KSH's Group- FULL (Page 3)

Grant/Danny,
I have several race belts from race goodie bags that I'd be happy to send to you. They are much easier than doing the safety pins in the shirt. You can PM me your address if you'd like.

Robin

Thanks, everyone for the advice and good wishes. I did buy a race belt. For $7, it is worth it not to have blisters on my chest (good point made by Karen). I also did not know I could wait until the run to put it on. Glad you mentioned that.

I ran this morning and now, I just have to relax and get up way too early to go and do this. I am not sure I will get online tomorrow, as I hope to be celebrating, but I will post all the details on Monday. Hopefully they will all be good. Realistically, who knows!

Giddyup!

Danny

I'm happy to hear you got a race belt and it didn't break the bank. You can use it for years.

When you go to bed tonight... DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE RACE! Seriously. Relax. Clear your mind and drift off to sleep. If you think about the race, you will be awake all night and excited.

Good luck and come back with a race report on Monday about your FIRST TRI!

Well, I am still awaiting final results from the race before I fill in my log and race report. But I may as well say, I am still NOT a triathlete. The swim was canceled due to thunder. No rain. No lightning. Just thunder.

They instead started with a 1/4 mile run on the beach, in the sand. So that created some distance between first and last, by about a minute at most. I was 3rd out of that, in my wave. Then hit the bike. I was pleased by my ride, but man, the power some of these guys have on the bike is incredible. There was a 1.5 mile climb that just killed me. I ws in my lowest gear and just grinding away the whole time. But I enjoyed it. As one 51 year old man blew by me on the hill, I started joking around with him, so I knew I was still enjoying it. My ride, 16 miles, was roughly 57 minutes.

Then the run. I have never felt legs like that before. They were just dead! But I suppose everyone else felt the same, so I just ran. I passed probably 15 people during the 5k run and by the end of it was rolling pretty well. I believe my 5k was about 19:06.

Prelim results showed me in 29th place out of about 120 people, so I am happy with that. But I really wanted to get this open water swim out of the way. It is the thing I am most anxious about.

So I guess I am now a duathlete. I guess I am just adding one sport at a time.

How was everyone else's weekend?

Danny

Bummer about the OWS but congrats on a good day overall. 29th out of 120...that's what..top 25th percentile? I can only hope my first tri goes as well.

Danny, that's a total bummer that the swim got cancelled. Dang it.

You did a great job though! And hey, you can swim the next one... right?

Otherwise, I think we can all agree that you did a really fabulous job considering you didn't taper for the race and did like a 7 mile run the day before.

Thanks. My race report is up now. I am pretty happy with it. My bike was 65 out of 125, so I have room to improve there. My T2 time was 119 out of 125, so I have a lot to do there.

I have to admit, even without the swim, this race gave me a new respect for triathletes. I know how to push in a race, but to do so in three different disciplines is a different world. A very painful world! But the good kind of pain...

Your bike looks pretty good. If you start putting in more miles on it, you will improve, quickly.

T2... it's your first one... don't worry about it. You will improve easily.

Yea, doing all 3 together changes things. Although with proper training and brick workouts, it gets easier as time goes on.

And of course, you didn't really rest at all for the race. So, a little rest might have helped some...but you still had a good race.

Money PAID - Disco Sprint

My first triathlon.

Nice! When is Disco Sprint? (I love that name)

Good! I'll be out there too racing the sprint. I hope we get to meet each other.

Danny, the Disco tri is July 8, 2007.

I'll more than likely be at the sprint this weekend as a volunteer/observer.

One month away. That is great. It is time to get excited and buckle down. Make these next three weeks count!

I've got to get a brick or two in, buy some tri shorts and work on transitions.

I would strongly suggest doing a brick or two. Now of course I say that having not done one. When I got off my bike and started o run, I thought I was going to fall over. That is no exaggeration. My legs have never felt so foreign to me. My balance was off. My legs were rubber. It was amazing. My guess is a little experience goes a long way here.

I could see myself starting with a power walk for about 25-50 yards and then working up to a slow jog.

Bricks are a very important part of training, at least they are for me.

Now, for your first tri... one or two beforehand will be fine. But Grant, as you move up in distance (Oly) you will want to incorporate more bricks into your routine.

I do 4 bricks a month (1 a week). It has helped me so much. Now days, when I get off a 20-30 mile ride, I am READY to RUN. I'm waiting for the day when I'm ready to run after a 40 mile bike ride!

Okay - my weakest discipline by far is the swim. It seems some of you are really strong swimmers. So, I seek advice in this area. A friend of mine, who is also a triathlete, once told me the key to getting better, at anything really, is to get out of your comfort zone. Truer words have never been spoken. That s what got me doing swim practice with a group at my gym, and let me tell you, it kicked my butt.

Anyway, I am taking a few weeks off from that workout b/c I have had some shoulder soreness. What I want to do is get back in the pool next week and swim easy, but really work on form/drills. And so I ask, what are the best drills to help form. I am not worried about strength right now, just form.

I hate doing drills. It is definitely out of my comfort zone, as I tend to sink. Thus the reason I know I need to do them. So any and all advice in this area is welcome.

Thanks.

Danny

I scoffed at the pull buoy the first time I saw people using them but they really have improved my stroke.

My suggestion is to not worry about speed but be deliberate and exaggerated in your stroke. Make sure your hand is entering the water at..or just in front of...your ear and really strike down and out. Don't swim 'uphill' which means that your hand enters the water but cuts up towards the surface, not down and in front of you.

Another tip is to finish your stroke long. Make sure your thumb hits your hip with your palm facing up. Pull the whole way.

Danny, some good drills would be:

1) Using the pull boyou (? spelling). This will help raise your hips/legs in the water and give you time to focus on your stroke and not worry about kicking.

2) Finger tip drag. This is where you drag your finger tips through the entire stroke above water. This makes you focus on high elbows.

Those are two good ones to start with.

As Grant said... make sure your hands are entering the water at 11:00 and 1:00 (12:00 being your head/center line). A lot of new swimers make the mistake of putting their hands in down or across their center line and snaking through the water. Not good.

Keep in mind that when you swim, there is a glide portion to the stroke. You glide when you hand enters the water and then stretchs out below the water and on the pull. Hard to explain though. But as Grant said, you do not want to stretch your arm out all the way and then place it on the water in front of you. When you do this, you completely lose the part of the stroke that powers you forward.

Great - thank you all. Next week, I am back in the pool and doing lots of drills. I suspect this will do a lot for my swim. Either that or I will drown...

The drill thats helped me the most is the zipper drill. Pretend you have a zipper along the side of your body, as you go through the stroke keep your thumb on the side of your body as if you are zipping up, start at your thigh all the way up to your arm pit. It really focuses on keeping your elbows high.

How is everyone doing out there?

Who has a race coming up? Anyone?

I know Grant and I race on July 8th... anyone else racing before then?

It sure is quiet in this thread.

No race coming up - well no triathlon I should say. I have a 5 mile running race this Sunday. And I am considering doing an open water 1k swim later this month, since I got cheated out of my swim in my tri.

But really for right now I am just trying to get workouts in for all the disciplines. It is hard to keep my running schedule up and ride and swim and lift. I am not a morning person, so to get up and ride before work has been a problem. My alarm went off today and yesterday at 5:45. I shut it off...