Beginner 1/2 Ironman Plan Group (Page 83)

A little nerves is a good thing! Race morning your adrenaline will give you the extra little umph you'll need for the swim.  Choose a conservative start position and then kick the swim in the butt!!!

Hope your run went well today! I have a 90 minute run scheduled for tomorrow to end my run focus week.

To answer your rhetorical question above, we do it because everytime we finish a workout we feel good. Even when we feel physically spent, deep down we feel good! No one can take it away from us; EVER! A week from now you'll have finished a 70.2 mile race! I just went for a 70.2 mile ride on my motorcycle and lemme tell you something ...... finishing a HIM is a BIG frekin accomplishment!

Love the pictures Kathy! So excited for you and your race.

I suggest running that last tenth, and making it a full 70.3.  That way you won't miss the crowds cheering for you at the finish line.  

I cut the corners real close to shorten the distance :-)

I'm on my way to the grocery today and say to my wife, "Steve's probably just starting his ride!"

She looked at me like WTF so I explained. Then she said, I didn't know Kona was this early in the year - LOL. I explained again!

Can't wait to hear how it went today pops!

Nice post here. Using the 1/2 plan to prep for my first triathlon ever.

Next month 1st short X-terra, 1.2 km swim, 18 bike, 5 run just to practise and hopefully not come last. August X-Terra in the Czech Republic 1.2 swim, 35 bike, 12 run looking forward and feeling stronger every week. Lot's of things to learn since the last weeks, keeping intensity, eating, eating, eating using a log to keep track and I never thought but I wasn't eating nearly enough to keep up with the excercise!

Any tips on how to make the schedule a bit flexible? Balancing work, family and sports makes it a bit of a juggling act sometimes.

Good luck to all with the upcoming events!!

Cloggie

Great Job Steve! I checked in last night before I hit the pillow to see if you'd posted yet and it's the first thing I'm looking at this morning! Way to go buddy! You conquered the Queen K AGAIN!!! Running on golf courses is like running on sand. All the fairways around me are watered very well, and I imagine the same is true in Hawaii.

The death shuffle - LOL

That was a pretty brave swim start position. Was it an in water start or a beach start? 1800 people is a big group of friends to be swimming with.

Enjoy the rest of your vacation and congrats again on your success.

Great job Pop's! So happy to hear it went well for you. Way to keep yourself moving on a tough run. Wish we could buy one for you!

Just had a great run! I'm working on nutrition prior to longer run sessions to avoid stomach cramps and I think I figured it out - glass of water, half bagel with peanut butter, a banana, and 2 ibuprofen an hour and a half before run. Drank 1.5 bottles ice water during the run and had a gel at 45 minutes.

Mile splits were:

9:04, 8:49, 8:42, 8:25, 8:21, 8:13, 8:02, 7:58, 7:54, 7:46, 7:50.

By far my best long effort to date - 8:17 average and I had good energy at the end. I really am becoming a fan of running with compression socks. If you haven't tried it, DO IT. My calves feel virtually nothing in the way of discomfort or soreness during or after the run.

Got my wife out of bed and had her ride her bike alongside me. It was nice to have company and a place to store my fluids/nutrition (in her bike basket). My Garmin would beep every mile, she'd pull up and hand me the bottle, I'd stop running, take a few sips, give it back to her, and get back to business. It was like having an ice cream truck following me!

Nice job Pops, Very inspiring!!!!

Nice splits DV, I need to have my wife do that for me

I did my first Tri ever yesterday. The main thing I learned is Triathletes are TOUGH!!! I ended up missing my goal by 2 minutes. I was third in my age group going into the run and couldn't get my legs going soon enough. I am officially starting the HIM training tomorrow with a rest week planned. Here is a link to my race report if anyone is interested.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=254998&posts=1&start=1

gane mi categoria!  It seems I took 1st in my age group!  I'm absolutely shocked.  38C and my time was 6:22 I think.  I didn't stop my watch and didn't even start it on the swim - just at the bike - but unofficial results say #1 at 6:22ish.  Maybe I was the only one?    Actually, there were at least 6 as my bike rack was full.  prizing is at 8pm so I'll find out for sure then.  (sorry, can't rmemeber how we say that in English).

