PNW Tri Novices

[Wahine]

It definitely gets easier with practice. And there are a few tricks, like putting plastic bags on your feet to help them slide in and spraying yourself with Pam. I hear that works, I've never actually done it of course.

[salsabike]

Whoof. Glad to hear it, Wahine---thank you! Sheesh. If only we could suck in our butts the way we can suck in our guts...

I also went back to my new favorite book, Slow Fat Triathlete, and was glad to see she got pretty sweaty (not a good thing) and took about a half hour. Thank you, Jayne.

For those of you who can use some cheap entertainment tonight, I put on my sunglasses and one of Chris' hats, and made him take a picture:

Attachment 6247

[Wahine]

Cool!! Thanks for the photo Salsa. You look like you're ready to roll. A little word of advice tho, save the sunglasses for T1 and the hat for T2, got that?

[Sprocket's Mom]

Just a mild word of caution.....while I know that I've heard of people using Pam to get their wetsuits on, I have also heard that it can potentially break down the material in the neoprene so it's best to use bodyglide or something along those lines.....
Just a thought, maybe I'm way off base....as usual.

[MM_QFC!]

Whoof. Glad to hear it, Wahine---thank you! Sheesh. If only we could suck in our butts the way we can suck in our guts...

I also went back to my new favorite book, Slow Fat Triathlete, and was glad to see she got pretty sweaty (not a good thing) and took about a half hour. Thank you, Jayne.

For those of you who can use some cheap entertainment tonight, I put on my sunglasses and one of Chris' hats, and made him take a picture:

Attachment 6247

wowie-zowie...SalsaHotMama!

[Wahine]

It's true about the Pam breaking down neoprene, but it's OK for occasional use. It's a matter of convenience for some... Pam sprays on while body glide takes a lot longer to coat your legs etc. But if you want your wetsuit to last a really long time, I wouldn't use Pam. Hence the reason why I don't.

[Sprocket's Mom]

I just wanted people to be aware of the potential downside before they went to Costco and loaded up on cases of Pam!
Once ya know the scoop, then you can make informed decisions. Like you Wahine, I want my suit to last a long time. Of course at this rate I'm not the one getting the use out of it....but oh well, at least it's getting some good races in while I cheer from the far far off sidelines!

[Wahine]

But if you keep telling people this stuff my stock in Pam is going to go down in value!!

Seriously though, it's a really good point that I should have mentioned so thanks for catching it.

[salsabike]

I meant to post on here Sunday night to say that I'd gone that day to a Mary Meyer pool clinic in Seattle, and it was GREAT. Just what I needed. All the basics of what makes for an efficient freestyle, and drills for an hour. Uh, it really HAS changed since they taught me at good old Camp Yowochas in 1963. So that was an excellent thing to do.

Today I spent starting to create the muscle memories for all that. I didn't worry about fast or even about extending how many laps I can do without stopping. I just practiced everything they'd told me, probably about 18 laps' worth of practice. I plan to do that again Thursday, and then do the pool clinic one more time on Sunday. I don't have anyone to tell me exactly what to do, but I THINK that getting the stroke/form correct and into muscle memory comes before worrying about endurance, and that doing it correctly will help with endurance/pacing/breathing/whatever it is I'm trying to say! Then, I plan to do one of their OWS clinics on July 12.

Then I hiked down to the beach and back up, just a couple of miles. Set to take a four hour chi running workshop this coming Saturday. Still have no idea whether I'll like running or not, but will find out.

I would dearly love to hear from other newbies here on how they are doing with their training and what they're working one.

PS Arggh. Water in my right ear, staying longer every time. Earplug?