 5k to Couch" run. I am not running, because that would be a 20 miler for me, but it is a perfect distance for biking.

Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

Melissa, Oh, I am so sorry to hear about the loss of the little one in your running community/family. That has to be devastating. Can I ask? Was the child ill or was it a tragic accident? I will pray for you and your running community and of course, the family.
I also need to give you a HUGE shout out, like a "WHOOT WHOOT!" for getting into the NYC Marathon! That is so freaking awesome! Congratulations! Please tell me you are going, right? You are so dang inspiring!

Tom, the video is definitely not as bad as you made it sound! I too, think you recovered quite well. I am with Melissa on withholding any advice about training. I don't have enough experience in Tri's to help you much, especially in longer distances. I do commend you for logging your activities. I have been terrible about doing it. New goal: Log workouts!

I do have a question about putting shoes in the clips and then putting them on as you ride. I am not sure if I could really do that very well as I have very old shoes that are more on the trail riding shoe type. They are lace up shoes, but I put in the elastic "Yankz" so that my transition time would be faster (which did help), but how the heck do you run with your bike on the gravel (barefoot), then get on bike and then put your shoes on?

I don't know if I told you, but my hubby has begun looking into getting a bike for him to ride. I am so excited about this! As I have mentioned before, he is not a runner, or a gym goer, or a swimmer, but he took the initiative to go out and start looking for a bike. We are both doing extra jobs to save up for a bike for him. I think it would be really fun to be able to go out and ride together. How many of you have spouses or significant others that you ride (workout, run, swim, etc) with? Does it enhance your relationship or hinder? or do you each just do your "thing" and support the other? I always secretly wish(ed) my husband was more active. He has always had a job that has been very physically demanding, so that was always his excuse to not get out and exercise. I guess I just want to grow old with him and I get worried.

I am doing the Warrior Dash tomorrow with a friend and my sister. My friend was the one that got me into biking many, many years ago. I just want to go out and have fun.

That is awesome!! That's the first step, for sure. It's probably a huge inspiration for him to have you so active and having fun at it.

My husband also does tris, but he didn't when I first started. I think seeing me do it made him want to give it a shot, and now he enjoys them a lot. He was in a similar situation, in that his job is a very physical one, so he has always been pretty fit. We do train together from time to time, but mostly separately, just because of family logistics. We do our events together, though, which is always fun.

Good luck and have fun at the Warrior Dash tomorrow!

In my limited experience the flying mount will work a lot easier with a velcro shoe strap. I would think a lace type shoe would be difficult to put on in this manner. With my shoes the velcro and the shoe tongue are open enough so my feet will just slip in. I get a few pedal strokes in with my feet on top of the shoe and then just slip on my feet and pull the velcro strap tight. Without an open tongue are it would be hard to slip your feet into the shoe. I cannot speak for running on gravel, just asphalt.

Denise, I agree with Tom, I think velcro would be best. I have those Yankz on my running shoes, and I need 2 hands to get them on.
How's your balance on the bike? Personally, I do not have very great balance to begin with, so I think even leaning down to tighten the velcro strap would be challenging.

This morning, I completed the Couch to Couch to 5k to Couch challenge. I biked 23 miles round trip from my house and participated in the memorial run for Peyton. There were well over 100 people there, and the atmosphere was great. If you are interested, here is a link to a story about Peyton:
http://www.abcnews4.com/story/22539926/mount-pleasant-remebers-peyt...

Oh Melissa, I just went to the site you posted about Peyton. Wow. What a neat kid. He will serve the Lord greatly, but that must be agonizing for the family to lose such a sweet boy so young. I am glad you made it to the run, and what a good idea to bike there! Nice brick workout!

Gals (or guys if you have input) what type, brand name, etc. of saddle to do you use for your road bike? I am looking to replace mine, as it was just a borrowed saddle and I don't feel it is the best fit for me. I did get measured at the LBS, but wasn't impressed with the selection. Also, I know some bike shops will let you try before you buy. This one would only let me try it out at the store on my bike. I would like to try it out for a longer ride before I plunk down a chunk of change for one.
Melissa, I thought at one point you mentioned what you use, but I didn't go back in look at the old posts.

