Beth and Yanti's New Manatees - FULL! :-) (Page 9)

This is why Yanti and Beth recommended following a training plan. It is (in most cases) prooven to work. Its intent is not only to bring you to a point which you can finish a triathlon or a race, but also how to get there injury free. Rest is always an important part of a training plan.

I've seen people (also here on BT) which after reading a lot, and after training for a few years decided to come up with their own training plan. Then, they start following it or just making up a workout "as-it-feels" on a day by day basis - and then guess what? A week or two before their race - they get injured and cannot race... I've seen it happens and decided to learn from their mistakes - I always follow a prooven plan. It just makes my life easier - afterall.

Beth,

I totally agree with everything you wrote. I also think that joining a masters program is one of the best move one can do.  Once you join it, assuming you checked on the coach first, all the other points that Beth wrote will be covered. At least in my experience.

I joined a masters program a few months ago. I was hesitant and felt intimidated - specially, as someone who had never formally learned how to swim. I swim in one of the slowest lanes - but don't really care. I improved a lot and it increased my self confidence in the water to the point that I volunteered as a "swim buddy" in a local sprint race.

I can't wait to the "Cycling Talk" - as there I need some decent help

I understand the need sometimes to just go out for that long ride or even run. Sometimes you gotta. The beauty of following a plan, though, is that you count it as part of the plan, and you don't wind up repeating a long ride or run just because you needed to go for one earlier.

The other thing about "going long" is that you do it slow and steady. You'll hear a lot around here about LSD, which means Long Steady Distance or Long Slow Distance. The plans are usually pretty clear about it, but in any case, your longest distances of the week are meant to be done at a comfortable pace.

Don't increase distance OR intensity too much in any one workout or any weeks' total.

Well, Manatees - it's official!

It's official!  I received this very nice email today

Thanks everyone!  I'm pretty excited - and a bit nervous

Kristin (lazymarathoner) is going to pace me - which will really, really help!

Inspires

what are Inspires? - they are a way to leave a message of inspiration, motivation, a KIA, a simple hello to a fellow manatee - or anyone on BT

how to Inspire someone? - click on the link to their training blog - for the manatees, you should be able to do this from the table (I hope ) - once you are in their blog you will see a link that says 'inspire me' - click on that link, a window will open up and you can leave your message

how will I know if someone inspires me?  - you will see a red number to the right of the 'Inspire Me' link - that shows how many people have stopped by to inspire you - click on the 'Inspire Me' link and enjoy

how to reply to an inspire? - this is confusing (sorry marma) - if someone leaves you and inspire and you want them to see the reply - click on 'blog'  - if you are using Internet Explorer, it will open 2 new windows and you will be linked to the persons blog and their inspires - you can then find your response and reply - on Mozilla, it opens one window with two tabs and you toggle back and forth between the blog and the inspire window -

if you click on 'reply', it actually posts the reply in your blog and it's unlikely that the sender of the inspire will see your reply - I did this for months before I asked someone :/

one other thing to be aware of, is that if you 'blog' your reply to an inspire, it updates the same date the inspire was left - so if someone left you an inspire more than a day or two ago - it's probably best to go directly to their blog, otherwise it's highly likely that they will not see your reply

Beth,

This is great. You will be awesome!

Best wishes

!!NYRR Manhattan Half-Marathon - January 25th!!

You're more than welcome! We love having you as a Manatee and are here to support.

The plans include base training, but you are already coming in with a significant base. There are several good plans I could suggest:

Olympic 20-weeks Swim Focused
Intermediate Olympic 21-week
Intermediate Olympic 26-week

Look at these plans and see what kind of training commitment you really feel like you can make over the long haul.

There's no reason you can't add in extra swims, but just make sure that these are VERY easy swims, technique-focused ... in other words, make sure your extra swims are like active recovery, that they are very easy and energizing.

As for where to begin--you should probably scale back a little bit; it's really wise to do so once in a while and the plans have this built in. You don't need to scale back too much, maybe 2/3 of what you're already doing ... but MAKE SURE that on the "easy" or "rest" weeks (these are every 3rd or 4th week) you scale ALL the way back to what's on the plan.

This is especially important as you have a considerable training volume already. The difficulty there can be burnout. Make certain, even as you're following a plan, that if you need a day or two off, take it! That's fine and even necessary! STAY FRESH and EAGER TO TRAIN, and scale back as much as necessary and take time off as much as needed so that you are making the most of when you do train.

Thank you Beth, this is most helpful!

Joel

Ronen - let's start the Cycling Talk!

I can't promise to have the answers, but among us all, I bet we can come up with some really good stuff

where should we start?

my pleasure

Ride Lots. It's deceptively simple, but it's really true. And remember--from Base Training--the more steady/slow you ride, the more you can ride.

For beginners and those in base training--that would be most of us--flats are best, but you can include easy rollers or long, gradual inclines.

I managed to put in a lot of good volume for my training season last year just by being a cycle commuter--and none of my trips are more than 15 minutes long, even though they all add up over the course of a day and definitely over time. It all counts!

And this was "extra" training--this was in addition to training. It's best to follow a plan, but where you might add, make sure you're adding easy and not too much. The nice thing about biking is that it doesn't pound you like running does, so for sure going for an extra 15-minute bike ride several times a week, for example, is not going to tire you out or overtrain you.

A Most Excellent start to the topic of cycling

Beth and Yanti, and other pod mates- I just want to say Thank You for getting this board off to an awesome start. It stinks that I have to work, I can't wait to sit here and just read, read, read, everything on this thread!!

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Hi Erin ,

Sounds like you have some good resolutions - especially the stretching one

I'm not real big on resolutions either - so I haven't really thought of any, if I do, they will be simple, like yours

Hi Joel

many races may already be open for registration - I know the one I have done the past couple of years that is in June is already open

you might want to look into it and see if there's a race in your area you could register for - get it on the calendar now (or soon )

then you will see your dreams start to become reality!