Training for a shorter Tri

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  • ST - image sounds great!

    Oh, no Jevans! This is not making me feel any better. I am just dreading having to learn how to change a tyre. And I can just picture the scene in your house cos that would have been my hubby and I! Who are you going to raise money for?

    Well, after a hard training week I had planned yesterday and today as rest days. Pleased I did cos I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat. I'm hardly ever ill. In fact apart from the occasional migrane I think the last time was last winter. Am still not feeling 100% and have been eating far too much chocolate over the weekend  - the huge box I was given for my birthday last week.

    Hope to feel better tomorrow cos I want to cycle. Am going to give my foot another day of rest. 

    Bootsie - did you get your bike ride in?

    Razor- hope you are feeling better.

  • no bike ride done image but managed 11.17 miles and ended up with tired legs and a big blister on my foot!!!

    will try and get home in time to do a bit of biking outdoors this week.. nightmare in the dark! 

  • Tomorrow's the first day of my 16-week training plan. Going to make this a swim focus week, and hoping to get 3 swims in, plus some riding and running. Also got a cicuits class and would like to go skating, so the week could fill up quite alarmingly.

    Today I cycled 20+ km aroungd the South Circular, and managed to tag a 1.3km run (well, more like a sluggish plod) on the end before pottering round the London Wetlands Centre and cycling home in the dark. I was pleased that I managed it up the most challenging hill in both directions without discomfort, but good grief it was cold out there today.

    Hope it warms up soon.

  • where did you get the training plan from yersinia?:
  • Erm, 'plan' is perhaps overstating it - I'm using ideas from this thread to split the 16 weeks into four four-week periods with one week focussing on each discipline, followed by a drop-back week.

    I'm maybe a tad unusual in that my cycling is by far and away my best discipline, and swimming is slowish but steady with no difficulty at all about the distance, while my running is ropey - I've only just got back into it after a break, have never done much and have always been slow, so can only just manage the race distance at a slow jog at the minute, though I know I can improve on that quite quickly.

  • chilibean - too much chocolate gives me a headache!
  • Pleased to report that over the wekend, went to the pool and had a splash - could hardly call it a swim, did 4 lengths of backstroke legs only, used the good arm for half of it, but went even more sideways than normal. Physio suggested it to loosen up wrist, but did not really enjoy as could not swim FC or breast stroke, wrist felt worked out as I did the sculling as told, plus the water felt cold.

    On Sunday Mr Steady was suprised at me going out for a LSR, I do not know why, seems to have had a mad thought I might not want to get up early and go for a run, (he is a non runner). I did 5 miles in just over the hour doing run 5 mins walk 1 min, oh boy, did it feel good to be back outdoors and getting sweaty and a bit breathless. Normality has been resumed, albeit with a sort of swimming.

    Physio this morning and again next Monday, she is pleased with my progress so far, I am now getting impatient wanting to ride a bike holding the bars correctly.

  • steady i do run walk for my longer runs.. great way of lowering impact on joints
  • Hi All, I've been reading this with a lot of interest.... I've found a Sprint at the start of May which I really fancy.  I've been mainly running (slowly!) for the past few years, and did a marathon at the end of 2009.  Last year, I started cycling more, as training for a cycle touring holiday in the summer.  And I've always done a bit of swimming.  So triathlon been at the back of my mind for a while now.

    Does anyone have any advice on how I should change my current schedule to train for it?  At the moment, I alternate cycling and running to work, so lots of short, hilly, 5-mile cycles in a week, and a few 5-mile runs, plus a shorter run.  Plus usually a 1-mile swim once a week, and either a longer run, cycle, or a body pump class at the weekend. 

    Over the winter I've been adding a 1.5 mile run onto the end of my cycle home occasional, just to see how that felt (generally pretty good), and going for a quicker than usual "transition" when I've cycled to the pool (i.e. not drying my hair after the shower image).   In the summer I did a 20-mile cycle followed by a 1-hour run round an orienteering course (followed by lunch then 20 -miles home) which was fun.  So that's my closest so far to brick sessions so far.

    I guess my best bet would be to increase the cycling distance a few days per week, and maybe add a swim?  Then add some running to the end of the shorter cycles?  When it gets lighter I'll switch to a 18-mile route to work one day a week, but it's still dark at 8.30 at the moment, which makes it harder.

    Been good to read about so many people at a similar stage to me.... I'm sure I'll be back with lots more questions soon.

  • Welcome AberdeenFay image

    It depends what you want out of Tri, if it's to get round and enjoy then I think your already there especially for a sprint distance. If you want to push harder to get up with the front runners then you will need to structure you training better. image

    Like I said sounds like your doing fine already.