Now to hang wiht the kids as they've been ignored for the last 20 weeks.  Thanks everyone!

Kathy you rock!!! That's amazing.  Sure beats sitting on your duff and knitting, huh. 

YAY!!!  SO HAPPY for you!  Our field was only 500 athletes but then again this is only the 2nd HIM in the entire country so not a bad turnout.  Actually there were more as we had revelos also.

We had coke on course but NOT defizzed!!!  Ack!    We also had people along the route, just private citizens handing out oranges, some INCREDIBLE concoction that I wish I knew what it was and freezing cold water.  it was incredible!   They had a fire truck at one end of the run that doused us with water and a water tunnel.  They had ICE COLD water at each and every run stop food station and towards the 2nd half of the run (it was a 2-loop course) the volunteers were DUMPING freezing cold water on us.  It Was Amazing!  I had such a great time but was doing 9 min run 45s-1min run and by the last 5 km or so it was dissolving quickly into a death shuffle - I know exactly what you were talking about.  I actually got taken to the med tent after as I couldn't stop shaking but after some Electrolit I was fine again.  The race organizers imported some salt tablets (you can't get them here) but I only took 1 on the bike and couldn't find the other 2 they handed out at entrega de paquetes so I'm guessing it was an electrolyte issue.

Congratulations!  I think we'll spend another night here to finally enjoy the area.    Hope you have a good flight home.  You doing an IM next?  All day today I'd be thinking "The IM is going to be 2x this...."  Sigh. 

Pops - I'm super stoked for you Dude!! Fantastic achievement. It is YOU who truly is the one that is an inspiration to ALL of us here, and a testament to how the body can recover and reach new heights!!

Fantastic Bro!!! I take my hat off to ya!! Enjoy the rest of the vacation and the rubbing shoulders with the stars - you definitely deserve it.

Steve

Nice Job Kathy great time, Enjoy the time with the kids!!

My 10 mile run Saturday allowed me to get my head on straight.  I'm back on the horse and focused for this coming up Sunday.  Can't freakin' wait!!!

As Sunday was a day of rest, I used it practice transitions (mounting & dismounting) and most importantly practicing tire changes.  I had never had to use compressed air cartridges before and it was a great learning experience.  Extremely glad not to try and learn this on the course since I had to go back and consult the instructions on the internet twice.

Has anyone had to rack their bikes the night before the race?  If so, what did you about inflating your tires the day of the race?  Did you lug your pump?

We were required to rack ours the night before and my tires were fine (IMO) the next am but they did have mechanical service along the route and may have had standing pumps (and people did bring their own to transistion) so if that is important to you I'd bring a pump.  You just need to either bring someone with you who will lug it back to the car or get to transition early enough that you can lug it back to the car in time.

Woot Woot Kathy!!! Great performance and an awesome finish time (I'd love to get a time like that in my HIM in Calgary on Jul 31). All the training certainly paid dividends for ya and also prevented you from filling the house with "Knitted bootees."

Way to go lady!!!!

Steve

Kathy - Congrats on a successful race! You did it :-) Sounds like the on course aid was top notch - ice baths, cold water, etc.... That must have felt sent from the heavens! Awesome accomplishment!!!

Joe - Glad you got your head back :-) That was the last long effort before your race and it sounds like it put you in a good place! Is your race on Saturday or Sunday?

To MRI or not to MRI ($600)? The past week my knee has started to get sore on the lower lateral side. It actually feels totally normal when I'm working out, but as soon as I stop, it's painful. I'm thinking a solid week of good stretching/icing, and then maybe go see the doc? Anyone have similar experiences where the pain is only evident when you're NOT working out?