Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 92)

In a few minutes your race went from well done to fabulutastic.  Great to hear you got more than 10 minutes for free.

Your friends have my prayer support.  I'm glad to hear that the motorcyclist is making a great recovery.  Cancer seems to strike so many people and affect even more lives. 

And I think I can speak for the whole group and say we don't want any of your friends to experience any more problems and we want you to remain healthy too.

Samantha and Tony, we are all looking forward to reading your race reports.  GREAT job!

Dina, you are doing great on your training.   If you don't feel you are strong enough, go to the gym if you have one near and have the time.  They interviewed the olympic gold medal swimmer and he said he really hit the weights hard to improve his swim...but don't listen to me because I'm no swim expert...lol  but GREAT job on the running.

I agree w/ Dirk, you were tremendous at VBS.  I remember to this day when I went.  I enjoyed the smell of the church, the cookies and juice, the activities and the nice people helping.  You left a life long impression on that girl.  And yes Dirk, my faith is very important to me.  A lot of people around here go out on training runs/rides during church on Sunday.  To me it is far more important to give Jesus his time during church.  Shoot I can go out earlier or later, it doesn't have to be during church.

Dirk, you training is so awesome!!!!!  That is impressive!!!!!

Friday, wife and I took our bikes (her new road bike and my tri bike) to be fitted.  It is amazing what a difference it makes.

Well Sturday I went out of an hour ride on my road bike.  When I got home we loaded my sons mountain bike, wife's road bike and my tri bike and took them to a bike trail.  I absolutely love my tri bike.  It took a while to figure out the  gears and the new clips and the instability of being in aero.  However it is incredibly fast!!!  People who thought they were fast (young 25 - 30 year old guys), I was passing once I figured everything out.

Wife was taking it slow, just practicing clipping, unclipping, stopping, starting and getting used to her bike position.  She made big improvements too and loves her bike.

BTW, we just sent in our entry fee for our 1st tri.  It is not until October 27 but it will give us time to focus on our weaknesses (mine swimming, wife's biking)  It will be the 1st for both of us.  It is just a sprint 1/4 mile swim, 13 bike and 3.1 run.

Swimming is getting better, I did 10 laps 2 times yesterday in our back yard pool which is just 40 ft long but hey, that is a BIG improvement for me!!!

Sorry to be so long winded 

Tracy X2! I'm very glad to hear that your friend's recovery is going very well that is great news and I am very sorry to hear about your friend battling cancer. I will certainly keep him in my thoughts and prayers.

Yes....and this is why so many people just conclude that they CAN'T run...'weak knees', 'bad shins'...or whatever ails them.  I'm going on about 2 years of what I still consider 'acclimation' running.  6 days a week, all easy really...except races.  And my legs are feeling better and better each few months.   I still hurt here and there.  I'm struggling with bursitis on my heal and something in my foot that I'm afraid may be a bone.  But so far they are in check and stopping my running isn't warranted yet.  On the other hand, the general pain and achiness of running isn't there anymore.

I have noticed something in my racing.  And it's that the difference between a race where you suffer to the greatest extent possible and the race where you go a notch lower and feel fine and guilty is so much less than we think.  

For instance, if you had gone with those girls on the bike and put in that high effort there, your run would probably have been slower.

If you had pushed the run to the degree that you feel like you should have (prior to the last mile of the run) then you might have exploded and had to really reel things back.

In the future, when you resolve to work your hardest, make sure that doesn't result in going too hard too early.    I know in my personal experience, when I have a pretty great race, I feel the way you describe until I'm at least a mile in to the run....almost feeling guilty about going too easy.

Jeff, thanks for all your advice...I just wish I wasn't so dad gum hard headed.  I start feeling good on the run and I bump it up and train harder and harder, faster and faster and BOOM something blows up...but remember I am a guy and therefore STUPID.  If I ever get the IT band well, (start therapy Wednesday), I will FOCUS on not being so stupid and going slow and easing back into the run.

Again, thanks for all your advice.  I really do try to listen and I really appreciate what you do.

I have finally posted my first race report.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=453322

Long winded is good!  Makes for good reading

I would tend to agree.  Whenever I hear people say they are "injury-prone" I wonder if this is actually the case, or if they just do not build slowly enough. (assuming they are a generally normal person with generally normal anatomy.)  During high school, I felt like I was always getting injured (the frequent running injuries), but I wouldn't say that was because I was injury prone, but because the build wasn't there, doing too much too soon type thing.  Nowadays I *try* to be more patient and *try* to be more conscious of building more slowly (not saying this is always the case )... and that also includes swimming and biking.  Patience IS important.  Also the Olympics has also made me realize more so, building your base takes TIME.  Obviously we're speaking on a completely different level talent wise here, but they got faster over years and years (and years) of consistent training.

I see what you're saying... That's the balancing act that I think I will learn only through experience, and I guess this race was one such experience!

The other thing that I was thinking about that has been weird for me is the lack of races.  This is my second year of triathlon, and in my first year, I basically had a sprint every month, May through August.  This year yesterday's is only my second race of the year with the other being what seems like months ago... the difference is I think the fact that I don't really have a single target race (first year was the HIM in September)... which I like to have.  This is more or less something for me to think about for next year, to have that goal late summer/early fall race, with smaller races in between.

Tony - great race report man, the details are the important part because they're what make the difference! Congratulations on the first finish and roll on plenty more!

Sam - Great race too - don't be disappointed with not quite getting the effort level right, pacing is a part of the race too and the right pace changes from minute to minute and day to day!

