The Second Wind Group - CLOSED (Page 8)

Happy race week!  I have my first Oly on sunday morning and I am grealty looking forward to it.  My OWS practice on saturday went very well, much better than last week.  This time I felt much more comfortable in the water, probably because I was expecting to not be able to see anything under the water.  I also got in one last 6 mile run on sunday morning before church, so I feel prepared. 

I'm trying to take it somewhat easy this week as I rest up for sunday.  I have my weekly spin class tonight, a short run tomorrow morning, swim tomorrow night, and an hour bike ride on thursday.  Its going to be a good week.

Happy race week to all of you! In honor of your taper week, I'm barely going to work out too.

I'm on the shelf again.  This time, it's my right achilles.  Last week when I ditched my Nikes in favor of my old Adidas, my calf/heel pain left but I felt a slight twinge in my achilles and just kind of ignored it.  Three runs later and it got worse.  Yesterday I did a pretty big brick and by the end my achilles was throbbing.  It's quite swollen and sore.  I'm sort of concerned about this one because I know an achilles, if ruptured, could set me back a year or more.  I also biked yesterday and when I hit any big hills that required me to leave my seat it aggravated my achilles too.  So, no running or biking for me for a couple of days.  I'm hoping ot hit a couple of OWS this week.  So, hopefully things heal up quickly.  

I trust that each of you will stay healthy and be ready to rock this weekend.

So for those who are racing this weekend, what are your goal split times?  My goals for my OLY are:

Swim - 30 min

T1 - 3 min

Bike - 1:25

T2 - 2 min

Run - 1 hour

Total - 3 hours

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend.  All the glory goes to God.  When you feel like you can't, just remember that He will provide.  I like to say Philippians 4:13 when I feel like I can't do it - "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Stegaman, I am racing in a sprint.  Did this race last year.  My time last year was 1:19:11.  My main goal is to improve on that time.  Here were my splits last year.

Swim - 6:02 (includes a 30 second run from the pool to the timing mat). 

T1 - 1:09

Bike - 41:29

T2 - 0:35 (I did not have clipless last year, just the cages on pedals so I already had my running shoes on)

Run - 29:58

For this year, I would like to improve my time on the bike and break 40 min and hopefully break 28 min on the run.  The bike course is a blast.  It is 4 loops of 3 miles on each loop.  The back half of the bike course is downhill where you can fly.

Right now my tri gear is a TYR top and bottom.  My tri bottoms are the TYR Men's 9" Competitor Tri Short 2011 (blue/white).  Not sure what my tri top is, but it matches the bottoms.

I am getting a custom tri top made for The Second Wind that is being done by Jakroo.

I wear socks when I ride.  I can't get myself to try no socks as I would probably get a blister and that is no fun.

I am not sure on how cold is too cold for not using a wetsuit.  I swam in to races last year that were not wetsuit legal.  For the half a few weeks ago it was just barely wetsuit legal at 78 degrees.

For my tri this weekend, I am wearing some basic canari triathlon shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt that I will put on in T1.  I hope to acquire a tri top at some point this summer.

I always bike with socks.  However, I don't have bike shoes/clipless pedals yet so I bike in my running shoes and I wouldn't dare run without socks because I have blister problems.

All of my OWS has been without wetsuit, and the coldest temp was approx 70 degrees.  After a few minutes to get used to the temperature, I was fine. 

It is my understanding that you do give up some speed advantage by swimming without wetsuit, but I personally have no experience to back that up.  Plus, there are other areas for me to spend my money in order to increase my speed, like bike shoes and clipless pedals.  That being said, my race on sunday is supposed to be in 80 degree water, so i'm expecting many to be without their wetsuit. 

My goals are almost exactly identical except I think I will swim a little quicker, but same bike and my run will be a bit longer because it's 6.5 miles. Goal time is still 3:00.

The swim includes getting out of the water and running 200 meters down a dock. 

After my run yesterday where I got a pretty good blister on my heel from not wearing socks, I think I'm going to throw some socks on in T2.  I got these socks (can't remember the brand right now) nothing special to them, but man do they feel good.  I'll let you know the type when I get home.

