Question about training for the bike leg. For my present training, there is a neighborhood near me that is a 5 mile loop and I ride in there. There are hardly any cars. Plus there is a dead end road off the main loop where many park there cars and set up their transitions or set up extra fuel if going a long distance. It is really nice. For my 70.3 training, I essentially went up to 10 laps around the neighborhood. The downside, there are several steep hills and after about 5 laps you are cursing the hills. Also, there are some sections of road in the neighborhood that definitely need repaving. You have to ride off your saddle on these sections or you will be regretting it when you are done. I can't imagine riding 100 miles in this neighborhood. How do you guys get in 100 mile rides? Do you just get on your bike and go? Try to find a charity ride?

From my house within about 15 miles either south or north I can get on roads that allow me to go for 20-50 miles with stop signs, but no lights. Depending on what I am doing, I would either drive to a good place to leave from, or ride from my house. What I like about long stretched that mimic the terrain you are going to ride is that it allows you to get used to long periods on the aero bars and saddle. I've seen so many people in triathlons not using their aero bikes as aero bikes because they are not used to the position (neck, back, butt are not ready for long stints in an aero position).

Yea, I understand where people starting tri's are not using aero. My first sprint, on my road bike with aero bars, I hardly was in aero position. Now with my tri bike, I can't wait to get back into aero if I get up for a quick drink or some fuel. I now feel like it takes a toll on my arms to try to ride upright.

Finally starting to see some of these little changes in my swim mechanics pay off. I am far from being anywhere near what I would consider just above average, but for 1,000 yards, I finally broke 20 minutes yesterday, twice. I feel like I am finally starting to find that spot where I can exert some more energy and not gas myself. Just had to post as right now, little wins are big for me going into this full IM.

1000 yards in <20 minutes? You may not be front of the pack, but that's a strong pace in my opinion. I've gotten way, way better from when I started but I'm still only about 17-18 minutes for a sprint swim (750m).

Just got back from Disney World and doing the Dopey Challenge. This is the first year I really noticed how many people with IM tattoos and swag competed in the races. Pretty cool to see and provided some motivation while out on the course. While I was out there, I decided to reach out to a certified IM coach about coaching for the next three months leading into IM TX. I have a meeting with him tomorrow. Looking forward to see what he has to say.

It's been quiet in here lately. Hopefully people jump back on as it warms up outside.

The IM coach I hired has been kicking my butt. I thought I had some decent training before starting in the coach, really opened my eyes that I really wasn't training properly. Two months away from IM TX. I am not sure what I am more excited for, the race or the break in training after the race. LOL.

It sounds like the coach is working out well for you. Having a coach that really understands how to train and how to motivate is a great help.

He really does a great job with the training schedule, but good grief, I really didn't know what I was getting into with this IM training. With the half IM, I was able to get away with a few hours and a few days of training here and there. With this full IM training, there are not enough hours in the day to work, train, coach baseball, and then keep up on normal life things like laundry, house chores, etc. This past Saturday, I pretty much spent the entire day training because I had to take Friday off from training for work and going to watch my son's opening day of college baseball. There has been a mental breakdown or two along the way, LOL. We are 8 weeks out from the race. The upcoming weekends are going to be killers now that he is ramping up to race mileage.

It's really tough to balance work/family/training for a triathlon. Before kids, my wife and I were doing half IM distance (Generally Wildflower in CA) while also competing in swimming and running events. As soon as home demands picked up with having 3 kids, I went from trying for 3 sports to just running, since it was the most time efficient. Once our kids got older, my wife and I did a couple more halfs, but we could no longer train together since one of us was always on kid duty.

Sounds like you are near the finish line for the training program and will be starting your taper soon. Good luck!

I’ve never been coached in this manner, but I’m just curious…do they take family life/work/etc. into consideration? Is that info given to the coach/training planner? When you subscribe to their services do they ask how much time you are able/willing to dedicate to the training per day/week?

Dan

I was just explaining to a coworker last week that training for a FIM is like having a second job. Maybe a part time job, but just as demanding. And I don't know what your coach has you doing but I'm pretty sure you're already plenty set for at least a finish. At this point, just finishing is all about being in the right frame of mind. Now, if you're looking to podium or qualify for Kona, that's a different animal.

Me personally, I'm a 16:59 kind of gal.

About one month away from IMTX! I have my longest training run this weekend, 18 miles. I did my 15 mile run last weekend on the actual IM course. It's awesome because it is right outside my office window. LOL. So I have all the landmarks already in my head. Now just got to get there.

Next week will be my century ride. The hardest part about this is just finding somewhere safe to ride 100 miles. Right now I ride in a very large neighborhood that is essentially a five mile loop. It gets old going that same route over and over and over. I started talking to the squirrels, dogs, horses, etc. LOL. Plus there are several decent hills in the loop. Going up the hills a few times is probably good for training. But once you start seeing them for a 9th, 10th, 11th time, there are some choice words for the hills.

