Bringing life to the Triathlon thread

[hulagirl]

It's sad this section hasn't seen any love since January. So I'm here to boost it!

Anyone training for a triathlon? Base building? Anyone thinking about entering their first triathlon? Or any sort of tri milestone?

If the answer is no, and you just want a good read that's kinda funny, you can check my blog and read my race reports for my first Ironman. Haven't posted the run/finish part yet but it's coming soon. :-)

I'm taking this year off from triathlon as I'm still kind of Ironpoor. Might do a sprint in the fall (mostly because I feel guilty having my fancy tri bike hanging in a bike bag right now!) but it will just be an easy one.

Denise

[HillSlugger]

Hi,

I haven't been spending much time on forums, but I'm still doing triathlons. Will be doing my first HIM in September. Only one other tri this year (an oly in August). It was a tough winter in the mid-Atlantic for training, but looking forward to improving conditions now that Spring is here.

[rocknrollgirl]

Well you beat me to it! I was going to bring this thread out of the closet and dust it off myself, but alas, I have been too tech lazy! Our first race is in 4 weeks. Since we just had snow this week, I am anticipating a very chilly swim.

I am returning to Xterra racing after doing road tri's for a few years. Enjoyed the road experience, did a few HIM races, trained up for a full with a few friends and then pulled out about 6 weeks out from the race. I was not having any fun and we, my hubs and I, were sick of being married to the training plans. So last year we took a break and the only racing we did was a few long trail runs. Took six months off from the pool. Really stepped back.

The break worked for me, because we are planning a race season and training with more structure. Working hard, but keeping it fun. With the exception of a longer mt bike ride on the weekends, we are keeping our volume pretty low, and I have eliminated all junk miles. So shorter workouts with more structure. No two hour runs!

So 4 weeks to go and we are feeling good. Pool times are coming down. I am mt biking well for a winter like we have had. Run times are coming down. So the hard work is paying off.

So I am excited. The first race course is 20 mins from home. We have been doing a brick there the past few weeks, taking advantage of the proximity.

My second race is two weeks after the first on a brutally hilly race course. So I am hoping that the snow clears and the trails dry so I can get up there in the next few weeks.

I will make an effort to come on and chat it up.

[hulagirl]

Yep, I had to step away from triathlon after Ironman. It's a lot of work. I'm happy to not have to swim and run right now. I'm actually enjoying the hard hill biking.
But I still love it & will probably do a sprint in the fall. I want to do 70.3 NOLA next year though!

[rocknrollgirl]

Well flexibility is the name of the game this weekend. Yesterday we got up at the crack of dark to squeak a mt bike in before the rains came. We got in 90 mins and then we and all of the gear got soaked. Poo. Pain to deal with wet gear and muddy bikes. Spent the rest of the day kinda hunkered in the house. Did some chores, watched a movie.

The past few Sunday training sessions have been a brick. Rain again today so we headed to the pool instead and had a nice swim workout. I am going to flip flop our workouts around a bit this week and see if it dries out enough for us to head over to the race venue and sneak a ride in there mid-week.

Our time to train there is winding down. As soon as the spring comes the ticks come out there full force. Normally I would not set foot on the trails there past mid-April. It is one of the reasons I have not done this race before this year. Paranoid about Lyme's. I spoke to a good friend that has done it three years running and he said he was fine. On race day. I plan to keep bug spray in T2 and spray myself before I head out on the run.

[Wahine]

I did my last official triathlon in 2010 at Ironman Canada. Then I decided to take a break from all that training. I focused on cycling instead and dropped swimming and running almost completely. I started back with running last summer and did my first stand alone marathon about a month ago. It didn't go very well, I had a lot of trouble with injuries during my training and lost about 12 weeks out of maybe 24 I had to get ready. Ugh.

I am still coaching. But the next few months will be focused on trying to launch my bike fitting website and maybe a kickstarter campaign to buy a sizercycle.

I still love to see how everyone is doing and working with my coaching clients.

I might even consider an offroad tri this summer myself.

[GLC1968]

I'm signed up for a sprint tri in May but after that, I'm not sure of my triathlon future. I kind of have exercise ADD right now. I'm flip flopping all over the place with only running as my one constant (which is a huge shocker to me). I've got my third half marathon since I started running again scheduled for April.

After having a year and a half off from tri for my foot injury, I'm finding myself kind of unmotivated to pick it up again. The biggest hurdle is that I just hate swimming in a pool. Once it warms up enough to be in the local lakes, I might change my tune and pick up a couple of races, but we'll see. I have zero interest in anything longer than an Oly.

I do need some type of competitive structure/event to keep me training and to get/keep me excited...but I'm not sure what it should be going forward.

[rocknrollgirl]

We flip flopped our Tuesday run to today because of all the rain this weekend. Hill workout. Warm up. Run hill repeats. Do striders, cool down and then core. Short, fast and to the point!

We do our hill repeats right out the door every week. Our neighbors dog runs back and forth barking, hits the edge of the invisible fence, yelps and then chases us back the other way. Poor thing. I am going to get him some treats.

[rocknrollgirl]

Skipped my swim today. Not sure if I have a cold or allergies, but I felt a bit too goopy to swim. Mt biking tomorrow so hopefully I will be less phlegmy....ick....