Been rainy and cool here the last few days. I did the Warrior Dash with a friend (some of her family) and my sister. It was about 63 degrees, with light rain and wind. I will say, even though it was not very tough, I really would rather have been doing another triathlon! I wouldn't have done it, except for my friend really wanted me to, and she paid for my entry, so....I felt sorta obligated. The whole path was slick with mud, and I just took it real slow so I didn't end up with a broken bone or twisted ankle. We saw one guy try to get up over one of the tall wall with ropes on each side obstacles and basically slide all the way down from the top and land really hard at the bottom. We had been watching the ones in front of us and debating on whether we even wanted to attempt it, as it looked very dangerous considering the conditions of the course. When we saw that guy take a digger, we said, "Oh, there's our answer, we're going around this one!" I didn't feel too bad about it, we weren't the only ones and the last thing I wanted to do today was go to the ER! I don't think I will sign up for one of those races any time soon again.

Hope everyone's training is going well. I am feeling a little lost on what I should be doing now, as I am not officially training for anything at the moment. I am on the wait list for the Papillion sprint Triathlon in July, and I don't really want to register for the Omaha Triathlon as it is a bit out of my budget right now (and I can't afford to do both). I do think I am going to sign up to volunteer for it though. I did that two years ago and it totally got me excited about doing a triathlon. Plus, just seeing everyone complete it is so cool. I need to get in the water again and just put in time in the water. I am going to try to keep training as if I am already in the Papillion tri, I guess.

Have a great week!

Congratulations, Melisa on the couch run today. I watched the video. How very sad.

I also watched Tom's video..... great save!!

I'm looking forward to Denise's report on her race......

My bike shoes are velcro fastening. Easy on, easy off. I don't have them clipped on the bike..... I run to the mount area and saddle up and clip in....

I am signed up for the Papio Mayor's Tri as well! How exciting. I have been so busy I haven't made it on this sight or done much training. I'm going to catch up on all the posts, but read that a couple of you are doing this tri. Just got excited and had to post.

Wow - three of this group doing the Papio tri?! That's awesome - is it Ken, Denise and Crissy, right?

That's cool this should be the Cornhusker group!

Denise is there any other bike shops in your area? Because the bike shop I usually deal with let me keep exchanging saddles until I found one that worked. I ended up settling on my 4th saddle that they put on so it was a lot of trial and error. The saddle I have on my road bike is a Specialized Romin and I really like this saddle. I know about 4 other guys who ride this saddle and have nothing but good things to say about it. Although I don't know any females that use this saddle so I'm not sure if saddles usually work better for one gender than the other?

Wow is right.... three from Team MJEWEN in one race.....that's great!!

Oh, Melissa..... Congrats on the NYC marathon.... that's HUGE

Denise, I use an Adamo Time trial saddle.... I really like it.....

As far as training goes, I've been on the road a lot the last week so not much biking, a little running a swim and strength training has been the majority of my efforts, that and allowing my body to heal and recover. It's been a little over a week since the last HIM and I'm on day 9 of my fast and really doing well with that....I dropped 12 pounds so now I'm at 172. I did hot yoga a few days ago, took a massage this weekend and plan on another hot yoga session this evening. I'll maintain my fast until the Swim is over because I don't want to my body to have to adjust to solid food during the race time. I have the Pan American 1k Swim event on Thursday and then On Saturday begin in earnest my training for the July 14 NYC triathlon - Olympic distance.

Saturday I work out with a local tri team: 25 miles @18mph to the ocean, then a 30 minute run followed by a 30 minute ocean swim and 25 miles @18mph back to the bike shop.

I'll also begin doing more hill workouts, both running and biking because there are hills in my July event. In late June, I begin a marathon training program so that will increase the volume of my running. I figured the first half of this year ought to have gotten the rust out of my system so my body will be able to sustain the training load throughout the remainder of the year.