    What race are you looking at?
  • Hi Fay - welcome - good idea to start sticking a swim in every week. Many people swim Breastroke in Tri's so don't worry if your not a Front Crawler - I still can't do more than 6 lengths Front Crawl without having a breather, so I  mix up Crawl and Breastroke. I've been enetered for a Swimathon in March - "only" 2.5km my Iron man mate said!! Try a swim/bike brick too ie ride home from the pool, and a swim/run brick works well too - the last one I did was 1k in the pool then 8k run. The run felt quick because I was so warmed up after the swim!

    Chili / ST - your training is putting me to shame! Good for you! Going to sit on my swiss ball tonight and watch telly. Run tomorrow night after work, 7 to 9km at 4.5mins/km with some speed work to try to get my 10k time down to under 40mins by Spring. Wish me luck!

  • Good luck Gingergav image

    My training will take a hit this week my start times change at work so up at 1 am for 2 am starts image then home pick up kids then Dinner then bed for 7pm so not much training this week image so will have to have a big weekend.
  • Decided to give my Mojo a kick up the arse today and managed to get a 4.5 mile run in.  image

    Felt a bit sluggish at first but loosened up after a mile or so but got a few aches in my calves and quads which I put down to my new trainers, otherwise I'm ok. image

    Hi  Fay welcome aboard.

    Ginger.......are you doing the Ribby Hall Tri, (or all 3). What else are you doing ,thinking of doing that one myself and maybe the Liverpool half marathon.

    Well done Steady, a great effort to get back into it.image

  • Swam today. Did my 800m Winterswim and then some other bits and bobs for another 20 minutes or so. Went well until the buggers moved the lane rope  across my lane while I was swimming a 50m sprint. Couldn't work out why I was grazing my arm on the rope until I looked up. They didn't give me any warning and it wouldn't have taken long for them to wait till I was at the end of the pool and tell me.

    I also unintentionally cycled 20km. Went to Saisburys from the pool, then found out I'd left my debit card at home and had to cycle back to get it.

    Gah.

    Well, it's all good training, I suppose. Except by then I was starving and accidentally had a cream tea in the store caff.

    Whoops.

  • Yersinia.................................a cream tea   yummy,  Dont feel guilty youv'e earned it with that bike ride.
  • love cream tea!!

    45 mins on the turbo trainer followed by 1.3 mile run.. actually good enough timing

  • Yersinia - yes, a cream tea is deffinitely acceptable! Especially on top of all that training.

    Welcome Fay. This is my first year doing Tri so I am pretty clueless, but if I was doing your kind of distances I wouldn't be worried about a Sprint! Great to have you join us though.

    Steady - am very impressed with your patience and persistance. 

    Well, this is my 3rd day of no training. I'm feeling a bit better but my throat is still sore and the weather has been rather bitter. SO I decided I really didn't want to risk a bike ride in the chilly wind. Did a Davina McCall exercise DVD instead.  I suppose it does theuse the muscles in a different way, but didn't get my heart rate up and was a bit boring.

    But tomorrow is another day and being Tuesday I hope to fit in a swim at lunchtime and a run in the evening. Have got my new trainers to try out. image 

  • Swam today...very long slog in a 20m pool, very much mind over matter! Supposed to be lower volume week this week, but I have to teach 2 spin classes, so my easy low intensity recovery week is gone!! I was looking forward to getting outside on my bike too!
  • I did a group ride - 6 women, cycled about 20 miles in total, cream tea at 9.30 on a Saturday morning in the summer last year, tasted great and I fooled myself that the calories didnot count.

    Maybe I need to plan some more rides like that this year stopping at cafes en route. Although best ever was in 1995, after a long marathon training run to and around Richmond Park, refuelled with pot of tea and an apple doughnut, a doughnut has never tasted as good since.

  • Happy new trainers Chillibean image
  • Not feeling guilty about the cream tea - I'd have had to have a light supper when I got home before a very late dinner anyway, and I kept the dinner really light and healthy.

    So the difference is probably more-or-less accounted for by the extra miles I cycled.

    And it tasted gooood, because I was tired and hungryimage.

    Nice summer rideys with tea stops or pub stops are definitely the way to go.

    Yay for new go-faster trainers, Chilli! The reason I forgot my credit card, was because I'd forgotten to put it back in my wallet after ordering winter cycle boots and Goretex running shoes online. So hopefully I'll soon be sharing the New Shoe Joy.

