Daffodil's Group - Closed (Page 4)

Besides Crystale who's already beat us all to the punch...when is everyone's 1st race this year?
I believe mine will be May 1.  A super sprint with a pool swim and a 7 lap bike course!  
Ha ha ha...a nice way to start the season and the 1st one I know of within 100 miles of here.  Anyone else have their season-opener planned?

So, I've found some races to enter. This weekend, the Tipperary Hill Shamrock Run in Syracuse, NY. it's only 4 miles but is supposed to be really good fun, then in July thinking about doing the Boilermaker in Utica, NY, which is 15kms and has thousands of entrants - looks great but could be a logistical challenge getting there so early. Finding these (and still looking for some more) has definitely given me something to think about other than the tri and given my running workouts more purpose.

I do have one silly question to ask though - how do you warm up for a tri? Are there generally swimming areas to warm up in? Two silly questions, in fact - how soon can you find out if wetsuits are the go and if you have to hire one, how can you practice getting out of it? Just thought I'd ask........

Cool   I've heard a lot about the boilermaker.  It is supposed to be a good race.  As for practicing in a wetsuit, would it be possible renting one a few weeks before your race to practice in?  that would be ideal.  If not, you can practice getting out of it when it is dry as well, it will be pretty much the same amount of difficulty wet or dry.

Usually during the week of the race the race officials will be monitoring the water temperature.  They will post on their website with the water temp (if they have one), if not, you would be able to contact the race director and he would be able to help you.  Is the race in upstate new york as well?  I'm in Ontario and I have never heard of a race in Ontario that was not wetsuit legal.  If you are in upstate new york, it will likely be the same for you unless you are racing in a shallow surface water fet lake.

As for how I warm up, I usually struggle into my wetsuit (which usually gets me into zone 1 ).  And then swim a few hundred metres.  If it is a small race, there won't be too many waves.  People usually warm-up before the first wave goes off.  Some people will get to the race early and ride their bike or do a jog to warm-up instead.  I'd rather warm-up for the swim.

I will add that I race south of you in Ohio, PA, and WV -- and excluding the obvious, indoor swims, I cannot recall a race that was not wetsuit legal.  On smaller lakes, in August, you start to get close sometimes so I'm sure it does cross the line, but in a dozen races I've never seen it. 

Good luck on the wetsuit practice, I struggle with that one sometimes still...if you get any good tips feel free to share!

In other news, I did an indoor triathlon this weekend.  Came early to warm up & change and they were showing me their bikes -- they've got a screen on them that will simulate a bike course, complete with hills, steering and shifting (you can't crash of course) and I though that was pretty neat and then they asked me if I would like to "chase dragons".  Well, apparently these little computers have a game where you chase dragons on the bike to get points and their "pretty cool" bikes went straight to "totally awesome".   Unfortunately, we did not get to chase dragon in the race...but it was still a nice setup.

Gyms with indoor tri's in the winter are pretty smart -- if I had lived within 20 miles of that gym I would've signed up for a membership.  Lacking that I'll settle for a swim pace 20-30 seconds / 100 yds faster than anything I did in a race last year.  It's not "huge" but it's noticable improvement especially as I didn't think I swam well.  Swimming has been one the main things I've been working on this winter, though I still have some work to do, it's nice to actually see a measured improvement.

20-30 seconds per 100 yards is a HUGE improvement.  you should be very proud of that

Thanks!  I know that my swimming will still put me in the back 1/3 of the pack -- but you're right, that's still a huge improvement on last years' placing of one of the last 3 females out of the water.  Keep it in prspective, right?

My winter break from running actually went surprisingly well too.  As I kept up other exercise, the endurance part of running isn't hurting me at all, but due to a hiking injury I started pretty slow on the running distance-wise, but with the shorter distances I could, of course, go faster.  My 1st 5k workout and race this year were each 1 1/2 - 2 min faster than my "normal time" last year -- and even tying that one race with the 3/4 mi hill that you go down but don't come up . 

Hopefully working my way towards a new Personal Best.  About time to get the bike on an outdoors workout. 

How's everyone else's training going?

I just had a week's break from all training - I had a bit of a sore IT band so just swam for a week then we took off to the sun for a few days so I took full advantage and did nothing! Everything feels much better now so it's back in the pool and on the bike at the gym tomorrow morning.

I'm taking my bike to the shop next weekend for some new bits and pieces so hopefully will be out on the road soon. No more excuses - the snow has all gone, finally.

How's everyone else going?

My training is coming along well like others.  I am getting ready for my first race of the year which will be a half marathon in 5 weeks.  Winter is finally gone from southern Ontario and I did my first run on the trail by the lake since before my ironman.  It felt really good to get back down there. I love running by the lake  

Swimming is coming along well, hopefully I can match my half IM swim time from last year with swimming one less day a week.  My bike is also coming along well.  next weekend I'll be getting it outside for the first time of the year.  I got a new bike in December so despite putting in some long winter hours on the trainer, I haven't actually got it out on the road yet!

I hope everyone's trainning is going well!