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Hi Geranium!!! Thanks for joining the thread! My sprint tri in just under three weeks is my first one ever too.
I've been slacking in my training and I think it's because I'm afraid. If I slack off, and then I do poorly, I can say it was because I didn't train enough. But if I train really hard, and then do poorly anyway, it's just because I suck! :lol: I told DH that next time I come home from work and whine that I don't want to work out he has to just kick me out the door and force me to do it. I did get in a good run over the weekend at least! |
I've committed to training for a sprint triathlon that's to be held in September. A friend asked me to train with her, apparently she's got two other friends doing it as well. I've wanted to do a triathlon for about 15 years...since I was first athletic in my mid-20s. Now is the time! I'm excited but also scared. Working on my training plan and all that now, guess I'll "officially" start training in a couple of weeks. (I've been doing walk/running and biking and strength training for a few months now, but this commitment will necessitate kicking it all up a notch.)
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Welcome WarMaiden! beginnertriathlete.com has a lot of useful stuff on it for beginners.
I'm starting to obsess over details at this point. Things like how I need to buy something so I can attach a water bottle to my bike, and whether to fill it with water or gatorade, whether to wear my sports bra on the inside or outside of my swimsuit, whether my bike helmet is up to the standard required or I have to get a new one . . . Apparently the mayor is firing the shot to start the race! :lol: They sold out the adult tri, which means I think there will be about 300 people there (not including the children's version). |
Hi everyone! I just joined 3FC, but I've been on beginnertriathlete.com for a couple years (offthegrid is my handle there)!
I love triathlon! I am hoping to continue losing weight so I can do some races longer than sprint distance this year. I've registered for an Olympic distance in August. :o I've been having ongoing issues with plantar fasciitis, so I'm not running much at this point, but I can swim a mile and bike about 25. I am soooooooooo glad it's spring! I can't wait to get out riding this weekend. |
Welcome Athena! Good luck with the Olympic distance! I hope your plantar fasciitis gets better.
My knees have been acting up the past week or so. I didn't run yesterday because they were achy. I think I'm going to call my doctor to get my thyroid checked earlier than usual because in the past it's been the culprit when my knees hurt. |
Interesting
Thyroid / knee connection? Please tell me how they could relate if you don't mind.
I made it to the pool today. I had been putting it off, because I knew it would be humbling. I haven't been in the water to exercise for a while. A long while. It was OK though. I ran the 1/2 mile to the community pool, and spent 20 minutes doing laps. SLOOW laps. More breast stroke than crawl, with a few kickboard laps in there too. I did succeed in moving forward the whole time. :carrot: I'm reading Transformed by Triathlon: The making of as Improbable Athlete by Jane Booth. Interesting red if you haven't |
I got up the guts to swim with the master's group this morning, and yowsers are they fast! I think I probably did 2,200-2,400 yards (2,000 was the most on my own), but I had to use fins for about half of the time because they are just too fast. So my first goal is to be able to keep up with them without fins!
It's also tough being the slowest, because I never get a rest. They get to take 10 or 20 second breaks between sets, but by the time I get there, they are leaving. But they are super nice and very encouraging, and I definitely swam way harder than I would have on my own. |
Geranium, I don't know the mechanics of how the thyroid and knees interact, but aching knees can be a symptom of hypothyroidism. A lot of people don't know that it is, and most doctors wouldn't suspect it. I had all sorts of physical therapy treatments for my knees that didn't help at all for years. I had to have a whole lot more symptoms before I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism, but once I got on the right medication my knee pain totally disappeared. Weird! Hypothyroidism can cause all sorts of bizarre symptoms. I think theoretically it has something to do with the thyroid hormones affecting collagen production but I'm not a doctor.
