Hokies 1st Timer's Group - FULL (Page 9)

Agreed christi, I am a sucker for the latest shiny gadget.

Great effort Barb!! I can't say that i've ever been snowed in but I would fine it hard to leave the house if everything was closed.

Sorry guys, but i think i would be Austin in the dialogue. lol =D



Edited by jamesjong 2011-01-16 3:31 AM

Out on the bike today for the 1st time in awhile.  I love riding my bike!!!  Run in store for this afternoon.

Very jealous - I haven't been outside on my bike in over 1 month. Have a great ride!

I have a run penciled in for today, but am feeling a bit 'queasy' after the Falcons game last night. I may have had 1 beer too many.

I think the Falcons may have had one to many beers as well!!

I was rooting for the Falcons myself, but don't really mind that GB won, so no beer was involved here.  Today, a  no-win situation as I usually root for both the Bears and Seahawks (underdogs and NW teams).    Besides football, just wanted to tell you that vitamin B1 is excellent at preventing, and to a lesser degree, helping get over, hang overs.  Pop a couple the next time you may have had 1 too many, you'll feel better when you wake up.  Of course, you  probably know that water is your friend now.  Hope you feel better soon.
Christi

I am re-thinking my gadgets a bit....yesterday's walk, was a gadget pain.  I can't imagine adding another component:  Get the ipod ready, ie the pedometer is on and shuffle is ready to go, slip it in the pocket and put the ear buds in. Check.   Unplug the phone from the charger and bring up Mapmyfitness (MMF), oops go back and turn the GPS program on, then back to MMF and the ready screen.  Ok hold the phone until the car is locked and the jacket is zipped and I'm carrying my route map.  Get out of the car and find a place to put the keys, press start MMF and begin walking and place phone in pocket.  While walking: press play on iPod, oh it might not track steps if it's horizontal, make my way through the jacket to pants to clip the ipod on.  Ok, things are good, only carrying my map....cool.  Half a mile, creepy guy behind me, where'd he come from? Walk faster, take ear buds out put them away.  He got in a car, whew.  Once I was settled it was fine, but getting started, what laugh. 
And the back of my SUV looks like a gym lost and found bin.....bag with my swimming gear, bike helmet and rain gear, gym workout clothes, running shoes, hat and gloves, plus my karate gear.
It's a good thing I already owned this stuff, or I couldn't afford to start.
Have a great weekend,
Christi

Ha.... Ha...  Christi.  That made me laugh.  Too funny.

Honestly, it's best if we just keep things simple.  Get out the door, exercise, and have fun doing it!!

Hey Gang,

As I was doing my run a couple things come up that I wanted to share with the group.

1)  For you guys doing the Run/Walk protocol ("Wogging" as named  by Barb) it is important when doing the walk that you walk with a high cadence and arm/body movement as though you are running.  It's an important part of the protocol.  Fast Walk.  In fact, train your walk.  You will look silly but that's OK.

2) For those of you using the HR/Steady zone training tips I provided earlier remember for the time being to keep in your Steady/low end Mod-Hard zones.  I think when we 1st start we have the mentality that it's "gotta hurt" before we get any value out of the workout.  That's not the case.  In fact, as you go longer your aerobic endurance is key.  For the time being stay in those zones and you will develop your aerobic endurance and burn fat for energy.  There will be a time to incorporate "hard" into your workouts.

When I head out the door for most of my workouts I check my ego at the door.  Yep, I look silly when I do Run/Walk (at least my wife gets a laugh out of it when she drives by me while I'm walking).  When my plan calls for an Aerobic Run/Bike I cap my HR.  Sometimes people fly past me on rides and it's tempting to pick it up and jump on their wheel.  I let them go.  I'm not super fast (yet) but I have managed to make huge improvements by just following that principle.

Edited by junthank 2011-01-16 1:35 PM

Not that there's anything wrong with that...   

One of my least favorite swims on the plan this morning.  Tough getting out the door this morning but I guess I gotta get it over with!!

Christi, thanks for the B1 hangover tip! I usually chug water before going to bed, but was too disgruntled to bother. So it is my own fault for not feeling well in the morning. I am a huge Falcons fan and was very unhappy about the game. My boyfriend was born and lived in Wisconsin almost his entire life (aka huge Packers fan), and until last night I was ready to root for any team BUT the Pack for the championship and/or the super bowl. Now I've gotten over it, and will be a GB fan for the rest of the post-season. I've been a GB fan for the last few years because of him, just not the past two days.

I still can't believe the Pats lost last night. What a shocker! Any team that makes it to the Super Bowl now has a shot at winning!

