European Tri-Group - CLOSED (Page 6)

Hi
it seems it takes me "forever" to warm up. Remember those old diesel engines where you had to turn the key, then wait for the little lamp to go off, then turn the key again and the finally you were off (slowly)?
Well, that's me every time I start to move in either of the three in this sport. I am heavy, and I am old - even if I think I am not really , but that may mean something.

So what happens is that the first 10 mins of anything I do are a pain in the .... Any suggestions as to what to do? I mean, aside from actually just warm up for the 10 mins I need instead of the 5 that most plans suggest....

Great weekend to all

Hello Cristina, 

Old and heavy, well that's a new one...

Problem starting are not uncommon. When I restarted running, the first 2K were just plain torture, same thing with swimming but that was happening in the first 100m. I would think that it's a cardio problem, we can't go from 0 to 100 as fast as when we were 20 years younger, but quite a bit of training further it's no longer the case, plus I was relatively fit from a cardio point of view when I started (given the cycling). So nowadays, my line of thinking goes more along the line of lack of strength, speed, and core training.

I think that if you train only cardio by doing distance runs all the time, you might never feel comfortable. Tip, if you don't do that already, try to do a bit (more) of speed training (short distance + high intensity + speed) you'll need to warm up well cause those are the ones where you can injure yourself rather easily. The benefit, is it gets your heart in zones you don't normally go to, it makes your body used to run faster than you normally do, when you run at race pace after that, it feels "easy". Losing a bit of that extra weight and doing core training will make you a more efficient runner and also benefit. 

For swimming, I'd say relax. At the beginning I was just trying too hard, I wanted to improve and therefore was all tensed and combined with a poor technique, you get nowhere with that. First, is to forget about time splits and just focus on swimming well and relaxed. for 100, 200, 400, 500 until you can do that for your race distance, by the time you reach it, you'll see that your time splits have improved already.

Right raining right now but it should clear up this afternoon, train well, have a nice weekend (and a good game to my Irish friends), Herve 

Hi Guys
im still hear training is going well, as is the diet!
im enjoying all the advice im reading from you all.

paul

-20°C..... hrrr it was wery cold to run.... maybe tomorrow is good day to swim.

-20°C..... hrrr it was wery cold to run.... maybe tomorrow is good day to swim.

hum Jirky, you're not supposed to do open water swimming by -20c, you know that, do you? 

Had a medium training weekend, bit of running and cycling with my son, and a bit on my own + plus the rugby game on TV.

Medium week this week, swimming tonight...

By the way, I have a question for you guys. Anyone using compression socks? I don't use them, I don't know if they do anything at all, or if it's just marketing, but my birhtday's coming next month, any advice? 

Have a nice week every one, train well. Herve.  

hey guys, 

its been a while since last post so thougth it was time. Training has been going well. Lots of biking in and am now up to 40 miles. Most training on the mountain bike, although this coming sat am out on the roadies I think.

Got a bit fatigued last week so took a couple of days off. Hard to listen to my body sometimes, but felt much better for it. Swimming going better too. At pool last night managed 400m in 7m 21s. 40 seconds faster than previous best so that seems to be improving. Looks good for the first sprint which is a 400m pool swim in April. Running going ok too, basically am feeling good about tri sports all round.

Last week before second recovery week and am intending to take it easier next week.

Herve - I doubt compression clothing works all that much. I have a pdf on recovery which covers some of it, but basically says that recovery is a 4 level process with sleep, nutrition etc at level 1 and ice baths/hot cold contrasting baths and compression clothing at level 4.

Basically if levels 1, 2 and 3 aren't right then level 4 will add no value. Depends on how good your sleep and nutrition is I suppose. If you want that PDF, send me a PM wiht your email and I will send it to you. Quite scientific but worth a good read.

That's all from me, off to the pool for a technical session.

Train well

Kev 

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It's been quite a while since I logged in here. I am almost over the virus...BUT I overdid my running and now have tendonitis in my feet, particularly the right foot. So it's swimming and biking for me, no running. It's very depressing.

Sounds like you are all doing well, fantastic. I'll be right there with you ASAP. No race this weekend...would have been my first half. So I signed up for another on March 6th. I hope I can do that one. Lot's of calf stretching also.

Cheers!
Stephanie

Hi Steph, glad your feeling better, but sorry your feet hurt. I also suffered from tendonitis when I ramped up the training in January and I found 3 things to help.

1. Washing up bowl with ice water in it. Half fill it and dump a dozen or so ice cubes in and soak your feet in it. If its both feet alternate but keep your foot in for as long as you can bear it. Take it out and put it back in again when you are ready. Ice it as much as you can as often as you can. I sat on the sofa with my foot in ice for hours when it came on.