I just purchased a book on my kindle called: Swimming Anatomy by Ian McLeod. It's a book about the anatomical breakdown of swimming. It includes many dry land workouts specifically designed to improve strength and flexibility for the swim. It's a great read to fall asleep to....

I recently got a Specialized seat. Fitted for it at the LBS. Much better than my Terry butterfly seat!! I required the widest seat (doesn't that make a girl feel slim and trim...). It was the Oura, but can't recall the exact model, they make a couple different Specialized Oura seats.

I saw a lot of people at the Kansas 5150 in May with the Adamo seat (or styles like that). They were all on tri bikes. I was one of the very few people racing w/o a tri bike - felt very out of my league but still got 3rd in my age group. The gals said they were comfortable, but they took some time to get used to the wider nose. Depening on where the seat is uncomfortable for you, these might be a good option, especially if you are really bent at the waist while riding.

100 Meter swim times. I have been meaning to try this for the last few months to gauge my swim improvement every 4-6 weeks but never have done it. There is a name for it, but I don't recall what it is. It is where you swim 3x100 M with 20 sec rests. You time each 1 and try to keep the pace consistant for each 100 M swam. Yesterday I swam 1:48, 1:46, 1:50, so my average was 1:48/100M. I have no idea is this is a good time, bad time, mediocre time. Have any of you tried this before? I look forward to testing it again in July to see if it has improved.

I'm also not sure how hard to swim the 100M. I think the goal is to simply pace yourself at a pace you know you can repeat 3 times. I used bilateral breathing as I feel soother when I swim this way.

Terry, I did post my race report and is now "public," so hopefully you should be able to see it.

I guess I was wondering about the shoe being in the clip, as I did see some women at the tri that had their shoes already on their pedals in the transition area and I assumed they were then going to put their feet in them on the bike, so I was curious if this was standard or how that worked. It sounds like it depends on the type of shoe.
Thanks for your responses.

Chrissy, I am hoping to be able to do the Papillion Tri. By the time I actually decided to do it, they had reached their cut-off numbers. However, I am on the wait list. I have no idea if they will open it up to more competitors or not, but I hope so! Good luck!

I'm back! I raced the same tri as Tom last Sunday in Buffalo, MN except I did the Olympic distance. Buffalo is about 100 miles from Rochester. So after the race we drove home and needed to pack for our BWCA trip. The BWCA is a wilderness area in northern MN, accessible only by canoe. Yopu pack all your gear and food in and out. Paddle and portage. We go every spring and most times later in the summer as well. It's about a 6.5 hour drive from home where we went in this year. So Monday we drove up and camped outside the BWCA at a National Forest Campground in our pop up camper and then went on Tue and came out on Sun. On Sun we stopped in Duluth on the way home and had a late birthday with our son Scott and his girlfriend. Got home about 10:30. Today is unpacking, washing and cleaning.

Buffalo Tri was great for me, 1st in my AG by almost 10 minutes. Some of the really fast guys didn't race this year. I'll do a race report in the next few days.

I've caught up on the post from while I was gone.

Denise - great job on your 1st tri! I enjoyed your RR (race report) and pics. I too have experienced the dreaded "club feet" at the start of the run. In fact it happened at my 6/2 tri. You talked about putting on sleeves afte rthe swim. Are these arm warmers? I wear mine underneath my wetsuit. They start out wet on the bike but still help if it is cool. I enjoyed your race to the finish line story. As far as swim tools, I use paddles, always with a pull buoy and flippers. My usual swim set right now is 2000-2500. I use the paddles for 150 tds as part of my warm up and for 200 yds at the end followed by a 100 yd cool down. Flippers for 150 yds with a kick board during my warm up. I keep my face in the water when using the kickboard. I also swim 100 yds at the end of my warmup with the flippers going almost all out. Tri bike shoes have velcro straps and a heel strap as well to help put them on while pedaling. The key to putting on bike shoes is to build up enough speed before sliding your feet in. And practice.