[hulagirl]

Well, we had a little tsunami advisory roll through Hawaii this morning. I helped my father in law with his transition practice today and my husband swam with him. I wasn't about to get in the water! I'm so out of swim-shape!

I'm helping to coach a group of Olympic distance ladies on the weekends as I train for Ride the Rockies. I'm starting to feel my quads bulk up a bit. In tri training I find I get more lean. But this hill-focused biking is a totally different approach for me. I'll probably weigh myself in a few weeks and see where I am at!

[rocknrollgirl]

We got a training ride in yesterday on the race course for our first race. One section of trail was too wet to ride, but we went with the intention of trying to get a lap time and we were able to do that. It was probably harder than I should have pushed with as goopy as I am, but oh well. It was short. Mission accomplished. Easy run today.

[Eihposi]

I'm pretty new to the forum, and completely new to triathlons. I just signed up for my first (sprint) in august. I've always loved running, cycling and swimming - as long as it's outdoors, but I never tried to put it together before now.

It all started with my gym (where they also have a pool) launched a campaign where you could win a trip to Croatia if you swam 10000 meters before end of March, and I thought: "well, I can do that" and added swimming to my regular exercise program. I'm still a complete swimming noob and hate the pool, but I'm trying to hit the pool twice a week.

I'm quite excited and nervous about the race in August, it's still long, I know, and the distance is short, but it's the first time, and I really don't know how I will do :)

[Wahine]

I made my own triathlon today. I skate skied in the AM, then rode my bike to work (about 45 min) and tonight I teach a women's strength and conditioning class. I'm not sure how that's going to go. I'm already pretty wiped out. :)

[HillSlugger]

I'm pretty new to the forum, and completely new to triathlons. I just signed up for my first (sprint) in august. I've always loved running, cycling and swimming - as long as it's outdoors, but I never tried to put it together before now.

It all started with my gym (where they also have a pool) launched a campaign where you could win a trip to Croatia if you swam 10000 meters before end of March, and I thought: "well, I can do that" and added swimming to my regular exercise program. I'm still a complete swimming noob and hate the pool, but I'm trying to hit the pool twice a week.

I'm quite excited and nervous about the race in August, it's still long, I know, and the distance is short, but it's the first time, and I really don't know how I will do :)

Welcome to Triathlon!

Did you manage the 1000m?

Nicole

[rocknrollgirl]

so I have been fighting phlegminess all week and I finally went to the Doc in the Box yesterday just to have somebody other than me listen to my chest. I do not feel like I have to cough but when I do it sounds goopy. He said my lungs are clear but he hears the goop in the upper airway when I cough. He thinks it is the tail end of an upper respiratory infection. Yea. Gave me antibiotics....more yea.

My hubs was with me and asked him if I could work out this weekend. Doc says, sure you can go for a walk. Hubs says...ummm...that is not exactly what we had in mind:) The official word is that I can ride tomorrow just take it easy. I actually feel fine except for the goop, so I am going to go mt bike with our group and if I need to back it down a notch I can just ride by myself.

Sick twice in three months. This is very odd. I can count on one hand the times I have been sick in the past 20 years.

[rocknrollgirl]

OK, so where were we. Oh yes, I remember, me and my goop. The antibiotics started to kick it quickly and my stomach at the same time. OY. I called and got them to switch me from Augmentin to Zithromax. It seems a little better. I made 2 hours of the mt bike on Sunday. Hung with the group to the very end and then sent the boys out for a race pace lap and I did a slower cool down. GI issues from the meds were my biggest problem. Other than that I just felt like my snappiness was missing. I am sure it will come back.

Yesterday I hit the pool and did about short workout, just 1800 or so. Nice and easy, not super hard sets. Today we have a run scheduled. Hill repeats. Fun Times!

[Eihposi]

Welcome to Triathlon!

Did you manage the 1000m?

Nicole

Yes I did :)

[rocknrollgirl]

Good Morning Ladies,
We had a good weekend of training. Friday afternoon we were in the pool. I did two timed 500's and my time is dropping significantly. So that is good news. I cruised the first one, looked at my time and said. Huh. Wonder what would happen if I made myself uncomfortable. 15 secs faster. That is what happened!

Saturday we did a run on the local rail trail. Nice and steady. I felt strong, which is all I want two weeks out from race number one.

Yesterday we did our group mt bike ride. We drove an hour north to a park that has been inaccessible due to the weather since before Christmas. It is much hillier than the parks trails we have been riding all winter, so it was a small chainring, grunt and groan kinda day. We got in about 2.5 hours of hard riding. That will be the last really long mt bike we will do before the race on the 27th. My legs feel ok today but I know I accumulated a lot of fatigue yesterday. It will be hard to hold back a bit but I have learned that lesson the hard way!

[Eihposi]

I had my first bike-to-run transition training today. It took forever to change from my cycling shoes to my running shoes :-/ But it was a fun nice try. My neighbour thought I was crazy for first taking off on the bike only to come back home to start a run. Both legs were kept short: 30 minutes cycling and five minutes running. I'll try this every Sunday to get better at it. Today's transition time: a humiliating 1:35 min... :-/

[lph]

My neighbour thought I was crazy for first taking off on the bike only to come back home to start a run.

Hah, wait 'til you tell him how you run out of a lake soaking wet and jump on your bike for a ride. That was the transition my mind had the greatest trouble with...

(hei, velkommen forresten :-)