I did mostly breaststroke for the few few months of swimming training I did. It took me a while to be able to do a crawl for more than one lap, but now I'm pretty much equally proficient with the two. I'm still slooooooow but nowhere near as slow as I used to be! Athena, good job practicing with the masters group! I'm afraid to do any group training because I am so slow in all three events. Last night I had dinner with the friends who convinced me to sign up for triathlon in the first place. I got to check out their fancy tri bike. I seriously think if I tried to ride one of those things I would just fall over and kill myself! :lol: They are just totally in a different class than I am. The only special gear I own is a good pair of running shoes. I went this weekend to our local triathlon store, but it was also really intimidating. The running store people are really friendly to beginners, but the triathlon store people are like, if you're not going to be spending $3000 on a bike, get out of my store. In any case I picked up a thingy to attach a water bottle to my bike, and a "fuel belt." It's this belt thing that you wear that has a water bottle in it and a little pouch for food. It's snowing here today. :faint: So I think I'm going to hit the pool tonight, since running or biking would be a bad idea. I'm going to try out wearing my sports bra under my swimsuit during the swim, and work on my swim to bike transition. |
The transition practice went pretty well. It took me two and a half minutes from when I unzipped my bag until I was fully dressed for biking. I think that's pretty good, although I'd like to dry off a little more. The hardest part was getting my socks on. Wearing the bra under the swimsuit was totally comfortable.
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Good for you
Are you wearing a wet suit? The transition time worries me too, I'm sure you'll be great.No one expects you to be a professional your first time out. When I went to the pool Saturday, I ran. I didn't want to bring a bag , so I wore my suit and put a change of underpants in my pocket thinking I was super smart and unencumbered. I was so proud of my smartness until I was in the pool and realized I didn't have a towel. Not as smart as I had hoped. Also, running with wetish feet and no socks = a small blister.
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Jessica, I just saw that you bumped the thread. Sorry. With all the BL stuff, I don't subscribe to the Exercise forum in general. I'll catch up tonight.
:wave: to everyone. Anne |
Originally Posted by paperclippy: I traded out the June race for a shorter one, a sprint plus sort of distance, on my 40th birthday. Should be fun, and I should be adequately trained, which is probably the important thing. Your Questions: Yes, bring your own towel. Or two. Look up how to do a transition area on the web, and practice laying it out and going through your stuff a couple times. Most time you can take off your race without really training! Yes, you really need to learn how to fix a flat. Go to your local bike shop and ask them to help you. Buy some tubes and such and they'll do it. Not especially likely that you'll get one in the race, but you will get one sooner or later and you'll need to be able to take care of yourself. And if you do get one in the race, your race is over if you can't fix it, training or no. There is usually water or sports drink in the transition areas. Feel free to email the race director if it isn't on the web site. (PM me the web site and I'll see if I can't find something...) There will almost certainly be bathrooms or port o potties around. Otherwise, it'd just be messy. Wear the sports bra under your swim suit. What else... Your bike helmet is probably ok, but if it is more than a couple years old you should think about replacing it anyway, since foam does break down and get less safe over time. Anne |
SGeranium Woo hoo! Your first tri! Excellent.
Sarah/Warmaiden Love the username! Do you have a training plan picked out yet? Athenawithheart Hello again! OK, I'll try to stay caught up now. Oh, me. My swim got hosed today because DS (10 months old) was sick. Going mountain biking tomorrow, running Thursday. Friday's road ride was also hosed (this is a technical term) since I have to make up some work since I was out Monday for DS. Running either Saturday or Sunday and will try to swim for 20 min while DD has her swim lesson at the Y. Training was so much simpler before I had kids. Anne |
I wanted to add some of the smaller races may only have water, and they may only have it at the halfway point of the run. And some really small races might not have anything. Better to be prepared by bringing your own -- just in case!
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Geranium, I'm not wearing a wet suit -- the swim for my race is in a pool and it's not allowed. I hope your blister gets better!
Anne, glad your knee is feeling better! A tri sounds like a great way to celebrate your 40th birthday! Thanks for the info. I tried to bike to the local bike shop last weekend, but I couldn't find it! It moved from its old location (which was right next to the bike path). Then I rode around with the address in my hand but still couldn't find it. :sigh: Maybe next week I can make it over there in the afternoon. I think today I crossed the line from being scared about the tri to being excited. My mom sent me an email last night that she found cheap tickets and decided to come out here to cheer me on! (She lives in L.A., I'm in Indianapolis.) It's both good and bad -- good because I'm glad I'll have support, but bad because I wasn't planning on entertaining my mom for the weekend (two weekends in a row of family -- my sister's flying out this weekend). Oh well, I'm sure it will work out okay. |
Jessica, you are almost there! Yay. We are heading off to Boston in a couple days, DH is running the marathon, so I wanted to make sure I popped in and said good luck. I know you are going to do well and have fun!
