first triathlonites 2006-07

[eclectic]

My problem is I need to learn to pace myself. I did 100m then CARKED IT... totally out of energy... So I the rest of the laps were 50m blocks... ;_;

Last time I trained I did 175 without stopping.

What can I do to slow myself down so I can do 300m without stopping at all?
.

You asked so Imma gonna tell ya

My coach told me to "slow down to go faster" or in other words really slow down and concentrate on your body position, arm exit and entry, hand position, head position, breathing, sucking your stomach it, stretching your whole body out, kicking from the hips with a flexible leg etc. It is amazing because you will feel like you are going slower but in reality you are going faster and expending less energy

Make sure your Left arm is fully extended before your right hand starts to pull and vice versa and you are turning from your waist not your neck ( it is almost a snapping motion) - I can tell you some drills to get proper body alignment if you are interested but they do require a snorkel

Your bike ride probably warmed your legs up pretty good but your arms and shoulders will need some warming up.

FWIW here are my suggestions, forgive me if you already know them but hey maybe someone else doesn't

When you first start try some freestyle drills and really concentrate on form

One is called "fingertip drag" - you concentrate on bringing your elbow out of the water first then dragging your fingertips along the surface before entering back in

another that is a little harder but trust me it will slow you down and it is really good is "catch up"
the best way to do this is to hold on to a 9" stick (we use sawed off hockey sticks) a 1" dowel would work. Your continually hold the stick at arms length in front of you, you have to grab the stick with the LH before the right hand can let go, not only are you getting better timing w/ your stroke but you're also getting the resistance from the stick (and it is a lot more than you would think)
Eventually you can get the rhythm down and do this drill w/o the stick.
I am still not very good at this one 50 meters of it is more than enough

A fun one is "popovers" you do 3 strokes of Front crawl then roll over and do 3 strokes of back crawl and basically corkscrew down the pool

I don't know what this one is called but you kind of lay on your side facing left w/ your right hand extended and your face out of the water, kick for six kicks, do 3 arm strokes (l,r,l) with your face in the water, then face right, do 6 kicks, 3 arm strokes and you are back on your left - this is a great drill for starting to learn bilateral breathing.

If you can already bilateral breathe do 50 meters of this (3 stroke breathing) then 50 of 4 stroke breathing

tying a 4 litre icecream bucket onto a rope longer than your legs and then tying it around your waist so it trails behind you will slow you down and it helps build endurance. 25-50 meters of this is plenty (eventually we got "parachutes" that look like windsocks so we don't look quite so dorky)

start with 2 - 50 meter sets of these every swim before you start doing your sprint training. try to work up to 200 meters of them

Are you in a 25 or 50 meter pool?
for sprint training - try doing 50 meters on a set time and do 5 or more sets of them (example 50 meters on 75 secs ) the faster you get done, the more time you have to rest before you go again - you leave every 75 secs even if you got in at 65
- you do want to have at least a 10 sec rest so plan your time accordingly

If you are in a 25m pool try 25's on 35 or 40 sec

THEN when you are all done these do a nice easy cool down crawl stroke for at least 100 meters.

Eventually do a Slow (fingertip drag is a good one for this ) 200 meters before even starting anything else, count your strokes to see how many it takes you to get to the other end, as you get stronger and more efficient it should take less and less

(in an hour practice we did 5 - 600 meters of warm ups before starting drills or sprints)

Let me know if you try any of these and if they help

[light_sabe_r]

WOW! Thanks eclectic!

I've been doing 2 laps each session laps where I haven't been kicking at all to get my arms up to strength. I'm getting faster with just arm strokes

I like the sound of of the icecream bucket drill!! I might give that a go next time!

as for the 75s sets of 50s... There's a lane in the pool for 50s in 1minute... You have sixty seconds to do 50m. I haven't tried it yet so the 75s set sounds like a good way to start out to get up there.

