Tri-Curious - -full (Page 8)

Today I am going to a triathlon clinic that was offered by the group that is hosting my triathlon on June 19th.  We will spend an hour on transistionsm and have a group ride of the course after that.  I will let everyone know if I learn anything interesting.

Bahaha, I know. I've been busy. Mostly reading and family parties and the like. I didn't even go on the computer for a few days (crazy for me, I live on the computer) >.<

Bike ride went well! I fell once because I'm still getting used to dismounting the road bike, but oh well. It wasn't bad. The road rash pain is already gone even though it's only been two days. I felt pretty good considering it's the longest ride I've ever done by a wide margin. I am pretty slow, and was worried about shifting and screwing up the chain so I didn't shift on the way down... bad idea. I couldn't ride the downhills. Experimented on the way back, and was much more efficient. Still need to bike a lot more though. I can't wait til my next ride :D It was too fun. The slowness could also possibly be attributed to the breaks we took. Most of them were really short, basically water breaks. I am not nearly competent and balanced enough to drink from my water bottle while riding. haha

Yeah, I got gatorade because it's a quick fix and easily available at stores. The sugar and taste can definitely be overwhelming at times.  What kind of formulas should I look at? Any approximation on the price?

Busy weekend, just now getting to post up some of the things that I learned from my transition class this past Saturday.  Now, some things may be different for different races but these are items that I have not learned off of this site yet.

-The bike rack is only a high horizontal pipe that has numbers on it.  The direction your number is facing is the direction your bike should be facing.  Everyone hangs their bike by the seat or the handlebars with one tire in the air and the other on the ground.  The instructor said that depending on where they entries and exits are they usually hang their bike by the seat while swimming, and when they return from the ride it is faster to just pull it in and hang it by the handlebars.

- This race ( and it not uncommon) closes the transition area at 10 minutes before the first wave starts.  I think this sucks.  If I am one of the later waves I will just be standing around with all of my stuff in an area that I can not access.   I dont know how I will handle being at the pool waiting my turn for up to three hours until the last possible wave starts.  I just hope that I am in one of the earlier waves.

-The bike number has adhesive on it so you do not need to bring tape or zip ties to fashion a way to mount it.  Still dont know how I feel about putting a strange adhesive on my NEW BIKE, but it is what I got a road bike for so I guess it just comes with the territory.

- I need to practice my transition now, and decide what I am wearing.  I have read it several times on this site but I brushed it off thinking that I get dressed everyday how hard could it be.  They had us jump in the pool and then try to get our stuff on while wet and it was much harder.  That is without even swimming any, just a quick jump in, run up the hill and get dressed.

- I learned a lot by riding the course instead of just driving it in my car.  I feel like I can recognize all of the turns and where I can push up the hill because there is a long recovery downhill, and where I should go easy up the hill because it never ends.  I also know where the is a patch of gravel that I barely missed coming around a turn if the race director does not take care of it like he promised.  I missed it, but two others were not that fortunate.

Well I guess that is about it.  I have learned a lot from this site as I am sure most of you have, but these were some things that made me feel a little more confident.  If you do a tri that offers something like this, I would highly encourage you to do it.

Thats a good idea.  Thanks for the tip!

Great plan! The Disney runs sound like a lot of fun. If I ever get up to marathon distance I would like to do the Desney princess marathon.

Don't be ashamed that you can't drink while rolling yet... because you're not the only one! I am still getting the hang of my new bike and am no where near comfortable enough yet to drink while rolling. I need to get adjusted in the next week or two though.

I don't have specific suggestions for sports drink mixes, but there is lots of information available on packaging and from the people at sports stores. I recently have been using e-load and I find it's easy on the stomach and palate. Does anyone else have suggestions?

It's good that you got a lot of benefit from the clinic!

I agree - the transition shut down sucks. At the tri I did I was allowed to hang out as long as I wanted and we were expected to stay clear of people coming through transition. The volunteers organized the bikes by wave so that there would be no traffic issues with people waiting for their waves.

Good idea biking the route. It feels good to know where you are in relation to the end too (if you're not using something to measure distance).

As for the adhesive, don't unpeel the sticker backing and choose to use zip ties or a known adhesive if you are worried about your paint.

Thanks for sharing with the team!!