Yesterday I did hit the trails for 10 miles. Very snowy and slushy and muddy. Lots of fun for me and the pooch!

Today the plan is to swim at lunch. IF the pool is open. Today is MLK day so I'm not sure if they will hold open swim. I also have a recovery run on the schedule for this evening. Normally I would not run back-to-back days, but I am going to Cancun on Friday so having to readjust my schedule a bit.

Amanda

Amanda,

Go Packers.  And anybody but the Jets.  I like the Jets players but can't stand their head coach.  Just as arrogant as his old man was in Philly when he coached.

Nice run yesterday and Cancun on the schedule later this week sounds like fun. 

Gang,

Great little article from Endurance Nation for the beginner triathlete.  5 Mistakes to avoid.  Don't know that I agree with all of them but generally it's really good advise:

http://www.endurancenation.us/blog/2011/01/17/beginner-triathlon-avoid-these-five-mistakes/

Short read.

Mel: your whistling icon...LOL!  Glad someone else can relate. 

Amanda:  Cancun?!  Fun!  I love running on the beach.  It's the only place I like to run.  

RE NFL football:  I agree about the Jets coach, my husband clued me into the same thing.  But he also further relates that the players have attitudes as well.  Soooo, go BEARS!, or anyone but the Jets.

RE My training: Had scheduling issues.  Back to two swims and two bikes this week.  Wog?  Don't know, we'll see.  Gotta find a way to get my strength training back in the mix too.  Still working on fitting all these pieces together with my already busy life.  Not bad so far, am still adjusting.

Hope everyone's enjoying their 3 day weekend.
Christi 

Hey Christi,

I'm with you on the scheduling issues.  I don't want my workouts to add any addition stress to my life.  I know early on I had issues with my long day workouts.  I would do them on Saturdays and they would wipe me out the rest of the day.  Just so happens that Saturday is cleaning day around our household.  The wife didn't appreciate seeing me on the couch while she was doing chores even if I promised to do them on Sunday.  She would just give me that "look" and say whatever (now that I think about it that's where my son got the word whatever!!). 

Anyway, I changed my long day workouts to Sunday.  Allows me to ride to the gym with the wife on Saturday.  She does her thing in the gym and I hit the pool and sometimes run back home from the pool.  I have enough energy to carry out my responsibilities around the house.  She no longer she sees my workouts as a issue and is on board with my Tri activities.  She is part of my team so to speak.  Problem solved without any addition stress on myself or my family.

You will figure it out.



Edited by junthank 2011-01-17 3:43 PM

So to give you a little more background.....I did a Sprint Triathlon several years ago and nothing since

What's your current long run and long bike like (give me an idea of the distance/time.... i.e... long run 6 miles/1 hour)?  My longer runs have been in the 40 minute range.  I could keep running after this but just set that time as a general guideline.  Basically that puts it somewhere around a 4 to 4 1/2 mile range.  I just recently started back on my bike (on the trainer) been riding for 50-60 minutes, only limited by getting less saddle sore (the legs have been fine)

Although I haven't been doing a ton of steady running, I play full court basketball a couple of times a week for about 2 hours.

And by the way...It's Rob....not sure where "Ron" came from             

Thanks for the input:to Sprint or Olympic

I am having the same problem with finding time to swim. Sometime I feel like I am sabotaging myself by blaming it on the open swim hours, or on being too busy to sneak away during lunch for a quick dip. Really I think it is my weakest discipline, so I am avoiding it. As a runner it is hard for me to give up that time for other sports. I've been okay with the bike because it is so accessible (I have a bike trainer in my TV room!), but I'm sure that will get a little more difficult once the daylight sticks around longer and I can no longer use the darkness as an excuse to get out on the real roads.

I also wanted to comment on the run/walk method. I think it is a great idea, and it is fact how I first started running. I don't use it on the roads, but I use it in trail running either when I am tackling a particularly difficult uphill, or if I'm feeling tired and don't want to face plant on technical trails. But yes, you absolutely must train for the walking portions. They use different muscles and will tire you out in a different way than running.

Amanda

Ron,

I wanted to get back to you regarding your questions about doing a Sprint prior to an Olympic distance race as well as training for an HIM.   From your logs and your plans in Feb. to swim 100K you obviously have the fitness in the water to do any of those distances (HIM included).  I asked a couple questions so that I could get an idea of your run and bike fitness as well as to understand what a long day of training was currently like for you.  Here are my thoughts without having those answers (so they are not specific to you):

Reasons I would do a Sprint 1^st

1) There is a sprint race that looks like it would be a lot of fun.  Hey, we are all in this for fun I hope.  If there is a particular Sprint race that is going to be a ton of fun – do it.

