MJEWEN Spring 2013 Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 9)

Excited for a one day weather reprieve before a snowstorm is supposed to his us... its going to be in the 50's so my long run can be outside

Yesterday was the indoor triathlon so I'm now officially an indoor triathlete (look forward to removing that "indoor" qualifier later this year).  True to my "landmammal" handle, I got last place in the swim but managed to have the best performance on the spin bikes before settling in for an average run.  I think the last place swim finish was the best thing that could have happened to me in my first race... that's probably the best motivation possible to get better at swimming.

My wife took a short video of me swimming too and I was shocked at the things my legs were doing - almost like they were actually trying to impede my progress through the water but yet still flutter kicking like mad.  What a bizarre disconnect between how I imagine my body is positioned and how its actually positioned while in the water.  I might be on the verge of a *huge* swimming improvement just by fixing this... at least I hope.

Job situation: I've been a software developer for a little over 15 years now and with my present company where I'm a partner  for a little over 10.  

Well done on the Indoor-Tri.  I did not finish my first, I never made it out of the water... it is definitely  a great motivator - 

Congrats Terry on your run!. Ken you will get the hang of swimming just try to move your body like a kayak in the water sort of rotate a little and that will help with the legs.

My workouts have been lack luster I did run a few days ago and got 10minutes in at a slow pace with out any pulling. I need to try out different shoes with more heel cushion. I was happy with the 10 minutes on the treadmill with no issues. My pace is so slow I feel like I have gone backwards on time but I have a lot of time to get faster with the running.

As far as breaks I usually take one or two days off depending on what my work schedule, kid schedule  and volunteering schedule allows. I try to go six days with the sixth day being a light day. I am in the process of revamping my diet also and going further to a vegetarian format and so far that is going alright.  27 days straight of training is amazing!

As far a job goes I am an admin assistant to a police Chief and am the only person in the front office. We only have one female officer, so working with 14 men is somewhat interesting I feel like the den mother sometimes

Wow! I can't believe how fast time goes by some days! I often lay my head down and night and think, "I should go look at the BT forum. I haven't logged on for awhile." Then, I say, "Well, it is too late at night now, maybe tomorrow." Before I know it, several days have gone by! This doesn't mean I haven't been training. It actually means quite the opposite. My training is sometimes occurring twice daily (early morning run or bike) then swim in evening, plus some weight training when I can fit it in. 

I am starting to actually like swimming and have begun reading a very good book that a friend loaned to me, "Total Immersion." I am beginning to implement some of the training/swimming techniques, which make a lot of sense, but are not easy to adapt to. I am basically training my body to do unnatural moves that I'm not used to doing in the water. But already I can feel like I am a better swimmer because of it, so I guess that is good. 

I feel good about my training times and amount of time before my Triathlon June 2, but I know there's a lot I can improve on until then.

In Nebraska the winter hasn't been too bad, but normal running temp lately is about 20-some degrees, and occasionally lower due to windchill factors. My body feels good most of the time and overall am feeling healthy. Just trying to get enough sleep every night is my main goal!

So glad everyone is doing well and I love reading about all your ideas and it is so inspiring! Plus, not many friends understand my desire and determination to put forth this time and effort to train for a tri. So when I read your posts, I don't feel so crazy and alone!

Will try to do better about touching base more often. But know that if I don't post, I am more than likely doing well and training as scheduled. If you hear a lot from me it would be because I am injured and have a lot of rest time! Ha!

Take care everyone!

Wow! I can't believe how fast time goes by some days! I often lay my head down and night and think, "I should go look at the BT forum. I haven't logged on for awhile." Then, I say, "Well, it is too late at night now, maybe tomorrow." Before I know it, several days have gone by! This doesn't mean I haven't been training. It actually means quite the opposite. My training is sometimes occurring twice daily (early morning run or bike) then swim in evening, plus some weight training when I can fit it in. 