Melissa - Aniother great RR and nice swim! Congrats on the NYC Marathon spot. Sad to hear about the little guy who died. The Couch to Couch to 5K to Couch sounded like a great thing to do for his family. Neat that you were able to participate.

Tom - Another nice RR. I forgot you were doing Buffalo as well. Maybe we can hook up at a future race. I've done both the Oly at Lifetime and the HIM at Square Lake but neither are currently on my schedule, although Square Lake is a possibility. You had some nice times at Buffalo. Experience and more training will only help you improve. For sprint distance races I would agree with Terry and say long runs of 5-8 miles and bike up to 35-40 miles. A guideline is roughly 2x your race distance for sprints as Olys.

Emile - You gotta sign up for something! LOL! I have troubles training without a target race or goal. Great job getting that 20 mph average on your training ride. Trainer rides are definitely more focused and can be more intense than riding outside. Every year I say I'm going to use the trainer for some hard bike workouts even during the summer but I never do it. This year I will!

Terry - I have to disagree with your comment about going faster by getting out of the saddle. While it works for quick bursts you are better off staying aero and minimizing wind resistance. Out of the saddle is great for training but I would recommend staying aero as much as possible in races especially if you have aero bars but even staying down on the bullhorns on a road bike.

Chrissy - With 3 of the group at the Papio Tri we definitely will want someone to provide a pic.

After a week off of s/b/r, I'm anxious to get back to training. Next race is 6/23, my hometown tri where I get to sleep in my own bed the night before. Great job to those that did the race reports and to everyone for staying connected with the group. Keep those success stories coming. Remember we all love to hear about your tri related experiences.....and we get it, right?

Chrissy, I know how you feel about getting fitted for the bike seat and requiring the largest one. I had the same thing happen! I immediately said I think I will get a second opinion!
Also, I have done that swim timed interval that you mentioned. Although, I hate to admit it but, my times were much slower, so I think you are on the right track. I sometimes just do 50 m instead of the 100 m or even 200 m. Another one I like to do is 4 x 100 m and always start at 2 min. intervals. Meaning, if you finish 100 in 1:48, you start your next one in 12 seconds. On the second 100 if you finish 1:40, then you start in 20 seconds (on the 2:00 min. mark). So the faster you finish the more recovery time you get. However, I swim so slow, I don't often make it under 2:00! haha! So then I have to do 2:15 or whatever I think I can get it done in.

Terry, let us know how your new pre-sleep routine, I mean, your new book is! I try to read before I go to bed and I always end up falling asleep before I can even remember where I left off the last time I picked up the book!

I will check out a few other bike stores before purchasing a new saddle. Thanks for letting me know that some stores may even let me try it out for a ride and if I don't like it, can bring it back. I will look for a store with that kind of policy.

Have a meeting at 2 and then hoping to get to the pool for some laps. I went to the gym and did the spin class. I could tell I haven't done it for awhile. I still enjoy the great outdoors, but time and family schedules sometimes dictate when I can get out!

Buffalo Race Report http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... complete with pics.

Terry - Sounds like you were picking up the pace while working with the local tri team! I would try and get as many workouts as I could with them there is nothing like having somebody really push you on the bike.

Denise - Like Mike said Tri shoes have the Velcro straps and they are designed when you open them up the Velcro straps aren't getting caught up in your bike. A lot of road shoes have the Velcro straps but are tough to get in and out of on the bike because the straps open up against the bike. If you decided to try and leave your shoes clipped in for the mount and dismount the thing that helped me was first practicing on the indoor trainer. I still leave my shoes clipped in on the bike during trainer rides so I stay in practice.

Chrissy - those 100 times look pretty good.

Mike - Sounds like an awesome camping trip. Great job on your race and I really enjoyed reading your report. I love race reports with pics!

Yesterday and today I went to the lake and did ows. I really struggled yesterday with my first ows of the year but did a lot better today. With the cost of gas I think I may start only going to the pool once a week and go to the lake 2 times a week. The lake is 10min from my house and the pool is 30min so I think it is a no brainer.