2) It’s the 1^st Tri that you have ever done.  Safest place to get experience.

3) As a tune up for the Olympic.  If you have Olympic “finish” fitness it would be a good distance to tune your “race” fitness (i.e. if you have the endurance to finish an Olympic distance the Sprint would be a good place to test your fast paces).  Perhaps three weeks prior to doing the Olympic.  BTW:  you don’t have to have a “real” race.  Just make one up yourself – I do this all the time in my training.

Training for an HIM

1) I would definitely do an Olympic distance race before doing an HIM unless I demonstrated in my training that I could handle the distance.  For example, my training plan for an HIM has a long swim workout of 3.8K, long run of 2 hours (or 13 miles), and a long bike of 4 hours.   In addition, my “long day” training includes a 45 minute swim, followed by a 4 hour ride and then a 45 minute transition run.  When I did this I felt confident I could “finish” the distance.  I’m not saying you need to hit those numbers just saying when I completed that plan I felt good about doing the distance.

Speaking of “finishing” versus  “racing” Tri’s. With my personal fitness (by that I mean what I expect to have come May) I would do the following:

1)  Sprint  Distance – Go hard the entire distance (i.e. red line it).  Functional Threshold Effort.

2) Olympic  Distance - Go pretty dare hard the entire distance.   Steady effort in the water, hard effort on the bike, steady effort 1^st 2 miles on the run – then hard the rest of the way.

3) HIM Distance – Aerobic Threshold (Steady) effort the entire way.

Everybody else’s approach to doing those distance is going to be different depending upon their own fitness levels.  In my Sprint 1^st Tri I just wanted to finish so I didn’t gun it (and held back).  In my 1^st Olympic I thought I had the fitness to gun it and I blew myself to pieces at mile 4 of the run (had to walk).  The 1^st time I did the HIM distance I had the "blowing to pieces" lesson under my belt so it was a Steady aerobic effort the entire way.

Hope this helps.

Edited by junthank 2011-01-17 8:42 PM

Amanda:
I can relate to doing what you like versus spending the time on what you need the most work. My "issue" area is running.  I want to develop a better baseline so that it's not so miserable. That's what I'm saying now. I think when the weather turns better, it will shake out where my issues are.  Right now training is fairly convenient.  So I'm interested to see what happens when dryer weather is the norm.  I'm hoping the habits I'm developing now will allow me to step up the workouts without feeling bad.
Great info on the walking muscles, very good point.  When I start jogging, I'll keep walking in the routine too.

Edited by cvochristi 2011-01-17 8:19 PM

Rob,

I'm so sorry about the name.  I apologize... as you can probably tell by now I'm a bit scatter brained.

Also,  I missed your response here before I responded to your original question.

Read my response to your original question above.  Personally I don't think that the Olympic distance would be a huge stretch for you.  You have the swim in the bag.  The run and bike distance are a bit above what you currently do (unless your a really FAST dude).  Find a good Olympic distance plan and go for it.





Edited by junthank 2011-01-17 8:48 PM

Super point Amanda.  These feeling are completely normal.  We all have them.  Unlike you orginally I didn't like running.  Just wanted to be out on my bike.  Never did I think I would enjoy running.  Now I have discovered the same enjoyment you get out running.  I actually like my runs as much as my rides.  I look forward to my runs.  Wish I could get that same feeling for my swims.  I'm working on it   

Change is sometimes difficult.

Got a swim with a transition run in this morning. 

Folks, make sure you fit some S/B or B/R or S/R bricks into your training at some point.  Helps you get use to the sensation of running with some fatigue (rather than fresh all the time).  I have not been doing many of these recently.  Did one this morning and legs felt super but my HR was elevated for the pace I was running.

Also, when I run off the bike it always feels like I'm running slow when in fact I'm not.  Often off the bike I run too fast initially and end up cracking myself.  Good to get use to those sensations before race day when your mind might not be thinking clearly.  Even if the transition run is short (15 or 30 minutes) it will be a big help.

Happy Training.

Edited by junthank 2011-01-18 9:24 AM

Hey Christi,

Somehow just about everyday you manage to put a smile on my face.  This cracked me up from your training blog!!

"I just realized that I don't know if the "lap" is 25m or 50m.  Hmmmmm.  Better figure that out."

No matter how you look at it.... it's a win/win for you.  If the pool is 25 meters you were right on the distance.  If it's 50 meters, you go twice as fast and twice as far as you thought you could.  No losing scenerio anyway I look at it.

Keep getting in the pool Christi!!

Edited by junthank 2011-01-18 4:05 PM