Can't wait to try some of this out next time I hit the pool. ^_^

[Bikingmomof3]

Thank you Eclectic!

[mariposa]

...they are not nearly as intimidating as they are made out to be.

One thing I really love about tris is that they allow us to laugh about our strengths and weaknesses. Most triathletes are good at maybe one sport and totally suck at one of the other sports. MOST of us start out fearing either the swim portion, the bike portion or the run training. We all get over it! You will find that most of your fears are mental - not based on your body's actual physical limitations. For instance, I have a friend who was *convinced* she couldn't run over 3.0 miles. We got her up to 4 miles and she was dancing on the tables! After that she never thought that she *couldn't* do it.

The other nice thing about tris is the variety of training. Any given week you might be doing a little of each sport plus possibly sampling a little strength training, yoga or stretching, pilates, walking, hiking, etc. You can mix and match and if you're feeling tired of one type of exercise, you just pick another one!

Also - running (and to a lesser extent swimming) are very time efficient. A lot of people here are probably spending 3/4 of our Saturdays on long-ish bike rides. But a "long-ish" run, depending on the tri you're training for, will take you just 45 min - 2 hours and there is no bike maintenance required!

Watch out - it's a VERY addictive sport.

[Crankin]

OK, you can put me down for MAYBE doing a tri in 2007. I think I'm crazy, but I am going to buy new running shoes today. I've working up to being able to run 3 miles at a 10 mi. mile pace (slow). I'm up to being able to run at 6 mph for about 8 minutes continuosly, but i still feel like I'm going to die. Well, it's getting better, but I hate it and my knees are hurting a little. I think that is a combination of things, not just the running; i.e. living in a house with 4 floors, lots of stairs, wearing boots with heels, hiking. I am going to start swimming in January. My goal is to do the Danskin triathalon...

Tygab, maybe we can train together. We seemed pretty well matched on the bike and our running seems to be about the same, too. Of course, since I am old enough to be your mother, you will probably surpass me....

Robyn

[light_sabe_r]

Welcome Along Robyn! ^_^

[Offthegrid]

OK, you can put me down for MAYBE doing a tri in 2007.

Too late, I already wrote you down for one.

Seriously, you have MONTHS to go, and you don't need to run the 5K contiuously. Do walk/jog intervals. I *know* that if you keep at it, you'll make a vast amount of improvement by the time the tri comes and surprise yourself.

Woo hoo! Team TE tri is growing!

[Bikingmomof3]

I am excited to do a tri. I am least worried about the running part. Not having been a bike in awhile, that will take some time to build up.

[crazycanuck]

Me too!!! Me meemememe

I'm doing one in December, one or two in january and who knows what else.

c

[eclectic]

Well Ladies how is everyone doing? Our team is growing

I worked out on Friday, did the elliptical for 35 min again level 6 random but put it in reverse mode - my strength is OK but need to work on my coordination
did laps for 30 min and decided to time myself to get a base.
laps at our gym are 10/mile. I walked 2 ran 7, walked 3 ran 7 walked 1. I timed myself and w/ the walking it came out to a 12 minute mile - now I don't think that is possible - I don't run very fast but just maybe I am going faster than I thought - it is level and no wind however, so just maybe . . .

I did almost 1.5 miles of running so maybe I will be at 5 miles sooner than April

Sat was a wash - took a class ALL day - on how to write paragraphs - I mean how much can you talk about paragraphs - well obviously a lot we have 7.5 more hours of it to take

Yesterday was nice enough to go for the LAST outdoor ride of the season Got 26 miles in at a pretty leisurely pace (we wanted to enjoy the moment)

Today is a wash have parent teacher conf then I teach a night class
am going to try to work something in tomorrow after conferences

THEN the schedule should slow down some and I can hit it again

Hey everyone post your training regime - inquiring minds want to know!