Skimping on the responses a little here, but I'm having a minor panic about my Olympic this weekend...I'm probably under trained for it, but you can be sure I'll be ready to go. I need to update my logs though - I've done more than it shows!

Taper-wise I'm not really going to, except that'll I'll back down the intensity starting tomorrow and the volume on Friday. Saturday I plan on running through each sport just to knock the rust off... Should this be done as a "brick" with like 10-15 minute transitions or as three separate workouts.

Also - I moved a spacer out from under my bars on my bike... but now I'm not convinced they are completely straight with the wheel... Is there a tool or a trick to making sure it's straight? I'm not an awful mechanic, I've just convinced myself it's no longer straight, so in my mind it never will be!

I'll have more paranoia for you tomorrow I'm sure!

John

For the swim experts...  Is it OK to swim every day or do you need to take days off.  I don't want to do like I did in running and do to much to fast and get injured.  Remember I have just started swimming and have 0 base.  I am just learning to swim, so can I really increase the distance, like going from 400 yards to 600 to 1,000 and not get hurt?

2nd question  Is swimming like running in that the first 10 minutes or so is bad, then you get in a grove and can just go and go.

Not a swim expert, but.  

With any of the 3, I would say it's about building slowly.  I don't think it's a problem to build up your swims to the point where you swim everyday, if that's what you want to do.  (Same thing with biking and running, too.)  That said, if it were me and I were starting from scratch to build a base (which I was earlier this year after my hiatus), I like to give myself 1-2 days in between each swim/bike/run and not do the same discipline on consecutive days. Over what period of time are you talking about going from 400 to 600 to 1,000?

As for the second question, sure, I would say so.  Personally, I start off all my swims with 10-15 minutes of easy swimming (total swim time is generally 30-40 minutes.)  Without the warmup, I don't think I'd feel as good for the main set.  (Don't forget to cool down too.)

What type of swim workouts, distance, etc. are you doing right now?  And how many times per week?

I just looked at my own logs from earlier this year.  I wouldn't consider myself a beginner swimmer, so take this as you will, and I think I was being overly cautious (and at times just didn't get to the pool...)  In February, I was swimming once a week, when I went from 400 to 600 to 1,000.  (Funny those are the numbers you mentioned. ) Then, I was swimming 2-3 times a week (mostly 2x), with each swim being 800-1,000 through March.  In April I was swimming generally 2 times per week, workouts generally 1200-1400m.  etc.  Of course, this is just one example, and your method may vary.

Thanks Samantha, well when I started in March I could swim maybe 10 - 15 yards before I had to stop and rest...very embarassing.  I'm really focusing on the swim because 1) that is my weakness and 2) it will soon be to cold and our pool is not heated.  Not many heated pools in FL but our blood is REAL thin...lol So by Oct, I will not be getting in the pool, but will have to go to the city pool.

I'm trying to swim almost every afternoon and a couple of times during the morning but the sessions only last 30 - 45 minutes total.  I am only swimming about 600 yards now but only have been doing that for a couple of weeks.  It took me a LONG time to get to 50 yards without stopping, now I can do maybe 150 or maybe more.  I'm being conservative and stopping before I get to tired and form goes to pot.  So should I go ahead and increase to 1,000 or keep it around 600 for a few weeks, then 800, then 1,000?  Those are total yards, not, nonstop.

Hopefully someone else will chime in too, but I like your approach.  I checked your logs, and it seems like you've had this approach of lots of short swims for a few months now.  The other thing is, sometimes I do think short but frequent works.  I'd say since you've been doing this for awhile now that you've adapted to it, and it's probably safe to continue as you're doing.  The best thing is to listen to your body.

I also think varying your workouts works.  If you've been doing 600, I would do 600s a few times a week, and add in an 800 once or so.  Maybe the next week do mostly 600s, and do 900-1000 once.  And so on.  Then maybe the next week do 600, 600, 700, 600, 900. As an idea.

The other thing that you may want to consider adding in maybe once a week to start, is faster swimming too.  Maybe start off by adding in 4x25 or 4x50 or something.

Hey Junkies, Just dropping a quick note in here. Got short workouts in today even though were are on vacation. On a short ride with the kids today my mother-in-law took us to a public velodrome! I only had my mountain bike at the time but I still got out there and did a couple of laps. Those corners are steep! Hope everyone's training is going well.

Karl by no means am I an authority on swimming but being that I have just gotten started and have only been swimming about 8 months I can tell you what I have done. I have tried to focus less on speed and more on my form and my endurance. I have been swimming at least two days a week and sometimes three. The more you can get out and swim the better you will become. I also tried to increase my distance each week gradually pushing myself to swim a little further non stop until I got myself up to the point where I could do the distances required for the triathlons in am going to do this year. So I had been working to get myself up to 1600 meters or around a mile non-stop. It took some time for me to get there. Lately I have been much focused on working on my open water swimming and building my endurance there. I am getting closer now to being able to swim two miles. I think you should focus on your form and technique but try and push yourself distance wise a little further each week. I am sure everyone here doing this much longer than I have can offer better advice but this has been my approach.

KWDreamun - 2012-08-01 9:33 AM Tony, sorry but that is funny, glad U were not hurt! 

Karl thanks and the only thing that I hurt was my pride

Hey everyone, I've been awol for a while but I'll catch up.  I had a great "reunion" weekend with a few buddies from high school and their families.  Got in some biking but running is off course.  Matt, I'm opening the door for you to overtake me!

And yes Tony, that's gotta make you laugh.  I wish there were video...