Tri Ritter's Mentor Program "Smashin' it 2011" CLOSED (Page 26)

I'm really impressed and more than a little intimidated by all the training activity taking place!! My 4 mile run and 2400 swim, while impressive to my ever supportive family, seem like a drop in the ocean. I took the bull by the horns and entered my first triathlon (sprint) in July and then quickly signed up for coaching at the same time!

I'm hoping the group rides will help me overcome my fear of riding on the roads...

How do you know if you have shin splints? I'm not running huge distances, but it's all on the road and I've started to get a sharp pain in shin followed by a dull ache the rest of the day. Could it just be my unfamiliar muscle activity and that I might be channeling aches & pains via reading the forum or should I be concerned? 

sounds like shin splints to me. I just went through it. Basically its the small muscle fibers tearing away from the bone. It starts as pain in the beginning of a run but subsides after awhile, then its during the whole run, then its painful even when walking. The key is to STOP early and rehab. I found some exercises that seemed to work for me.

1. lean against a wall with feet about 1 foot away. lift toes rotating on your heal. Do 3 sets 10 reps for each foot.

2. get an excersize tube/band (surgical tubing) I wrapped one end around a bannister and one around my foot. Sitting down rotate on your heal pull your toes towards yourself.

good luck, use the time to focus on the bike, at high cadence, and swim.

For a taper cut back about 30-50% of VOLUME the week of.

That's great to hear, be patient!!

You will be fine, just ease into and be sure not to over do it.

I can finally walk normal again from the half marathon. I get to do the Kemah Triathlon and IM 70.3 Texas in a couple of weeks.

I am so glad William said this, b/c I was going to come on here and tell you the same thing!  When you're first starting out, things are going to hurt and SO MANY people give up at the first sign of pain.  Dave gave you some great ideas for stretching, and I would add that if it hurts to run, perhaps you can walk instead until the pain subsides (a little ibuprofen is helpful too).  Icing your shins after running will probably help too.  

But you need to build up your running muscles, and get your body used to it!  This is not the same as overtraining or pushing through pain and causing an injury.  

BTW, congrats on signing up for a race and a coaching group.  Sounds like you're on the right track!

Q

I am SO interested in Kemah, it may be a tri that is on my "bucket list."  Can't wait to hear about it...

Congrats on your race!  When you're not taking out innocent animals, you're PR'ing a lot of stuff right now. Bodes well for your season!  Q

If he keeps it up we may end saying "I knew him before he was making Raelert eat dust."

So my feet cramped at the end of my swim workout, not sure why. I think my body is tired from biking more which has been my to and from work bikes and some lunch time runs.

Anyone have this happen where your feet cramp in the middle of a swim lap. I did 200 WU, then 400, 300, 200, 100. I cramped on the 300 in my left foot and it went away, again on the 200 in my right foot but it went away, then my left foot in the 100 and had to stop half way through the pool and dog paddle to the edge to stretch out my foot and let it relax. I still finished with a 200 cool down and was ok but it was weird. I even ate a banana at breakfast today, maybe  I should quit eating bananas!!!

To add to all of this my bike shoes are 10 year old shimano MTB shoes, I don't think where the arch hits has ever completely agreed with my foot but I'm used to it by now. I'm borrowing my wife's pedals and cleats to put on my new SIDI's until my look pedals come.

It happens to me every few weeks I increase distance.  I am not sure if it is lack of nutrition or maybe from pushing off the wall.  There was a thread a while back, but I did not read the entire thing.  My cramps start in my foot and sometimes in legs.  It is not a good feeling at all!

...this is pretty common on my end -- my feet will cramp if I over-extend my ankles by pointing toes and flexing feet -- get on youtube and look at proper foot position (...I botch it all the time) for not creating excess drag.  Your kick should contribute around 10-15% of propulsion.  Search "MR SMOOTH" for a good animation of proper technique.

THanks,

I've got Mr. Smooth on my desktop and revisit it often. I tried kicking less off the wall thinking that might trigger it, but most of the time it was further into the length of the pool rather than right off the wall. I think my body might be tired right now and need to adjust to biking to and from work the couple days that I have and the couple of runs I've done on my lunch breaks. Tomorrow will be bike run brick, and thursday will be a run either 45-60 minutes, then friday a much needed day off.