UGH..nothing worse than driving 25 mins to the pool only to find out they have a "contamination" .

I havn't swam in like 2 weeks..horrible.

That sucks! I know that we talked about this before, and I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but is there anywhere else that you can swim?

I had a pretty decent swim yesterday. With my feet giving me trouble I think that I actually prefer swimming now. Last year it was my least favorite of the three. Either way, all three sports need to get pulled together!

We are nearing the end of the mentor program. Make sure you ask any remaining questions! Everyone is welcome to add me as a friend and we can chat more! I hope that I have been of some help this round.

I'm still training regularly, can't really ask for anymore than that!

Well, I had a horrible tri today. UGH.

I was almost the last one out of the water, wind was against me, both knees hurt the whole run.

Just a disaster!!!

total bummer.

Thats sucks!  Try to look at it this way, you can only improve from here! 

Was it total misery or did you at least have fun getting out there and socializing with people of like mind?  Not meeting your expectatons can be a real downer, but you have got to try to look at the fact that you trained, and got out there and did it. 

Unless you are one of those people that uses their negatives to drive themselves harder.....

Sorry to hear that. When is your next tri? I suggest that you focus your efforts there and let this one go. Do you have any ideas why your knees hurt so much?

I don't know. My knees hurt for like a day..never had that happen. The swim just killed me..I did most of it through kicking not arm work. At this point, I have to figure out why i panic on OWS before I can realistically do another one. I have to figure out if it's the mass start, the fact that it's OWS, and/or the bad wetsuit (scuba one, should be getting my vortex one in a couple of weeks or so).

Thinking of Tour de Waterloo 70k road race in 2 weeks.

Did they tell you what to wear?   In the transition zone can you change out of your bike shorts?

I'm not sure if this is directed at me or Marc because the way that it's worded sounds like a response to the comment above. "Did they tell you what to wear?" But just in case I will take a stab at it!

You can wear whatever you choose to wear as long as it doesn't violate any rules. For example, there is often a "no topless" rule and if the water is too warm there is a "no wetsuit" rule. Some will allow wetsuits anyway but you revoke your right to place top three.

The transition zones are usually out in the open so changing out of shorts can be challenging unless you are covered underneith. If you aren't exposed - go for it! If you would be exposed and want to change there are always bathrooms if you don't mind losing a couple of minutes off your time. I suggest choosing your clothing in a way to minimize garment changes.

I had trouble with my swim portion too. The only way to make it better is to do more OWS. Did you practice in the wetsuit several times before the event? If the mass start is what stressed you, let everyone else leave the shore before you and come in when it has thinned out. Or, practice swimming in close quarters with friends to get used to swimming with flailing limbs.

That road race sounds nice! Are you registered yet?

First sprint tri this Sunday!!  I am psyched!

I got my start time for the swim and it is right in the middle which is okay.  Transition is closed off at 6:45am, and I don't start until 8:12 am so I will have too much time to pace around and get worked up.  It is better than the people that don't start until 9:20.

The course is a 400 meter swim, 14 mile (22.5k) bike, and a 3.1 mile (5k) run.  My goal time overall is between 1:30 and 1:45.  Hoping to be closer to the 1:30 side.  Being as it is my first tri, I am trying to be contempt with just finishing it, but I know that I can do better than just a finish.  I will post up how everything went Sunday night or Monday morning.

mbasta - 2011-06-15 6:51 AM Marc - I just checked and the fee to register goes up on June 17th. Register soon to save some money!

Looks like I have to go to a BBQ and stay overnight...so no making an 8:30am start time for me.

I found another really cool race for sept @ Blue Mountain..looks  REALLY cool

I didn't get a chance to do any OWS or wetsuit swimming prior to the race. Actually, it's been 2 years since I OWS last. I should get the Tri wetsuit in a couple of weeks, so I'll probably hit the lake once a week after that. I get nervous though, cuz I train solo..so I can't go out too far from shore.

The next event should be better

Now with my knees..I dunno what that's about, I think I need to slow down on my running..i've only been running for like 6 weeks somewhat consistency, and I probably rushed it a bit, especially since I've had right knee ITBS (i think) problems before. So i'm going to do the 9 week couch to 5k program (9 weeks until the next race). I need to go see my dr too..try to get a referral to a sports/running dr to check it out..just to be proactive.