I'm in our nation's capital (said like Forrest Gump) today.  I did my run yesterday from my hotel to Arlington National Cemetery, walked to a few friend's graves, then back to the entrance, then ran across to the Lincoln Memorial and over the bridge into Arlington again to my hotel.  It was a good day to run.  Blisters and all...

I don't know if you guys experience this, but when I taper, I find all these little aches and tweaks that start worrying me.  I have a pain on the inside string of my ham strings and it's tight.  Then I have soreness on the bottom of my right foot.  Neither are bad.  But they're annoying when you don't have any way to make everything else sore by working out so you can ignore them...

Anyway, hope everyone's having a good week.  I'll check in again soon.

Just saw this Dave,

I was thinking of wearing my Marine Corps tri top, but I think I need to lose about 15 lbs to wear that again...So, I'll wear my zoot tri shorts, a Running Sports Racing tank (it's made by brooks, really light, I like the cut of it and it's easy to put on in T1). 

I never wear socks when I ride, but I'm definitely going to in my run (see above post for why).

I wear a zoot visor, race belt (with my race number, not a hydration belt), sunglasses, and I'll carry my Camelback Bottle with some gatorade that I'll freeze the night before.

I can't wait to read some race reports from everyone!  

I ran 8 miles this morning and felt pretty good.  My calves, feet and achilles all held up pretty well.  I'll be registering for my Oly tri sometime this weekend.

Hey all!

Dprocket - for me, the biggest consideration for one piece or two piece tri suit was um....how easily I could use the potty, lol. And pre-race, believe me I am glad I chose the two-piece 

Had a 5k last night. 34:15.  I used my FR70 and it gave me some good info. I loved the fact that my chip time and my FR70 were exactly spot on to the second!  I experimented with my cadence during the race and found when I went up to 180 sps I actually slowed a bit. I think I'm trying to force it and I'm learning not to try new things during a race!!!

Will pop in later to catch up the posts...have been swamped with grad school work and heading shopping with my little girl!

Have a great weekend!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=443673&posts=1&start=1

this is my race report from this morning.  I finished my OLY in 3:08:13, and was very pleased with the result.  I crossed the finish like tired, but smiling, which is all I can ask for.

Great job stegaman!  I really enjoyed reading the race report. I can relate to you when you say "genetics" will always keep you in the middle of the pack.  

I officially signed up for my race on 6/16 yesterday.  I'm now on the hook.  I had held off simply because I kept getting injured but now I'm officially "in" and suddenly I'm nervous.

Stegaman I noticed that you said your focus was staying in aero for almost the entire ride.  Unfortunately, I'm never in areo.  I just haven't gotten comfortable enough with my handling.  Hopefully I can get some miles in this week and get more comfortable.  

riding in areo for me just came with lots of practice.  The spin bikes that I use at they gym have aero bars, so I did lots of time on them just getting comfortable with the position and trying to stay in it as long as possible.  Once out on the road, I started off trying to stay in aero on straight, flat road, which is abundant around my house.  I also practiced a lot of going back and forth between aero and sitting upright.  Right now, i'm to a place where I can make slight curves in aero where I don't need to brake, but if brakes are required, then i'll sit upright for that part.  I also sit up to drink, which I try to do about every 5-10 minutes or so. 

Yesterday's race was mostly straight, with only a few slight turns, 4 90 degree turns, and 3 turn arounds.  On the bigger turns, I would sit up, brake, make the turn, and then be right back in aero for another long straight away.  It also helped that the wind was light compared to the normal 25mph+ winds that I deal with, even though it was a crosswind for most of the course.  Being comfortable in aero, for me, just took lots and lots of practice over the last 6 months or so.

Great job Stegaman and great race report!

If anyone is interested, here is my race report from the sprint tri I did on Saturday.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=443850

Hey guys,  I don't have much time to get my race report done right now and it doesn't work so well on my ipad, so I'll see if I can get it tomorrow morning. 

Funny thing is that Stegaman and I finished 3 seconds apart. 