  • you should never feel guilty about a cream tea.. wtih or without training!
  • JEvaNsJEvaNs ✭✭✭

    Gosh - busy thread! Chocolates, cream tea... lovely stuff!

    Chili - Swimathon is for Marie Curie, and it's a charity my mum supports a lot too, so I'm doing it for her. I don't often ask people for sponsorship, since once I'd been running for a while it wasn't much of a challenge. 5k of swimming however is proving to be a might Big Deal....! Hope you are starting to feel a bit better? Sounds similar to what I had as going out in the cold really hurt. Just walking to the bus stop yesterday morning, I felt like Buzz Lightyear when he first had his helmet opened by Woody!

    Bootsie - Great running from you! I wish I could do that!

    Yersinia - I'm excited by your training plan! Can't wait to hear how it goes. For some reason the general feeling is that swimming tends to be the weaker discipline of people new to the sport, whilst running tends to be the stronger so you are a one of the more unique! I think of all of them though, running is the easiest to build since it doesn't require particular equipment or technique (though one can get carried away with these things....!)

    Steady - forgive me if you have said already, but what has caused you to need physio on your wrist? Was it to do with how you hold on to your bike? Keep up the good work! It's always nice to get back into it.

    Hello AberdeenFay! Sounds like you are well on your way to a strong Sprint Tri with all that experience. I laughed at your swim/bike brick description. I don't try my hair, and I end up in soggy shorts too (just chuck clothes on top of swim kit). I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the changing rooms when I've done that in the past. It's very liberating to get out of the changing rooms so quickly though - who needs towels when we have brick sessions to do!

    GG - if you are going to show off with your sub-40 target, then I'm going to show off with my 1600m swim last night ... all front crawl - no stopping! image

    ST - not much training, or sleeping by the sounds of it! Hope you don't have too many weeks like that.

    Razor - I trust your mojo is well and truly back now then? 

    SF - Surely you can cheat a little bit in spin class as the instructor? I always worry a little bit when the instructors are working so hard and yelling a lot too... it's a bit scary...!

    I'm impressed by all these bricks going on though. Makes me regret being too ill to try my spin-run-spin session last weekend. I may do something like it this weekend though. I was going to do a Parkrun 5k on Saturday morning, and cycle there and back, but then I'm thinking I'd possibly rather avoid the 'hassle' of a race event (especially since I won't be up to 'racing' it and will probably end up last... not what my confidence needs after last week of no training!). But maybe I will. What do you think?

    I managed a swim last night though. I was going to run, but it was too cold outside, and I figured a swim would be a bit more of an ease back into it than a run. The pool was fairly clear too, so I just did another swim to see how far I could go. I tired at 30 minutes though, and just topped it up after that to 1600m in 37minutes. I was pleased with that, but I need to work on my endurance if I'm going to do 5k in April image

    And then I did four miles easy on the treadmill this morning, which was really comfortable and lovely. I noticed afterwards though that my trainers are really quite worn down at the back and I've only had them since August I think. New trainers for me too I think!!! image

  • Here's a challenge, JEvans - I've never done a parkrun and was thinking of trying my first this weekend, and would also have to cycle there. I am slightly terrified of coming last as it seems to be a small and speedy one. I am neither small nor speedy.

    If you do yours, I'll do mine*image. I'm not going to do it as a real brick - aiming to get there a bit early and have time to lock up, change my shoes and have a small snack before running.

    *As long as it's not p*ssing down, snowing or icy. That may be wimpy, but I think it'd be beyond me in very adverse conditions at my current state of (un)fitness.

  • Thanks for all the welcomes! 

    There are quite a few Sprint triathlons in aberdeenshire over the summer listed in the aberdeenshire council website, I'm looking at one in Turriff in May.  I've no idea how beginner friendly it is going to be though, I don't know anyone who has done a triathlon before, never mind that one.  Is anyone here local?

    I'm on holiday soon, but I've bought a triathlon book to read while I'm away and really looking forward to getting straight into training when I get home.  I guess I could get round ok at the moment, but I would like a reasonably respectible time.  I'm a confident swimmer but not a fast one.  Same with cycling and swimming actually!  I'm too quick to fall into a comfortable plod - I have no competitive edge.

     It's inspiring to read about all the great training you guys are doing!

  • JEvaNsJEvaNs ✭✭✭
    Oh no, Yersinia - you have targetted my achillies heel! I can't refuse a challenge like that - I'm a sucker for "I will if you will"!!!! I'll be seeing you on the virtual bike trail, 8am sharp!
  • And we can come back with our wooden spoons to beat the rest of the threadsters into some hard training!

    image

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