I am starting to actually like swimming and have begun reading a very good book that a friend loaned to me, "Total Immersion." I am beginning to implement some of the training/swimming techniques, which make a lot of sense, but are not easy to adapt to. I am basically training my body to do unnatural moves that I'm not used to doing in the water. But already I can feel like I am a better swimmer because of it, so I guess that is good. 

I feel good about my training times and amount of time before my Triathlon June 2, but I know there's a lot I can improve on until then.

In Nebraska the winter hasn't been too bad, but normal running temp lately is about 20-some degrees, and occasionally lower due to windchill factors. My body feels good most of the time and overall am feeling healthy. Just trying to get enough sleep every night is my main goal!

So glad everyone is doing well and I love reading about all your ideas and it is so inspiring! Plus, not many friends understand my desire and determination to put forth this time and effort to train for a tri. So when I read your posts, I don't feel so crazy and alone!

Will try to do better about touching base more often. But know that if I don't post, I am more than likely doing well and training as scheduled. If you hear a lot from me it would be because I am injured and have a lot of rest time! Ha!

Take care everyone!

Job situation: I'm a Junior High school counselor, psychometrist for the entire district, and Jrh/HS wrestling coach.  So I wear many hats at the school and stay pretty hooked up.

Terry - Congrats on the PR's!  Who two PR's that close together is pretty awesome!  It's always a great feeling for me when I set a new PR.

KenH - Congrats on the new distant PR.  That is always cool running/biking/swimming a new distance.

Ken - Congrats on the Indoor Tri!  Your in the same boat as me not a good swimmer but strong runner.  Coming out of the water towards the back just means more people you get to pass on the bike and run!  I'm not a god swimmer so take this advice with a grain of salt but one thing that really helped me with my body position was doing warm up sets with a pull buoy.  I would always warm up with a 200 or 300m easy swim without pull buoy followed up with 8x50 w/ pull buoy then start my main set.  The pull buoy always gave me a feel for the body position I was looking for in my main set and it really seemed to be very effective for me.

Denise - Glad to hear the training is going well!

Emily - I know it is very frustrating when dealing with a injury.  Although glad to hear you had a 10min run without pain that is very good news!  When I'm coming back from an injury I usually try and run 5 days a week but very short for example 10min, 15min, 10min, 15min, 20min would be a weeks workout.  Once I do that I might increase it in very small increments such as 11min, 17min, 11min, 17min, and 23min.  Good luck!

My training has been going pretty well.  This is my last week of wrestling and then I will start adding in swim training.

Ken - That is definitely a good sign if you are feeling strong enough to play tennis after running farther than ever before. No Spanish, ich spreche deutsch :-) Actually, my dream is to do a triathlon in Germany if I could ever manage the logistics. There is one near my in-laws that I would love to do. The town is called Kallmünz, and it is not far from Regensburg.

Emily - that's a good visual with the kayak. And you as a den mother to a bunch of guys! It's good to hear that you have no pain during short runs. 

Congrats again Terry! Way to go on that HM!

Also congrats on your first triathlon, KenL! It sounds like you are on the verge of a big swim improvement by addressing the form issues.

Denise - sounds like you are busy and training is on track! What distance your June 2nd triathlon?

Emile - I admit, I had to google psychometrist. But now that I know what it is, I can imagine that you are quite busy with that work! There is so much emphasis on diagnosing problems and a lot of that is falling on the school districts.

My weekend running was great - I love this cool weather. It has been cold enough to be frosty in the mornings, and by gosh, I will remember these days later this summer when the heat and humidity is getting me down.

I had the day off work today so I decided to go to the bike shop to look for a different saddle.  When I bought the bike during my fit I tried a Adamo saddle and I just didn't like it.  So decided to try and give the stock saddle a shot but I found out quickly the stock saddle wasn't going to work for me.  Although due to wrestling season I haven't had a chance to go back and get a different one until today.  I ended up buying a Cobb V-Flow saddle and so far it feels awesome!  I'm ready to take it out for a couple hour ride and really give it a good test ride. 

