David Gillen's Group - FULL

Mike,

Thanks for the response. I'd love to help you out anyway I can. Welcome aboard!

I too came to multi-sport thru a desire to add variety and minimize my risk of injury. I have really bad flat feet and after training for my 3rd marathon back in 2004, my ankles were killing me. My wife and I bought bikes to reduce the pounding of running and the rest is history!

I should be able to give you some good advice and guidance on how to build a cycling base. Additionally, I hopefully can help you maximize your use of your HR monitor.

To get started, can you please answer a couple of questions:

1) If you have a duathlon already picked out, what is the date and length? If not, what length duathlon are you considering?
2) Also, do you have a target race date for breaking your 1:30 in a HM?
2) Can you give me the URL address of any online training programs you've followed?

Thanks and I look forward to working with you,

David

Dave,

Thanks for posting.  Welcome to my group.  

Triathlon has really gotten a lot more popular in DFW area over the past few years.  During the spring and fall in particular, you almost have a race every weekend!  It's great.  Austin is getting more races too.  I grew up there, and I might be doing a race or 2 there this year.

Can you tell me a little bit more about your running background?  Have you done a lot of races?  If so, what's your preferred distance?  Also, can you please let me know if there are areas of triathlon training where you'd like the most help?

Thanks,

David 

Jonathan, 

I don't make it to as many Dallas Athletes (DA) workouts as I'd like.   I try to make it to their Wed evening ride from Standbridge stadium, but a lot of times I can't make it due to time constraints or different workout scheduling.

Since I'm not doing an IM this year, I might have a little more time for these group workouts though.  So, hopefully, I'll make it to more of them this year. 

Which ones do you go to? 

Tim,

Thanks for joining my group.  Congrats on your finishing your first marathon, and I know what you mean about getting over the pains.  Marathon training is tougher than triathlon training in a lot of ways.  Also, great job with the swimming.  1500 meters non-stop is awesome.  It took me longer than 45 days to reach that level. 

If this is your first year in triathlon, it sounds like you have quite an aggressive race schedule this year with an OLY and HIM on the calendar!   We'll probably have to be careful that you don't start "over-training".  I can help you with this.

As I've asked the others, what areas of triathlon training can I try help you with?  In other words,  besides general advice, what are you hoping to get out of this mentoring program?

David 

I'll admit right off the bat that I'm not a strong swimmer, and any advice I give should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I too have worked my way up to from barely being able to finish 50m without dying to the 2.4 open water swims of the IM distance.

Since swimming is so much more technique oriented that biking or running, there is a lot to remember with every stroke. And I think the whole idea of drills (as you probably know) is to isolate one area to focus on so that all the other things don't distract you. However, I totally know what you mean about "not getting" drills? I can't do a lot of them very well myself, but do think they're important and thus maybe all of us (including me) in this group can learn more about them together. More coming soon...

I agree that most triathletes are too health conscience to smoke, but I do love the occasional pastry! I should be able to help you with most things bike related as this the one area I really focused on last year, putting in more than 4500 miles.

I'll definitely be able to help you here too as there will be some tips/trick/etiquette issues that you'll have know way of knowing until you do a few races.

Looking forward to it...

David

Welcome Kevin!

Congrats on the half-marathon.  I read your race report.  It must have been really neat to run around the Indy 500 speedway.  I hope to do that HM some day!

Can you tell me a little bit more (can be brief) about your training thus far?  Also, can you tell me about your triathlon this weekend?  What are the distances?  Is in an OWS? (Open Water Swim) 

I could start in on all kinds of advice for you for you first, but do me favor:  Ask me some questions or tell me some of your concerns.  No question is stupid.  This could be a great start for some of my etiquette and racing tips.  If you have a question, others in this group will probably have the same one.   So ask away!

David