Team KiterChick - CLOSED (Page 8)

Reading the racelink- sounds like it is going to be a cold swim.  I am hoping the water will warm up before Escape.

Today I actually RAN 3.1 miles! I've never run that far so its a big achievement for me.

You guys n gals are all doing so well! I can't wait untill I can run/bike/swim such great distances!!!

Heather(?) hope your knee's getting better!

Hi everyone! Hit the pool last night. Forgot my 910xt, but timed a couple of 100 yard intervals at around 2:00, so probably a pretty average workout overall. Hit the trainer this morning, then plan on doing a short run once I get home tonight. It doesn't look like great running weather, but I need to get it done, and I'd still rather run in the rain than on the treadmill if I can help it.

Beth - I get that same "If I were to fall now, it would really hurt!" feeling when I hit high speeds on the bike. Let's hope for both of our sakes it remains a thought and not a reality! Meanwhile, a HR of 200 seems pretty high, especially if you don't feel winded. HRMs often have issues with inaccurate spikes that can be due to a number of issues, including static from your shirt or connectivity issues in general. I'd suggest you do a search on your particular model and see if any troubleshooting suggestions are available. Also, if you're feeling good, I wouldn't worry about being overtrained. Sounds like things are going well!

Heather - Nice that your outdoor run went so well. It's also great that you're getting the opportunity to meet other people in the local triathlon community. I admittedly don't know a lot, although Will and I will both be racing the same Oly in July, so that will be fun to have a bit of mentor group competition!

Will - Honestly, I'm freaking out about the water temp for the race on Sunday!!! I'm planning on heading over to Walden on Saturday so I can hopefully assure myself that, while it will be cold, that it's not going to be as big an issue as I fear. Then again, maybe I'll get there and it will be a mess. Here's hoping it's the former! Looks like we have some warmer days coming up in the forecast, so Escape the Cape should be fine...

Eddie - Nice race report, and I'm glad you had a good time, despite a few setbacks. At least some of them are preventable, so you can focus on fixing those issues when you run your next HIM.

Its been a rough couple of training days this week- Tuesday I had a 60 minute bike trainer session ride where I needed to hit some long, hard intervals, but ofr whatever reason I just couldn't get my HR up enough to hit them.  After about 40 minutes or so, I called it day.  Wednesday was just a generally crappy day- I hand an upset stomach and felt light headed/dizzy for a lot of the day.  Not sure if it was just a bug, or if the PS3/beer night(s) scattered over the last few weeks finally caught up to me.

So, to fix- I went to bed earlier last night and will try to continue that for a few days.  I am also going to try and shift my training back one day this week and do yesterdays run today, and today's swim on Friday (Friday was supposed to be a 2nd rest day this week), then resume with Saturday's  brick workout.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Thanks Eddie- You are absolutely right. 

This happened to me once last spring as well, and my coach said the same thing- basically back off the intesnity and get some rest before ramping it up again.  I think this is the most difficult part- backing off for a day or two when needed  Sometimes I get so stuck on hitting a certain number of miles or hours that I can lose sight of that.  So my commitment for the day- after resting yesterday, if I am not feeling it during my warm-up this afternoon I am going to shut it down and re-assess tomorrow.

Plus today is my 4th wedding anniversay, so I need to be done well before my wife gets home at 6 so we can get ready and out to dinner.

Congrats on the anniversay! I hope you and your wife have a special night.

Thanks- we had a really great time.  It was the first time we had been out alone in a couple of months, I had forgotten how enjoyable that can be.

On the workout front- I had a decent run yesterday afternoon and a long swim-drill workout this morning, so Tuesday's miserable bike must have been due to be really tired (thanks again Eddie).

Happy Anniversary!  Glad to hear your workouts are on the upswing : )

My week got a bit off in terms of training as my daughter was home sick from school a couple of days.  I am feeling good about the workouts I did get in, though I missed a bit.  Today was a bit of a milestone for me.  I'm only doing Sprints, but I have been working on my swim distance in my desire likely next season to go up to Oly distance. So, from time to time I swim a 1500 meter swim just to make myself feel good LOL  Today I had planned on doing a 600 meter swim at a decent pace for myself, so off I went maintaining at 2:15/100 meter pace, which for me is great.  Of course then I started playing games in my head of 'I wonder if' so I decided to keep going to 1500 and see if I could maintain the pace and I did.  I'm psyched!  Then, I ran 3.1 miles on the treadmill.   

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Happy Mother's Day to the Moms out there : )

Hi all!

Went to see a Physical therapist on Thurs- got diagnosed with patellofemoral syndrome, started doing exercises to strengthen the hips and butt. No running for me for awhile. PT told me to just keep biking and swimming so that's what I will do. Worries me to not be running, I feel like I am going to have to start over!