I visited my tri specific LBS last year and  switched to a Cobb Plus saddle based on their advice.  I also got a total bike fit makeover when I purchased the saddle.  I've been dealing with enlarged prostate issues for a few years and the saddle seems to have helped by not aggravating this area.  I tried many of the noseless type saddles but they only seemed to work on my upright city bikes.  During the fit, I was hooked to a powermeter/graph/trainer.  When fitting the saddle, he was looking for feedback from me on comfort while at the same time observing the changes in my power output.

I now wear a tri type short with minimal padding as I don't want a bunch of padding wadding up and pushing on the nether regions.  Does that make sense?  After years of using regular bike shorts, I've actually changed my opinion to the "less is better" as regards padding.

I agree, butt sore is different than soft tissue issues.

Adjustment is the key to your new saddle.  For example, I was riding last week, didn't see a pothole and WHAM.  I hit hard enough to land on the front of the saddle and rotate it many degrees down.  I didn't have any tools of course (don't  you hate those first after winter rides) so had to use the brute force method to try and get the seat rotated back.  I got very close but it was amazing how much pressure was now on my hands.  I couldn't have been off by more than a degree or two!

Oh - the shop gave me a 30 day trial period.  If I didn't like the saddle, I could return it no questions asked.

And now, a question for everyone.  I'm still riding a road bike.  Because of my prostate issues, I've been leery about making the switch to a tri bike.  Do you think the aerodynamic tri bike position puts more pressure on the soft tissue or does the saddle and proper bike fit negate this worry?  As my bike has a long top tube, I'm considering installing a forward facing seatpost and some aerobars to experiment with the position.  What do you think?

Bill- take your time to get back to it.

Ken- I can't help you on the road bike v tri bike setup... but I am interested in hearing the differences with the cobb flying saddle. My bike has a fizik saddle and it's the only one i've known.  

I have not really done much this week (been in trial all week- we start up again on Monday) but I did manage to register for two 100k (62mile) charity rides on March 3 and March 10. (In anticipation of the 70.3 in May and the Int'l distance on March 23.) I have a 2575 tri tomorrow morning- .75k swim (.46 mile) 20k bike (12 miles) and 5k (3.1 mile) run. It should be interesting to race following a work imposed rest week instead of a race inspired taper week.... 

Thanks for the replies. yea my training log is up to date. I have some big lapses in training due to working alot of overtime recently.  I don't train when I work overtime because I am working 14 - 16 hour days.  But it all works out in the end. My body has time to recover.

The bike shop told me that the seat I have is designed for the type of riding that I should be doing, which is leaned over into the tuck position for most of my riding time. This is in contrast to the other riding style where you are mostly in the upright position.  I have found that simply raising up off of the seat for a minute or so when coasting helps to relieve the pressure/discomfort for a while.  

I do wonder though, do any of you have any recommendations on glasses?  All of the ones I have(which are several) get in the line of sight when I ride in the tucked position. The top piece gets right in the middle of my eyes. I push them up but they don't stay there long. It gets to be a pain in the butt after a while. 

Ken- not sure on which is better. I guess they both have advantages. I do know that my neck and upper back have had to get used to being leaned over and trying to look up while riding on the tri  bike. Don't have that issue with my road bike. Also I feel like it is harder to do deep breathing while leaned over. Nothing major, just some other points to look at if you are considering switching. 

I'm in Atlanta on a trip and have had no internet access for awhile.  A couple of outside runs in shorts but in low 40s and mist so not all that great on the weather side.  But still better than home in MN. 

Ken - you definitely contact the saddle more on the nose on a TT bike in aero position.  I don't know what this means for your comfort and soft tissue problems.  I have been lucky and am fine with stock saddles on both my Felt tri bike and Specialized road bike.  Getting your road bike into a tri bike like fit sounds like a good plan before buying a tri bike.  In theory you should be able to get a correct fit and saddle to allow you to ride comfortable on any bike.  Good luck! 