2. Get some elastic laces from your local sports shop. They are designed for triathlon anyway, but lots of people get problems by having their trainers laced too tightly. I only wear those now and it makes a huge difference. If after a few weeks it hasn't gone it might be a bigger pair of running shoes for you

3. Some massage both of the foot and the calf. Again as much as you can bear.

You should only need to rest it for a day or 2 if you treat it aggressively. Make sure that you do and see how it feels next time you go out. You could also try anti inflammatories if its really bad, but be careful with painkillers in case you do it more damage when you can't feel it.  

Hopefully that will help. Get better soon.

Kev 

Hello everyone, 

good to read that all is well, welcome back Steph too bad you got sick! But we are almost in March now, spring is at the corner...

Medium week for me last week, did not do too much volume but some good quality work though, with splits that are getting faster, so I'm quite pleased with that. 

Next week I have a hard week, and then tapper before the National Duathlon Championships 6 of March. I hope it will be a bit quiet at work, work and sport are not always synched.

Right, wishing you a good week, cheers, H.  

Great advice! I'm doing the hot/cold thing. I'll do MORE ICE...thank you! I wonder how I should go back to the running... I run on concrete all the time as I live in a city. I do know I have to warm up quite a bit more than I do currently. I bought those laces and NEVER used them. Silly me.

Herve..I have compression socks...just the sleeves for my calves. Love them.

Hi
This week is my winterholiday.... no work, great! 
Outside is so cold, hole week about -20°C. Not so good condition to run.
What I am doing now is long (about 2 hours) and easy ski-training.
It´s quite nice when sun is shining and snow is so white.

Hello Everyone, 

Well Alberto, I think that there are 3 types of "I feel too tired to train today":
- The medical condition (Ali can tell you about it)
- The body warning (generally comes after an intense series of training / or an heavy work day or week)
- The excuse

If you feel tired after an intense or heavy volume series of training, well your body will tell you to ease off / same thing if you have add a stressing or intense work week (day) same thing. Personally, I tend to listen to it and adapt my training to light recovery activity or nothing at all...  

Then there is also the excuse, it's winter, it's cold, gray and rainy (maybe not in Italy), and you feel that you'd be better off staying inside. That one I have sometimes, and I kick myself in the butt and train as hard as I can. I think that this approach has taught me to recognize the real need to rest from the created ones.

There is an element of suffering in training competitively, but on the other side, we are no pros, so there the main element of training should be enjoyment. If you don't enjoy yourself do something unexpected, change your training plan, do something you have not prepared and have fun would be my best advice.

train well, cheers, H.  

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Hello everyone, 

Quite pleased with myself, finished a hard week of training, next week is tapper as I have the national cross duathlon championships next weekend. I hope the weather will be a bit forgiving...

This month will be tricky for me, as it will be quite busy at work with a lot of travel to do (UK, Sweden, Turkey, France) not easy to fit your training agenda with all that. Anyway, I'll do what I can do.

Ordered some new running shoes for my birthday, and will get also a nice outfit, if anything, I will look fast... 

Right time to rest now, train well, cheers,  H. 

I have also been ill for the last week or so. I was only "ill" for 2 days really, but it lingered for over a week and I am still not convinced I am over it. In the end I took 9 days off training to try to recover but like Herve had a busy week at work which didn't help.

I was also supposed to be on a recovery week last week and the cold kept me from training. In some ways that was a bonus and in others not. I would always rather not be ill but what can you do.

Was back at training yesterday with 40 miles on the mountain bikes. Was a real slog and I got my hydration really wrong. Including breaks we were out for about 5 hours (although 3h 40m of cycling) 
and I didn't pee at all until long after I got back. I think I started the day dehydrated so even though I drank quite a lot while we were out I never got hydrated and I am sure that had an effect. I have never noticed the effects of dehydration before, but am pleased it hit me in training rather than during a race. I am much more conscious of how much I am drinking now and that could only be a good thing.

I have also started (today I feel I should add) a static stretching regime. I have been getting some back trouble when riding which I think is being exacerbated by my tightness (back and hamstrings mostly) but also some leg pain when running. I know stretching isn't going to give immediate results, but it certainly isn't going to hurt.

There have been some plus points though. THe first 12 miles on the bike yesterday took 1h 1m which is about 15 mins faster than my sprint bike time last year. It was over similar (but not the same) terrain and was also on the MTB so am really pleased with that. Am now aiming for a 1h 40m time for my first sprint of the season which is 25th April. That might be a bit of a push but not unreasonable. It will all come down to the bike!!!

If anyone has any comments, thoughts and specifically advice on stretching, as always I am happy to hear it.

Other than that, train well and take care.

Cheers

Kev 

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It was a simple week for me also, just as I planned.

In this week, finally I made 2 serious tours with my new road bike: ok, it's totally another bike than the older one! I must be much more careful, I found myself flying at low altitude without realizing ;-)

Now I'll have 2 strong week and on March 20 I'll make my first race of year. It's a supersprint duathlon in team (2,5 Km run, 10 Km bike and 1 Km run), I'll make this only for test and because my team manager ask me to partecipate.

After this simple race, another easy week and then my first A race: Duathlon Sprint Italian Championship.