Gat's Mentor Group - Closed (Page 2)

I am in the "it's now or never" mode. Mitzi

Welcome Roger, how can I turn a fellow clyde away.  You are certainly in.  I will start by saying congrats on your weight loss.  This is one of the things that I consistently battle with so I understand and appreciate your efforts here.  I like fish and a lot of good foods, but I certainly enjoy cold beverages and some food that is certainly not so good.  Training for tris and races in general has allowed me to control my weight, but I have never gotten to where I want to be mostly because I have not been disciplined enough.  I am competitive and would like to get in shape enough to compete in my age group, which is by far the toughest IMHO.  However, there are others times when I feel that I train and race so that I can enjoy life, and if that means cold beer and a burger, than so be it.  It is a fine line.

I can appreciate your comments about doing your first sprint and almost dying on the swim...been there and done that.  I remember the first time I got in the pool to start preparing for a race.  I was thinking that this should be easy, because I know how to swim and I swam a bunch as a kid.  I jumped in the pool and started pounding away down the pool and back.  I then clung to the wall out of breath and with my heart trying to jump out of my chest.  I could not believe it.  I thought I am in pretty good shape and I cannot swim hard 50 yards.  It was a very humbling moment in my life only to become more humbled by my first sprint.  Anyway, live and learn and like anything swimming gets much easier as you spend more time in the water and learn about proper breathing and pacing.  Welcome aboard and let the journey begin.   

Well, it appears that our mentor group has grown to 9 and includes the following:  MuscleMomma, Moose22, Jana0317, Johnlj101, Bullskier, Duffers, Ball6135, Ctnord and rogerbalser.  I think I will leave the group open for a few more days to see if we grab lucky number 10.  Ten seems like a nice round number and would hopefully make for a good group.  I would ask the group at this point to give some thought as to what they would truly like to get out of this mentoring group.  I think that many of us are likely looking for similar things, but it might workout best to toss out some thoughts to help get things started.  Further, it would also be helpful to know if anyone has any questions about nutrition, training, strategies, etc.  I guess I am looking for ideas so that we can take this in a direction that best suits folks. 

The floor is open.  What would we like this mentoring group to accomplish???

Also, I have mentioned this before and several people are using the training logs, however, not everyone.  Certainly just my two cents here, but these logs are very helpful in tracking your training and progress.  They are also good to track your race and goals, as well as to motivate others in the group.  Also, search around on this site, there are some very dynamic logs/blogs out there.

Well I will start with the first "not stupid" question. 

 Being that I will do my frist ever Tri this Memorial Day weekend and having never done an open water swim I am curious about how lap tool times/effort relate to the open water.  I would assume you are slower.  I understand there are aspects of the open water which are going to be a completely differant experience (foot in the face) but is it more draining for a similar length in a lap pool?

FYI I am going to try and do a simulated OWS tomorrow morning (if the rain holds off). We are fortunate to have a spring fed (64 deg) 200 meter long pool here in austin. I figure 3 turns for 800M is beter than 31 as a test run.

John

I'm interested in joining, if this group is still open.

Background

33 year old father of 2 boys, ages 8 and 7.  Both are active in church, school, soccer and judo.  I am married, 11 years to a very supportive woman.  I work as a fire fighter/paramedic on one of the busiest ambulances on the Big Island of Hawaii. 

I played football and wrestled in high school.  Spent 4 years in the Army as a medic.  Got married during that time, became a civilian paramedic and spent the last 8 years in the fire department. 

2 years ago at my fire physical I weighed in at 235 pounds.  I am 6 feet tall.  I actually had lost some weight before hand topping off at almost 250 the year before.  I started running 4 months later, August 2006, as a effort to get back into shape, and kept going.  I am currently about 180 pounds and running feels a bit easier now.

Races: 

My first race was the Big Island Marathon, March 2007.  I did a total of 6 marathons during the next year.  I have some friends who are IM Kona vets and they encouraged me to start training for tri's.  I did a sprint tri, duathlon, biathlon and a couple 5k's and 5 mile races in between those marathons.  6 marathons may seem like a lot, but I try to take my time, learning w/ each one, and being very stubborn helps out a lot.  I had a few friends tell me I was crazy and other tell me I'd destroy my body.  While I may possibly be crazy, my body stood up pretty well.

2008:

I signed up for my first endurace tri, the Hawaii HIM on May 31.  Otherwise I'll probably do 3-4 Marathons and any other local races my schedule permits.  The HIM is my A race this year.  Being a Hawaii resident there are specific slots for the Kona IM available at this race, and I'm hoping to qualify.  My goal is to qualify for and race Kona by 2009. 