Anne |
good luck/ have fun
Jessica,
Have fun with the race, have fun with your mom. You rock !:carrot:! Christine |
Thanks guys! I'll be back with a race report next week!
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I did it!!! :cheer: And I met both my goals: not being last, and finishing in under 2 hours. It was drizzling, but not raining enough to be too dangerous and it was actually really comfortable for the run (I had long pants and a long sleeved shirt).
My total time was 1:49:05, here's the breakdown: swim: 15:07 T1: 5:29 bike: 45:42 T2: 1:28 run: 41:18 Overall that placed me 565/573. It turned out that the swim was the hardest part. They divided us up into waves and had one person enter the pool every 5 seconds. We were ordered based on our estimated swim time, but somehow it dissolved into a mass of people in the pool all trying to swim over each other's heads. Luckily I got to get in the pool for a warmup before the actual swim, because the pool I trained in is 3-5 ft deep, and the one the tri was in is 14 feet deep at the deep end. I didn't expect that to freak me out as much as it did. In any case I started out swimming freestyle like I'd planned but ended up reverting to breaststroke after about 1 1/2 lengths of the pool. When I tried to do freestyle, there were so many people splashing around that when I tried to take a breath I got water splashed into my mouth. Since I was near the back of the pack after the first couple lengths there was enough room for breaststroke and it was easier to breathe. I saw a couple people doing backstroke, and my mom said she saw one guy doing backstroke with a mirror mounted to his goggles so he could see where he was going! In any case I had planned on about 15 minutes for the swim, so even though it seemed like forever, when I looked at my watch after getting out of the pool I felt better because I was right on time. I must have swam faster than I thought because I ended up resting on the ends of the pool between lengths, which I hadn't planned on, but still ended up at 15 minutes. The T1 transition wasn't bad. Everyone ended up keeping all their stuff in plastic bags instead of laying it out so that it wouldn't get soaked from the rain, so that made it a little harder to get things out in the right order. I had a moment of panic when I accidentally ran to the wrong row of bikes and couldn't find mine, but then I remembered where it was. It was kind of hectic because the elite people, who had gotten in the pool half an hour before me, were already coming back from their runs, and other people were coming back from the biking, while those of us who were last out of the pool were still trying to find our bikes and get dressed. I felt better when I overheard a couple at the next bike rack over who had also just gotten out of the pool. The bike course was a little hilly but I was surprised at how easy it felt. I was also surprised at how fast I went -- I finished about 10 minutes faster than I expected. Partially I bet that's because when I was out on training rides I had to stop at stop signs and lights for cars to go by, but they had stopped traffic for us for the race. I managed to pass a few people on the bike so I felt better about my slow swim time. I had one minor issue when I hit a bump going around a turn and suddenly heard this really loud noise coming from my bike. Luckily one of the volunteers saw it and told me that it was my saddlebag hitting the wheel. So I did have to stop for a second to tighten the strap on the bag, but that was my only stop along the route. The fuel belt I'd bought was actually handy -- I was able to drink some gatorade and eat half a clif bar keeping one hand on the handlebars the whole time. The T2 transition was pretty easy since I all I had to do was drop off my bike and take off my helmet. I was annoyed when I got to the rack though because while the space for my bike was still there, someone had left their duffel bag sitting in the middle of it. So sorry anonymous person, I kicked your bag out of the way! :lol: I jogged out of the transition area only to find that the beginning of the run was up a really steep hill. My legs felt like lead weights and refused to run up the hill, so I walked up to the top, then started jogging. It took a little over a mile before my legs felt normal again. I could have run faster after that point probably but I decided just to keep the pace I was going. I did pick up the pace once I could see the finish line though! My mom said I didn't look too tired at the end compared to some of the other people she saw coming through (she said a couple people looked like they were about to have a heart attack!). I definitely could have pushed harder. Next time I will! The website that has our results from the race lets you sort by anything you want, so I can find out all sorts of interesting stuff. I ended up having only 8 people after me overall, but in each individual area there were more people than that behind me, they just made up for it somewhere else. I am still amazed that the fastest person finished the whole course in 47:10. Wow! |
congrats, congrats, congrats!
