Birkierunner's (Jim Kelley) General + Long Course Group (OPEN) (Page 7)

Scott, you should be able to get some racing in without jeopardizing your Ironman performance.  Recovery time for sprints and Olympics are not very long but you do give up some Ironman training time if you are doing a short taper for these lower priority races.  Plus, you lose the actual day of the race itself that could be spent doing longer Ironman prep workouts.  On the other hand, these shorter races are good intensity workouts and they are FUN and keep the interest up.  As July approaches you obviously are going to focus on the Ironman and you don't want to be doing any racing in the 3 weeks prior to the race.  A month out is do-able for a short race but even then, that is the time when you are likely going to be getting in your last long ride/runs in before tapering for your Ironman.  If you are thinking of doing a half ironman then things get a little more dicey.  I probably wouldn't recommend doing a half any closer than 6-8 weeks out from your race but that depends on your ability to recover from such races. 

Saddles are something that is totally dependent on the individual's preference.  If you don't like the saddle that is currently on the bike I wouldn't spend one more day on it.  A saddle that may be perfect for one person could be a disaster for someone else comfort-wise.  The saddle should be comfortable for all of your rides so don't just consider the long ride in your decision.  Not sure if that is really getting at your question?

The first full week of the New Year is often the week when many athletes "kick off" theire training for the year.  How many of you are treating this as your "kick off" week?

I had planned to train through the "off-season," however, in early November we had a family crisis when a drunk driver hit our youngest son and family, causing serious injuries to mommy and daddy.  Grand-kids, thank goodness, had only minor injuries.  Moved the little ones in with us and then mommy when she got out of the hospital.  Our son was in hospital for nearly 6 weeks.  Everyone is home now, on the road to recovery.  Then, as if that wasn't enough of training obstacle, I got a really bad cold that dropped in to my chest - another two weeks off.  My goal for January is to get back to some form of consistency.

Scott, so very sorry to hear about your family...thank goodness everyone is OK now.  BTW....I didn't realize you had move do the west coast since last year's mentor group.   All you can ask is to be able to get back to some consistency as you said and ease back into training. 

What are folks weekend training plans?????

Jim,

I was born in Indiana, grew up and lived most of my adult life in Southern California.  We moved back to Indiana a couple years ago once all the kids were grown.  Last January ('13) I had to do an installation for a client in San Diego, CA.  I was there for two weeks and during that time, signed 5 new clients.  Then, two days after I got back home, my wife was layed off.  That pretty well put the writing on the wall - move back to California.  Hate it here but until we can retire, this is where I/we get to be.  I guess the good news is even on the terrible weather days, I can still get outside and train, plus the ocean is only an hour away.  California = Triathlon Training Meca

I've done 17 of the American Birkebeiners but have never done one of the Birkie Tours in January...its a fairly new event designed to be family friendly as you say.  Yeah, there may be guys using it as a training ski and hit it hard but I'm sure the majority of people treat it just like it was intended - a low key tour.  I would highly encourage you to do it - the Birkie Trail is simply beautiful.

Ha!  You beat me to it...thanks Todd.  I usually make a table of group members and have a link to their blog to make it easier to check in and say hello to other members.  I started a file a while back to do this and  I may still do it and use Todd's list .