Great to read other Buffalo race reports. Great job on a fast finish.

I was going to try OWS this week but the rain and my road rash has kept me out of the water. I took a small spill on the bike Monday. I was back in the saddle the next day but am going to stay out of the water until the wounds heal.

I have a mid range road bike that I fit on well but I am looking at getting a tri bike. I have promised myself to finish this season with the road bike to see if triathlon is something I want to continue to do long term. Right now it is! What advice can you give for selecting a bike. If I do decide to purchase I would be willing to invest in something that does not need upgrades as I go. Right now I want to end next season with a 70.3 and maybe look into a full distance in 2015. With these things said, would a carbon bike have more benefit than a aluminum? I am more concerned of comfort over the longer bike courses. Is there a big difference between carbon and aluminum on 56/112 miles.

I looked at the Orbea ordu and Felt s32 s22 and b16. Right now the B16 is on top of my list but still 10 months away from purchasing.

Tom I was in the same boat as you last year. I bought a road bike 2 years ago and I told my self I would ride it until I knew for sure if I wanted a tri bike or not. After completing a 70.3 last year I knew I would be doing tri's for awhile so I decided to start shopping for a tri bike. I went to a bike shop that really caters to triathlete's and carries about 6-7 different brands of tri bikes. I had them fit me and then tell me which bikes worked best for me. I started looking last year in Nov and they had all of there 2012 models marked way down to make room for the 2013 bikes. So waiting until the end of the year sales can save you a lot of money. Also, the bike shop I went through let you put a bike on layaway for as long as you want with no extra charge. So I put the bike on layaway in Nov and ended up paying it off in Jan.

Edited by EKH 2013-06-12 2:46 PM

How's everybody's training going so far this week?

I got in a short brick workout this morning and a 20 min strength session. It is really starting to heat up in Oklahoma the last several days have been in the mid 90's. I've been trying to run later in the day to run in the heat. I'm normally a early morning runner but I learned last year during my HIM you better be ready to run in the heat because that is when the run takes place.

I have heard that it has been hot as the dickens in the mid-West, and it has here, too. It was 96 today and very muggy. Yuck!

My training this week has not been good. Too much work, some schedule changes and feeling a little under the weather has resulted in only 1 run and 1 swim this week so far. And after such an awesome weekend! Sometimes things just don't go as planned. Resting might actually really be ok for me this week as I feel like I am coming down with something in my lungs. It just feels tight and congested, so I am keeping close tabs on how that develops.

I do have a nice bike ride planned again for Saturday morning, and my next sprint tri is this Sunday. I think I will just call this a taper week ;-)

My training has been going great this week, for the most part the weather has allowed a great deal of outdoor time. I have been putting some miles on the bike in hopes to see improvement for my next race. Hoping to talk the wife to go to the beach tomorrow so I can OWS. and she can get sun. win win right? My logs are up to date.

Hope everyone else has a great weekend ahead. Anyone racing this weekend?

Hey, Tom, I agree with Emile.... later in the year is good for deals on bikes. I began with a utility bike and moved to a tri bike - Cannondale Slice 5, got it in October last year. I really like it. I'm kind of now looking for a road bike to share with my son.

I did the Pan Americans today - 1k OWS, placed second in age group, time was 24:17 (a PR for me). It was definitely an interesting event. They started each wave about two minutes apart because the 3k people had to do three loops and they figured it would be about 15-18 minutes before the first group made it around and they wanted to get everybody in the water in the first lap. . It became very interesting about 3/4 of the way through when all the faster swimmers began catching up to us..... lots of jostling kicking and pushing going on... there were many countries represented and very friendly people. It was a gorgeous day, very hot yesterday and today, but a perfect day to swim.... I posted some photos.

Now.... training hard for July 14 Olympic distance begins on Saturday......

Melissa get to feeling better.

Tom you've had a good week on the bike. If you plan on riding anymore this week you should be well over 100mi for the week.