Did you sign up for another race yet? |
I did a 37 mile bike ride on Saturday - one of my longest rides EVER. I was just riding along, and thought I'd shoot to ride 2 hrs. 30 minutes, but I was not getting tired. And then once I got out, I had to ride back. But now my knee is a little tired, so have to rest a bit.
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Yea, Jessica!!! I had to come read the whole report. WTG!!! :carrot:
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Thanks guys!
Athena - :lol: I haven't signed up for another yet, but there's a series of them this summer. I'm thinking I might sign up for the one in July or the one in August. They're an open-water swim so it would be a little different. Great job on your long bike ride! |
Congratulations
Well done. I'm sure it feels great to be done.
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Geranium, thanks!
Okay guys, I'm ready to sign up for another sprint tri but I can't decide which one. There are three in one of the local parks, one in June, one July, and one August. That series has a 500m swim in the reservoir, then a 10 mile bike and 3 mile run through the park, which can be hilly. There's also one downtown in August, which has a 500m swim in the canal, a 12.5 mile bike, and a 5k run, and is basically totally flat. I think the one downtown would be fun, but even though their website says it's safe to swim in the canal, that canal is pretty sketchy. I think I only want to sign up for one more for this year. Which should I do? |
Jessica! Huzzah!!
I just got back from Boston, where BillBlueEyes did a real life forum catch-up for me and said YOU DID IT!! I'll stop in later for lots of animated smilies! You deserve them. Anne |
Jessica!
:swim::swim::swim::swim::swim::swim::swim: :bike2::bike2::bike2::bike2::bike2::bike2: :running::running::running::running::running: :running: :cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer: :congrat::congrat::congrat::congrat::congrat: :congrat: :hat::hat::hat::hat::hat::hat: :dancer::dancer::dancer::dancer::dancer::dancer: :dance::dance::dance::cb::cb::cb::carrot::carrot: :carrot::broc::broc::broc: |
:lol: Thanks Anne!!! :hug: How was your 5k in Boston?
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Jessica, I have my 5K report on the April Runners thread. Hmmm, here.
Are you doing another tri? I'm going to lay out my training plan for the next few weeks so I can get ready for the May 25 tri. Tomorrow I'm planning a brick: ride about 6 miles down to pool, swim 1000 or 1500, ride about 10 miles home, over a couple substantial hills. Anne |
Anne, I'm thinking of doing another sprint tri in August but I can't decide which one to do. There is one in a local park with a swim in the reservoir, but the bike and run will probably be hilly. There's also one downtown, which would be flat, but the bike is a couple miles longer, and the swim is in the canal (which they claim is safe to swim in, but it's kind of sketchy).
The downtown one is also doing an olympic distance -- the sprint is basically one loop of everything and the olympic is two loops. I'm not sure if that would make it more confusing. THe one in the park is just a sprint. Which should I do?? |
I'd probably pick the one with the cleaner water! LOL. You can train for hills, but not really for giardia (seriously, they test for that stuff, and races do get canceled from time to time). I wouldn't worry about the Olympic/Sprint combo. Things are usually well marked, and you will study up in advance if that is what you want to do. And there will be people on the course longer, so you will have more company.
Planning a bike/swim/bike brick tomorrow. Basically ride to the pool, swim, and ride home. Anne |
Anybody still training? My plan for the week is/was:
Sunday: run 3 miles (done, badly) Monday: swim 1500 yd (5x300, done) Tuesday: run 3 miles (done, YES!) Wednesday: mountain bike, 1 hr Thursday: run 3 miles, fartlek Friday: road bike, 20 miles Saturday: REST Sunday: run, 3.5 miles Training for a sprint+ distance on 25 May. I need to try on my wetsuit to make sure it still fits, and get my aerobars back on the bike in the next week or so. Anne |
That sounds like a tough week Anne! Good luck on your sprint+!
