kenj's group - closed with a great bunch of triathletes in training!!! (Page 8)

Thanks Boomer! 

Better to be early rather than late!!!

Thanks!  I had a lot of fun, despite the cold!  Too bad we couldn't have met, but tough to find people there with that size crowd.  Took 45 minutes to find my wife on Saturday!  She had my warm clothes, needless to say I checked them yesterday so I had them as soon as I was finished!

Congratulations to your wife for beating her goals!

Yes it was!  The good news is we are heading home early tomorrow so your weather will return to normal!

Again, good advice.  There are usually some good threads in the forums here as well, plus you can always do a search to find some history.  There are some very strong runners on this site and most of them are very polite in sharing their knowledge.  Although their typical advice is to build your volume up slowly, use hills for strength building, and slowly add strides and fartleks after you get your volume up. 

I've noticed that some of you are very good at using your logs and have a lot of stuff on them, some are just minimally logging and others of you nothing at all.  I just want to make sure those of you in the latter catagory are comfortable with the functions of this site and answer any questions if you have one!

No, you're fine! But some aren't logging at all and I just want to make sure everyone uses the site the way they want to!

Quiet around here this week! 

How is everyone's training going?  Anything you would like to discuss?

Thanks!

You can buy road tires for your mountain bike, and you can use this set up both on a trainer and outside.  Even for your first race.  A good local bike shop should be able to help you with this.  Whether outside or on the trainer the key is to get consistent seat time.  Just like running, you will need to build some base miles.  (Swimming too!)

There are several sprint plans available on this site at the free membership level that are great for getting you to your first race, which I believe is in Sebring in June.  Here is the link to those plans - plans

I would suggest, depending on when your current plan is done that you look at either the 16 or 20 week bike focused sprint plan.  I believe these plans you can down load to your blog so you have a schedule every day.  I have used quite a few of the plans on BT so if you have any questions on the jargon or abbreviations please ask. 

I agree, 21 isn't bad at this point!  I also agree with Iceman on the over reliance on the legs if it isn't from a smooth stroke.  But, every 4 or 5 weeks it wouldn't hurt to do a comparison, hopefully to build some mental confidence from the improvement.  I believe that in the Total Immersion book he talks about golf.  A combination of stroke count and time, which is probably a better measurement of stroke improvement.  

Keep doing the drills, spending the time in the water and you will gain comfort and confidence.  And relax in the water! 

Good for you for getting shoes fitted properly!  Your feet will thank you!

As far as care, unless mine get wet from water, not normal sweat, I don't do anything specific.  I usually have 2 or 3 pairs in rotation at any given time and I never run in the same pair 2 days in a row (unless I am traveling and only bring one pair.)  This allows the shoe to dry and the cushioning to relax.  But, until you get to the point where you are running every day or multiple days in a row, just keep them inside and they will be ready to go the next time.

The other thing I like to do is track the mileage so I know when a pair is about to wear out.  Typically I get around 350 miles so I set an equipment alert to let me know when they are getting there.  This way if I have a new brand or model and I notice that they aren't lasting that long I won't get another pair and I'll try another brand.  Also, if it is crappy out I will wear the older ones. You can track them by clicking on settings at the top of the screen and the training log settings tab, and then the equipment tracker tab.  From there you can add an item, put in the brand, model, etc. and expected life.  Put in lifetime miles (That is expected) and change the drop down next to it to miles.