Now I have a decision to make about the swim. No doubt swimming is my weakest of the three. If it is wetsuit optional, I think I am going to go with a wetsuite still and start in that last group. If it's hot outside, I will go with lava shorts. I am just that much faster with some assistance in keeping my legs up. Because of the arm and shoulder strength I have built up through the years of playing and coaching baseball, give me a pull buoy and I will go for days. So the thought process is that if I can at least use lava shorts, despite starting in the last group, I will probably finish quicker than if I swam with just my tri suite.

There will be no looking to podium or qualify here. I just want to finish. I told my coach that if I had to set a time goal, under 14 hours would be my goal.

I would advise you to keep a close eye on the temp, and the sunshine factor if you end up wearing a full wetsuit. If the weather is sunny and warm, I would hold off on donning, and zipping the upper portion of the suit until right before your start wave. As I’m sure you’ve experienced, a full wetsuit in the sunshine is like having an electric blanket on. If you put the wetsuit on too early, you’ll begin to perspire, and the potential of heat exhausting that much closer. Good luck. — Dan

Yes, wear a wet-suit if it is wet-suit legal, otherwise lava shorts. The lava shorts will help with body position and reduce the effort you need to put out in the swim. My advice for a front of the pack swimmer, would be different. Today I was doing my swim workout, the guy next to me was mixing up using a pull bouy and not using it. He was probably a 1:40-1:50 per 100 yard swimmer. The difference in his body position and what I perceived as the effort he was putting out was much better with the pull bouy than w/o it.

Are you sure you weren't swimming next to me? LOL.

I should have done this earlier, but started working on two beat kick for the swim. Um yea, that is just a little bit easier for me. LOL. I felt like I was posting faster times in my different segments than I normally do. I felt like I was able to keep my lower half up better using that kick.

Were you using no kick, or a 6 beat kick? A 6 beat is great for adding speed, but at a very high cost. THere's a phrase in swimming of "Go to your legs" -or- "I went to my legs" to indicate you started a hard kick toward the end of the race. When I used to race the 1650 (Short Course Mile) I would start off at a easy 2-beat for the first 100 for two (to make sure I didn't take it out too hard), then increase to a easy 6 beat, then the last 100 or so was a very hard 6 beat. For longer open water races, 2 beat all the way.

I was essentially using whatever kick felt good at the moment. LOL. And lets just say my two beat kick used to be more like something dying in the water. Now that I am actually focusing on it, much better. LOL.

Century ride in the books this past weekend. That was crazy. I had never gone more than 65 miles on the bike. Followed it up with a short 2 mile brick run. My legs were toast. LOL.

This weekend is a 3.5 hour ride followed by an hour brick run. After that, it's taper time! Whew.

Little bump in the road before the race. I had a sinus infection back in late January/early February. Took my steroids for that and thought I was done with it. But the last 6-7 weeks I have been constantly congested. I finally went to an ENT to see if it may be allergies as the environmental allergens are really bad here right now. All my tests came back negative. They did a CT scan of my sinuses and turns out that the sinus infection never healed and the doctor said I have a bunch of mucus in my sinuses. Funny thing is, I actually feel much better this week. So the doctor prescribed my a 21 day treatment of antibiotics and a strong steroid. I was reading some of the possible side effects of the two medications, and not sure I want to mess with those before a race (upset stomach, swelling, increased heart rate, sensitive to the sun, etc). I asked the doctor if I would be okay to take these before an Ironman race. I had to explain to her what an Ironman race was and she said I should be fine. Yea, didn't get that warm fuzzy feeling. I have been doing all this training, and my longest training also, with the congestion and I did just fine. So with that in mind, I figured there is no reason to add an unknown variable to the race and going to wait until after the race to the meds. It may mean that the person behind me on the bike may get hit with a snot rocket (just kidding, hopefully) and may be clearing my nose a few times on the run, but nothing that I haven't been already doing the past 6 weeks or so.

Yeah, unless your doctor really understands what you are about to undertake, I would listen to your body. About 30 years ago I had a doctor that also did IMs. With him, it was a straightforward conversation since he "understood". One time I sprained my ankle really bad (stepped on a door handle in the sidewalk) his statement was "You should not run on this, but on the off chance you decide to ignore me then you should........" We both knew I was going to run on it and he wanted to make sure I didn't take any additional risks".

Good luck in the race!

Mike

Said no runner ever. Mark that under weird and odd running incidents.

Dan

Race week! Yesterday, found a pretty cool "lake" that is dedicated to open water swimming and scuba training. Went out there and got a few laps in with my different wetsuits. Looks like I am going with the sleeveless and 3/4 leg suit. I felt like the full suit tired my shoulders too quickly.

Ran into some of the pros at the gym where I swim and out on the waterway doing practice runs of the course. Crazy how fast they go.

That could be a result of not having the suit pulled on sufficiently in the upper half (which could be because the lower half isn’t pulled all the way on). The whole suit has to be pulled all the way on. If it isn’t it can creat a chain reaction that causes the whole thing to feel like it’s pulling against you. Legs all the way up so that the crotch is snug to the ‘nether region.’ Torso pulled up so that the armpits are snug…along with the arms pulled up. Torso and arms not properly on will cause it to create resistance for your arms and shoulders. — Dan