[nancielle]

I am almost 50 (another 55 days), I already swim (but not in a lake) and I started cycling a year ago, I am not very fast but getting better. However as of today I can barely run 1/2 mile and even at that it is pretty slow (4 years ago I could run 3 agonizing 11 minute miles).

Eclectic I had similar thoughts (although I'm still several months away from that milestone birthday.) Five years ago I started thinking of how I wanted to celebrate the new decade. I wanted to do something different than the usual dinner out type thing. (Not that there is anything wrong with that!)

Anway, I had read about the Danskin Tri and debated doing that. I had originally planned on doing that in July 2005 but suffered a pretty serious knee injury in early January of that year that didn't heal as expected (as in not healing at all) and ended up having surgery in the spring. Ick. Since I'd essentially been off my feet and on crutches for months, doing it then wasn't an option.

The event for 2007 will fall just slightly more than a week after the "Milestone Birthday." I won't drown in a swim and cycling is my strongest sport. Running is a concern since I have practically no cartilege left in my knee. Maybe walking is an option.

[eclectic]

Welcome Nancielle

I wish there was a danskin tri near here. I would love to do one. the closest is Denver and that is about a 15 hour drive. I wish they would start one in Minneapolis.

check out the walking - I am sure someone here knows the rules

Glad you are healing

[light_sabe_r]

Well Ladies how is everyone doing? Our team is growing

You asked. :P

I've finally gotten some run training in. BF has set up his heart rate monitor for me and since I've been ZONE training to try and run the distance. I've completed 3 "runs" in the last week. I was so proud of myself this morning! I ran 2km... including an uphill for the first time in my LIFE. NO WALKING. I'm blaming the cycling and the HRM! I gotta get me one of those just for me! AND yestday afternoon I ran 1.75km after my commute home!

I've been cycling to the pool 3 days a week for the past two weeks now. Every time I show up I can swim for longer without stopping for a break. 100m has changed to 150m... Therefore I'm triple the swimmer I was in the enticer in september!

I'm riding 15km to the pool with an average speed of 20kph (LOTS of hills) So I'm usually exhausted when I get to the pool already. Gotta be good training for the transitions right?? Plus if I'm training after a ride then I should be able to BURST away during the actual event.

My average bike is now 80-100km per week. (the ride's only 10km)

So yeah. I'm aiming to increase my run distance to 3km (event is 2.5km) and swim 400m straight (event is 300m)

There's another girl at work who did NOOSA (3rd biggest Tri in the world and the Biggest in Australia... Lorian Graham made her cycling comeback in the TEAMs event! ) is entering the Raby Bay Tri as well (long course)

NEXT SEASON I'll be in with her. I'll work my way up to it. But it'll be great having someone in the long course cheering me on and visa versa

[HillSlugger]

Hey everyone post your training regime - inquiring minds want to know!

I'm in transition from only biking to becoming a multisport gal. I haven't yet started the swimming and I'm still mostly biking:

Monday: bike - trainer session, 45 minutes

Tuesday: run - ~2.5 miles, ~30 minutes, mixed run/walk

Wednesday: bike - trainer session, 45 minutes

Thursday: bike - trainer session, 45 minutes

Friday: run - ~2.5 miles, ~30 minutes, mixed run/walk

Saturday: off

Sunday: bike outside, ~30 miles

It's getting to the point where I'll soon have to stop the outside ride until spring. I'll substitute in a swim instead and also replace another ride with a swim, so I'll end up with 2 each swim, run bike.

[light_sabe_r]

Oh! Regime!

Monday: Ride to pool then swim
Tuesday: Run then usual commute
Wednesday: Ride to pool then Swim
Thurdays: Run then usual commute
Friday: Ride to the pool and Swim
Saturday: Run, Then indoor soccer
Sunday: Rest day - OR make up the distance to get to 100km for the week.

can you believe I actually took up cycling to improove my fitness for indoor soccer?? NOW soccer's there to mix up my training a bit.