I had a great swim, except that I was slogging through the first 3 waves from the Oly and a few stragglers from the HIM.  The swim was actually 1.13 miles according to my garmin and looking at the map, I kept really clean lines. 

My transitions were very good I think.  My bike was pretty solid but I hammered too hard on the "hills" (overpasses and bridges).

I started the run great and did about 1.4 miles at a 9:28 pace.  Then I looked down for my gu and it wasn't there so I had to grab an Accel Gel.  Accelerade/Accel products and my stomach are not friends.  I had stomach cramps from 2.5 miles to the end.  Leading to an 11:38 average pace and a 3:08 finish.  It was really hot during the run too, but that's no excuse.  It really came down to the fact that my stomach was killing me.

I still finished first in my category (0-39, 200-224 clydes), and got some really good experience.

I'm so swamped today that this took me 3 sittings to get to it.  I will have some more time tomorrow I think, so I'll try to get a race report and tell you about my master plan from here.

Later guys!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/races-edit.asp?raceid=224283

My 4pm call pushed to 5pm so I had time to get this done. 

Gomes, great job on the race this past weekend.  

Chick, I read your report as well and it sounds like it went really well and everyone had fun.

I'm learning a ton from each of you as I prepare for my own race (such as don't tape stuff too tight to my bike and don't try any new nutrition mid race!).

That said, I feel I could really use some advice at this point from this group I'm learning from.  My race is on 6/16 and there's no pulling out (I don't want to).  However, this morning I went for a a planned 5 mile run and I could tell right away my achilles was too tender to handle it.  I ran about 1 mile and walked home.  After my last achilles flair up I did not run for 5 full days and then did an 8 miler this past Saturday.  I'm feeling that if it is rested it fully, I can run on it for my race.

I'm seriously thinking of hanging up running until my race.  I have 9 training days left before race day.  If I do that, I think I will give that achilles time to repair and heal.  I know I can do the distance (7.5M run course) because I've run that far, but do you think my conditioning would plummet?  

I could use the remainder of those days to work on my bike and swim (although I'm super comfortable in the water).  Thoughts?  Am I crazy to be thinking this way?  I admit, I may just be depressed from today's workout not going well.

dprocket, in my personal opinion, I think you will be fine.  With 9 days, the rest for that achilies is probably the best thing you can do for it.  By continuing to swim and bike in the days leading up to the race, your stamina and conditioning should be fine.  I would just be cautious on the bike climbing any hills where you come out of the saddle.  That would put added strain on your achilies.  I would opt more towards going into the small ring and spinning.  I hope this advice helps, but interested in what others have to say.

So questions for those who've raced recently...how is your recovery?  When do you plan on kicking up the training again?  when is your next race?

For me, my calves and the outside of my hips are sore still, but I thought it would be a lot worse after my first OLY.  I hope to ease back into my early morning running tomorrow, but I don't know if thats going to happen yet.  As for my next race, I am hoping to do a HIM at the end of the summer.  I wanted to do the redman since its so close to me, but my wife scheduled our family vacation over that weekend, so thats not gonna happen.  Now i'm thinking about doing the Prairieman on Sept. 8.  I might also do a sprint sometime in July. 

Recovery for me is good.  I raced a sprint on Saturday and pushed the pace in the bike and run.  I took off Monday and went back to training today.  Swam 1300 yds in the am and just finished a challenging 14.6 mile bike.  Strong wind gusts out there this afternoon.

Recovery also will depend on distance and effort from your race.  You will need more recovery time for an Olympic as opposed to a sprint.  Then more for a HIM as opposed to an Olympic.  Of course more for an IM than a HIM.  

When I did my first HIM on May 5, I was planning on taking a complete week off.  I was expecting to be sore for several days.  That was not the case for me as by Wednesday of the following week, I felt fine.  I started light workouts on Thursday.

My next tri is a sprint on July 21.  I have a 5K on June 30.  I am going to race in another HIM on October 13. My training will be a plan for the HIM with those races during the training.  I will alter my training accordingly for those events.