Yes and no...I use a Garmin in a race to make sure I am not going too slow or going out too fast in the run. I also don't plan on racing with a heart rate monitor. If you are trying to "just get through it" then go ahead and where it, if you are racing then focus on the competition ahead and behind you, but stay realistic of what you can do, don't take out running sub 5 min miles. on the bike I leave my garmin flipped on my risk so I can see it on the bike, and on the run I'll leave it in that position so I don't look at it too much and so I can actually "race it" but staying realistic of my upper limits.

Legs are toast over here, did a 4 hour bike yesteday followed a run 15 min @ 70.3 pace and 15 min cool down jog. Tried to run 75 min today with some build tempo in there and sprained my ankle. Walked back to the house to ice it immediately, hopefully I can try again tomorrow.

Do you have zone guidelines for different distance races???  I am still a bit fuzzy on this.

happy today. Ran 5km this morning after a successful, careful 15 minute run last night. No shin pain during or after either run so I am going to resume my regular training schedule. I will be reducing run volumes during the ramp up and need to remain pain and injury free leading up to my first 1/2 marathon on May1.

Jumped on the bike after the run this morning and hammered out 20km. I also checked my pool schedule and plan to hit the pool later this afternoon for a quick (well quick for me!) 750m. Although not a perfect race sim it gives me a base line to work with. I do plan to do a better race sim in 2 weeks at the wrap up of my plan.

For whatever it's worth - I've trashed two watches wearing them "flipped" - seems like I'm always banging them against bar ends, edges of the aerobar supports, etc and scratch the $#!T out of the faces.  Yes; twice, - I know "slow learner" (changed to a Garmin 705 for the bike because of said lack of coordination!).

As for the original question, "yes" I use a HRM/GPS during all activities (I prefer the Timex Global GPS Trainer).  I have a hard time distinguishing between 10:30 and 8:55 paces for example but if I can see it and the HR data, I can adjust appropriately.  I just completed my first HM at a sub 10:00/mile pace (big deal for me...) and found the pace and HR data very valuable.

Garmins...

My wife just got one (forerunner 405 I think...really cheap on amazon if any is looking), I think its going to be awesome, what I would want it for is the first couple miles of the run. I have no sense of pace off the bike. I felt I was going 8:00 pace the other day and we were 7:15 off the bike. Any other day I can tell pace fine but not off the bike.

I did a 50/10 brick this weekend and hit a wall on the run.  I felt good getting off the bike but after about 1.5 miles, my legs just wanted to stop.  Mentally I felt great.  Is this the head games people talk about?  I tried to keep running through the fatigue but that would only last for about 3-5 mins and I'd have to stop.  I feel it was an energy level problem which leads back to the nutrition.  I ate about 4500 cals the day before and had a good 1000 cals breakfast.  Are there any good recommendations to help correct this problem?  Thanks!!

It sounds like a fitness/fatigue threshold.  Are you prepared for these distances, and did you push too hard on the bike?  If you "bonk" as people call it...you won't be in a good mental state (you'll be looking for a place to lay down and curl up)!  Calorie intake sounds about right - if you stopped sweating it could be related to dehydration, but again - you wouldn't be good mentally.  What training zone were you in on the bike and run?

It sounds like a fitness/fatigue threshold.  Are you prepared for these distances, and did you push too hard on the bike?  If you "bonk" as people call it...you won't be in a good mental state (you'll be looking for a place to lay down and curl up)!  Calorie intake sounds about right - if you stopped sweating it could be related to dehydration, but again - you wouldn't be good mentally.  What training zone were you in on the bike and run?  Did you take any calories on the bike?

It sounds like a fitness/fatigue threshold.  Are you prepared for these distances, and did you push too hard on the bike?  If you "bonk" as people call it...you won't be in a good mental state (you'll be looking for a place to lay down and curl up)!  Calorie intake sounds about right - if you stopped sweating it could be related to dehydration, but again - you wouldn't be good mentally.  What training zone were you in on the bike and run?  Did you take any calories on the bike?