My training plan is in flux right now. I'm trying again with NRLW and I'm committing to it this time, plus I'm taking a boot camp class, so with a rest day that leaves me only three days a week for tri-related stuff. Plus knowing me, I always end up with more rest days than I planned. :p I'm also trying to lose weight right now so I'm trying to do more metabolism-boosting workouts. Here's what I did/am doing this week: Sunday: swim 1000yd (done) Monday: bootcamp (done) Tuesday: NRLW 2A (done) Wednesday: plan is for HIIT run, but my calves are so sore from bootcamp and NRLW I can barely walk so we'll see if it happens or not Thursday: NRLW 2B Friday: HIIT run or bike Saturday: bike or swim (Sunday will be rest, I'm having people over for brunch) |
Where is that rest day????
Anne |
Anne, my rest day switches between Saturday and Sunday, depending how busy I am and on the weather! Although like I said, I always end up skipping a workout somewhere too. This week I rested on Wednesday too.
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Someone advised me to post this here...
I have recently gotten into cycling after 10+ years off the bike. My rides are 8-12 miles right now (on a cheap road bike) but due to an insane work schedule I only get out 1-2 times per week. I signed up for a duathlon in June and on a whim I went out and bought clipless pedals/shoes. I've heard it's an adjustment but I really suck at clipping in and out- my balance on the bike isnt great even without the added challenge. Do you think I'll be ready by the race in June or should I finish out my training on the standard pedals? Does a typical race situation require a lot of clipping in and out? |
I just started my triathlon training!! I haven't chosen a Tri yet, there's a good flat one mid-June that's supposed to be great for beginners, but honestly I'm not sure I'll be able to finish one by then, that's pretty soon! The one I'm really excited about is end of August right here in Portland, but the swim is gonna be tough, and the bike is hilly (and a little longer than most sprint bike legs). Hmmm... maybe I'll be able to find a good beginner course in July sometime.
I signed up for a training program at beginnertriathlete.com, it's a 13 week program based entirely on the duration of the workouts. So far this week I've done a 10 minute swim, 35 minute bike (spinning class, I figured that counts), 20 minute run, and 30 minute run. It's really nice not having to think about what I should do each day. :) Woo!! I feel like such an athlete. :D |
Originally Posted by paperclippy: I had an awesome ride this morning. Did a hill I usually have problems with. 20 miles. Welcome lobon & jajabee. lobon, I use clipless on my road bike and love them. Yes, they are an adjustment, but once you make it, it is a really nice thing. I spent a lot of time holding myself in a door clipping in and out to get used to it, some time on a trainer, and then some really easy rides just practicing. Remember to practice with both feet, just in case. If you can train with them, you can race with them, but if you aren't comfortable by race day, I'd keep what you're used to. No need to induce more stress than necessary, and if you are being extra cautious, they won't buy you speed. jajabee, I know a lot of people who've had a lot of success with beginnertriathlete. A good site to get started with. Anne |
Preview ride and run of my race route today. It went OK, so I think I'll do reasonably well for my race. One week from Monday. Ack.
Anne |
Good luck Anne!!!
My workout schedule is kind of messed up at the moment. This is what's ended up happening the past two weeks: M - boot camp T - NRLW (strength) W - rest Th - NRLW (strength) F - rest Sa - run 5k Su - bike or swim W and F were supposed to be HIIT runs with a rest day on the weekend, but for various reasons it ends up not happening (either it's raining out or I'm too sore to run). I think I need to rethink what goes on which days so that I have my planned rest day on either W or F, and figure out how to fit some more running or something in. I felt like I got a lot of good exercise in this weekend though -- a 5k run, 8.4 mile bike ride, and a 5.4 mile walk. Boot camp tonight. Next week is off from boot camp because of memorial day, then the week after starts doggie boot camp Tuesday nights as well. |
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