Started doing yoga and pilates on a regular basis, everyone tells me "a strong core prevents injuries"- so I am going to try to get that core work in.

Off to the pool!

Ran a XC 5K on Saturday with my wife.  The weather here in NH was generally warm, but the course was muddy from a week of rainy weather.  This was my first time at this course and it was much hillier than expected.  I finished at a 9:40ish pace, which is about 1 minute off my usual time, but given the conditions and the course I am not surprised.

Onwards and upwards as they say!

Hi everyone! I finally had my first local race of the season, and the race report has been posted. It was a new PR on this course, which was unexpected, since the last time I was here was in the fall, when I would have thought I was in much better shape. Hopefully this bodes well for this season improving on last year overall!

Heather M - Way to go on hitting the 5K run! Running that distance nonstop is a huge goal for so many people, so congratulations on hitting that point.

Amanda - Sorry to hear your ankle is still bothering you. Meanwhile, going to a swim club sounds like a great idea. Facing the swim is a big issue for a lot of triathletes, myself included, so try not let it stop you from transitioning into tris, if that's what you'd really like to do.

Will - Belated congratulations on your 4th wedding anniversary! Sorry to hear you were having some issues with rough workouts a few days back, but glad to hear you've rested up since then, and seem to be back in the swing of things. I hope you were able to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had this weekend!

Heather V - Given that you seem to be comfortable swimming 1500 yards now, I doubt you'll have any issues bumping up to Olys next year, at least regarding that aspect. Keep up the good work!

Roxanne - Sory you're sidelined from running for a bit. At least now you have a solid diagnosis and subsequent recovery to focus on. In the meantime, enjoy your swimming and biking workouts. At least you're not completely stuck on the couch!

Mitch - That XC 5K sounds fun. Good pace considering the conditions too!

Hello everyone,

Sorry that I have been absent for the last couple of weeks, at least from this forum.  I have still been training fortunately.  

I scheduled a couple of races early in the season and right now I am in the middle of a programmed break.  My goal during this "break" is to work on open water swimming.  I am a little hesitant however.  I have very very little experience swimming in water that I can't touch the ground/bottom.  I am also not a swimmer who can tread water.  I do not float.  

Any suggestions?  

Hi Ken, do you have a wetsuit? If so, you should definitely be wearing that for any initial OWS you may be doing. The fact that you mentioned that you can't tread water is concerning to me, especially if you're uncomfortable in water over your head. With a wetsuit, you don't have to tread water in the traditional sense, they really do keep you afloat. Also, are you comfortable swimming on your back, or another stroke where it's easier to get in a lot of breathing? Swimming in a situation where you're uncomfortable can lead to some hyperventilation issues, which will completely throw off your breathing rhythm you may have established in the pool. When I first started, I would switch to my back if I felt this way, since then I could easily get in all of the air I needed. Be safe, and don't swim alone if possible!

Sarah, 

Completely uncomfortable swimming on my back.  I have tried breast stroke a couple of times, but probably couldn't swim 25 yrds that way.  

In my area there are a couple of groups that open water swim so I would definitely not go out alone.  

Hi Ken- that was me last summer.  I re-learned to swim a few years ago and had never swum in open water prior to last year.  I bailed half way through my first tri because the swim was freaking me out too much (deep water, not being able to see the bottom, etc).  To overcome that it took some time in the water:

I spent about six weeks going to a pond and swimming at least once a week.  The first few weeks I swam close to shore (about 25 or 30 feet out) in water that was around 5 to 10 feet deep; at the same time I swam with someone swimming near by me.  The combined comfort level of having someone nearby and being close enough that I could get back to the shore if I freaked out was enough to gradually ease me into OWS.  While swimming, we would periodically stop and tread water for a few minutes at a time to practice.

After about a month, I tried another race (with a 1/3 of mile river swim) and while I was nervous at first, I found by going slow and steady I got through the swim okay.  Fast forward another month to August- I did the NYC triathlon and its .9 mile swim in the Hudson and actually enjoyed it.

So I would say it is okay to be hesitant; I was scared as heck terrified of the open water.   But if you practice it, you'll get definitely get better at it.

Will

I think I'm finally back on track. After taking several days off and finally getting on antibiotics. After several months of fighting sinus infections I broke down and asked the doc I work with for help. I'm now happy to report that I can breath while lying down and actually breath during exercise.

I did a bike ride this morning, the weather was perfect for it. I went a little over 26 miles and managed to keep my heart rate within the training zone. It was a little higher then I would have liked but it was still within zone. This is an improvment from maintaining a rate at or above 200. Also the hills that used to give me problems didn't seem to bad. Don't know if that is from spending time on the bike and hills or if its because I can finally breath and not having infection raging through me body.

My first tri of the season is on Sunday, I feel as ready as I'm going to get. Glad to see that everyone is doing well and keeping on track.