My training has been going pretty well up to last week when I crashed on my bike, injuring my left shoulder.  I haven't gotten a swim in yet, but I'll need to start a swim focused session soon, w/ the race only 3 1/2 weeks away. 

I'm hoping this group could help me to stay motivated during the final weeks of my race prep.  Maybe I could help motivate others along the way.

Mahalo (thanks)

Mike

I second the Garmin 305. I upgraded from the 301 just so I could have the cadence. Love having cadence on the indoor trainer. If you get the 305 I recommend getting the quick release kit for the bike. Not only is it nice to have on the bike but I like the wrist band that comes with the quick release kit.

 ctnord

Hello,

Well I'll give my 2cents, but this is coming from 2x open water swimmer. Surprisingly I found my open water to be about the same maybe a little slower then pool. I did a 1000 m swim in a choppy lake last July and my time was 21min and I typically did the pool swim in around 20minutes. The 21 min time included breath stroke some because the waves were too much for me. I thought maybe there was some current helping me a few times.

good thing you are practicing in open water first. The biggest difference is the commotion in the water. I was scared my first 400 meters and told myself the entire time "I'm never doing this again". However....I then calmed down and was fine.

 Wow...200m pool...Wowsers! We don't have that type of pool in Iowa!

ctnord

The pool is pretty cool. It is free early in the morning and nothing but lap swimmers until the afternoon.

Okay, I'm by no means a vet at ow swims, having only done a couple sprint tri's so far, but from what my friends tell me it can be somewhat of a crap shoot when compared to pool swimming.  You could go a bit faster or quite a bit slower.  Conditions have a lot to do with how the swim goes.  Surf/chop and currents can make for a difficult time in the water.  You could also get off line and end up swimming a whole lot farther than you were meant to.  However with a mass start it's like swimming in a pelaton.  That many swimmers together can create their own current.  You could float in the middle and still be moving forward (although you'd probably get dunked as others swam over you).  The advice given to me was go out a little harder the first 100-200 meters, then settle down and find a good pair of feet to draft. 

I'll definitely put this to the test in a couple weeks

On OWS swim speed one other thing to look at, assuming other variables are "controlled", is a wetsuit...  

 "The improvement in seconds per 100 meters of swimming is shown in Figure 3. Overall, the experiment was successful in estimating the performance of different swimsuits. The Full Sleeve Wetsuit was superior to the Sleeveless Wetsuit. In an Olympic distance triathlon, a Full Sleeve Wetsuit improves an athlete’s time by a huge 1 minute 23 seconds. The benefit for a Fast Skin is 16 seconds for the same distance. These times may be small or large depending on your level of competitiveness in the sport."   http://www.dobkanize.com/ShortArticleWetsuit.asp

Welcome kinaiahi, you are in.  Congrats on getting your weight under control.  That is a great accomplishment.  You must feel great.  Six marathons is a lot even if you are taking your time, looking at them as learning opportunities or just doing it for training.  This is a major accomplishment as well.  Do not worry about all of the folks that comment about you being crazy.  I got that for the first marathon I ran.  Then I got it again for the first 70.3 and eventually my first IM.  Then something kind of weird happens.  Folks stop saying that you are crazy and they just accept that this is what you do.  Naturally, you are still going to get some looks.  I guess for some people it does not seem natural to want to run 26.2 miles.  For me, it seems totally fine.

Well, this is a very exciting time for you with your HIM only three weeks away.  I certainly hope that the group can help to keep you focused and motivated as your race nears.  Fire away with any questions that you might have.  I will check out your logs later. 

Now that is a cool pool.

Well I did it..... 68 degrees is a little chilly (no wetsuit).  I felt pretty good about it and am not quite as nervous as I was.  I actually swam in a big 200M circle so I never had a wall to push off of, I think it was as close to a real OWS you could ever get.

Things I learned -

1. I don't swim straight
2. 68 degrees is COLD!
3. You swim faster when you stop looking all around at the fish, huge rocks, lobster looking things and underwater plants.
4. Warming up and stretching is important. Did I mention it was 68 degrees.
5. Hydrating yourself in advance is even more important when you can't grab a drink from your water bottle half way through.

If you are ever in Austin, you should definately check it out.

john

sorry miss post

How much strength training would you suggest doing on top of the normal 3 sports.  I like to strength train, but I am afraid of going hard or really even touching my legs, because I don't want to take away from my running and biking sessions.  Any suggestions or rules of thumb to follow in this category?

 Also, I am training towards an Olympic in September as my first main Tri, but would it be advisable to try a local sprint or even a couple beforehand?