Bill - Sounds like you are taking the correct actions and exploring every avenue.  I hope you get an answer and better yet one that will allow you to get back to training. 

Denise - I found the Total Immersion concept really helped me to learn proper body rotation.  I don't consider myself a TII swimmer at this point, I have gone away from the early hand entry.  I do give TI credit for improving my body rotation and helping me to learn to breathe on my non-dominate side.  

I wear biking shorts for almost of all my training rides and tri shorts for races up to HIM.  I did wear my biking shorts for my Ironman ride and switched to tri shorts for the run.  I have both bike shorts and bibs and have found the Desoto 400 mile shorts/bibs to be the most comfortable for me. 

Bill - sorry to hear how this thing is dragging on, but you are certainly doing the right thing in spending the time to get a good diagnosis. Frustrating, for sure, but I hope you will soon have a plan in place for addressing this pain.

Terry - how was your triathlon?

Tony - I wonder if there is something you can do with the nosepiece to get those glasses to sit a little higher on the bridge of your nose?

I just did a 5k yesterday with my husband and older daughter. We joined as a team to raise money for the track team at my daughter's school. The weather has been very wet lately. It had been raining all night, was a steady drizzle in the morning and then really poured during the whole 5k. It was nuts - I can't wait to see the photos. Still, it was the most fun I have ever had running a 5k! Kind of like a mud run, I guess - once you accept the fact that you are going to be soaked, it's just fun.

Tony- i have a pair of Tifosi glasses "Podium" that do not have the top frame. They allow you to see clearly while in aero position. Melanie is right though about adjusting the nose piece- I have another pair of glasses and close the nose piece slightly to raise the top frame out of view.

Melanie- Those are the best races to remember. Short, fun, and something to talk about.

Triathlon today was ok for me. I could definitely feel the effect of not training during the week leading up to this event.  It was foggy to begin with and cleared for most of the race, the sun burned through the mist near the end of the run. The swim was ok until the end when the course narrowed as it ran parallel to a pier and there was alot of bumping and swimming into others. I wore the wetsuit- It was definitely good except that towards the end I felt like it was too tight and couldn't wait to unzip it when I got out.  The bike portion- well- I only passed a 14 year old person on a fat tire bike. I have much work to do on the bike. The run was okay- but a short course.. only 2.78 by my Garmin. I felt much better out of transition and was able to stay where I wanted to in the pace. Wore the Newtons and they felt good.  I posted all the data on my training log.

The best part was the after-race nap when I got home .

Bill - well, a dislocated rib sure sounds a lot better than some of the other things they were testing you for!!!!  But - I think I missed something.  How in the world did you dislocate a rib?  Sounds like an interesting story.  BTW - I re-read your beginning email.  Have you found any other crazy triathletes to train with?  I'm 56 and most of the guys that I swim with are in their 30's.  Sure pushes me!

Saddle adjustment - went for a nice long ride yesterday forgetting that I had hit a pothole the week before which had thrown the seat completely out of adjustment.  Needless to say, I spent a good bit of time tweaking it back to being just right.  Luckily, I only had to work with the tilt and the fore/aft position.  

Racing in Feb - just hard to wrap my brain around this.  I'm still skiing.  It was snowing this morning and I didn't think I would be able to get a track run in but now the sun came out, the snow is melting and it's looking better.  I'm just hoping to be ready to race by April!  Luckily, the swim leg of our first race of the season is in the pool.

Ken- Still skiing? The sun set here a little while ago and it's still 80 degrees outside.

Bill- I'm with Ken...how did you dislocate a rib? that is a story I would like to hear......

I picked up a bottom bracket for my bike this weekend, the LBS is putting it on for me...hopefully next race I will be able to pass two 14 year olds pushing their fat tire bikes and eating doritos.....