Birkierunner's group - ROUND 2 - CLOSED

tripletmom01 - 2007-12-29 9:39 AM round 2!!  Im in

She's baaaaaaaaaaaack...Tammy why don't you briefly tell others about yourself and your plans for IM buildup

Would love to give this a try----again.  Joined in in '97.  Biggest concern is time management and the "swim monster'.  Here is what I wrote then"

• 43-teacher/coach, married, 1 son(may want to do a tri in May w/me)
• have stayed active from HS to now, as coaching seasons allows
• totally new to tris(have completed 3 mini-sprints:  the swimming has eaten me up!!)
• weakness is the swim
• injuries here and there have shortened training cycles, hamys' this year.

Goals:

• be more consitent 
• complete two more sprints( sub 1:14 at some point)
• jump into an OLY distance(lose water fear)

Browsed around the 'open' groups and was impressed w/ your consitency.  If it is possible to join, let me know....Thanks.

CoachH is in our group too- cool

Anyway- I m 34 ooops I mean 35 and have 6 year old triplets, whom are beginning to share my love of tris (YEAH!!!)
This is my third year of triathlons although I have been running since college although not competitively (can you believ that??)  Last year  I did three HIM and then signed up for IMWI   I am truely SO excited and happy to be participating and am planning on training hard and hope to have a great race.
I am doing my first marathon  March 2cnd in Little Rock AR....... training is going well- I did my longest run ever of 17 miles on thursday and I felt good about it so...  I really just want to come out of it feeling more confident about IM.

Things I need to work on
swim speed... I think I have pretty good endurance and form just need to pick up the pace a bit
Nutrition- I do not eat/drink enough on the bike or run - I think all my HIM would have been even better had I taken in more calories.
Bike endurance- I beleive my longest ride has ben like 75 miles- I think I am a fairly strong biker just need to put more miles in.
Stretching, resting, and recovering

There honestly arent a lot of people whom I take advice (and critisism ) from but Jim is a pretty OK mentor- thanks for letting me in again.

 Tammy

Welcome Glen

Looking forward to "meeting" you

Hello,

I would like to join your group if it is still possible

Story: I started running 3 years ago from the couch-patato level. I had several gaps during these three years. In October I started again with specific golas in mind and I am very consisten so far. I have been guided by an online coach for two weeks but I would like to join the group to share experience..

Current Training: At the moment I train for Paris Marathon (April 6th) and then Ironman 70.3 Wiesbaden (Germany - Agust 10th). My training is focused on running due to the nearest goal. Swimming (especially open water) is my greatest limiter, but I work on this during Masters classes twice a week.

Family: Married, no kids, one cat

Wight loss: I used to be overweight but it is not a problem any more since I have started running. So far I lost about 40 pounds and my weight drops naturally with training. It is 190 pounds currently. 

Cheers,

Marcin 

Thanks...this is going to be fun.  Do hope it turns out to be a good accountability group

Hi Marcin.  You are very welcome to join our group.  Now we have 3 countries represented in the group!  That has got to be a first for BT?  WOW!

Great to see that you are in a Masters swim group.  Great job on the weight loss also.  WELCOME!

Hey Jim!  As we discussed already, you're welcome to join our group.  Sounds like you have a good background and having a wife that races also has got to be a plus when it comes to getting support on the home front.  You should touch bases with Rob Yamry (pseudoyams) - he's racing at Disney next month also.  You'll like the Racine HIM.  I did it the past 2 years and would like to do it again in '08 but I have a work-related meeting that same weekend.  Looking forward to working with you this season.  WELCOME!

 Holy cow - we now have 3 countries (Canada, Poland, U.S.) represented in our group.  Totally cool. 

By the way...(lol)...Originally from Mx...

Good morning, Heather.  Still open, and you're in.  WELCOME  April will be here soon so the sooner you can develop a consistent training schedule the better.  Fire away with any questions you might have.  When the group fills I'll post some more general thoughts.  Thanks for joining!

CoachH - 2007-12-30 8:24 AM in selecting plans...do you go on your strength or weakness.  the things that pops into my  head is if i go on weakness/swim, the time may not be there for me w/ the number of swims.  School hours, coaching hours, etc...yeah, joy   Strength wise, I can flirt w/ 3x running and still hover around 21 5k...

Time management is the one problem I think most of us age-groupers face.  There is no magic wand we can use to cover up the reality of limited hours to train.  I think the most important thing you have to do is be brutally honest with yourself when you assess what you can pull off consistently on a weekly basis.  Don Fink's book Be Iron Fit has some good information on effective time management.  Gordo Byrn also wrote an article on tips for the busy triathlete for ironman training, but the same principles apply (be sure to read the comments after the article).

For the offseason, I would focus on your weakest event.  BT has some swim-focused offseason plans that address the swim while still getting in other workouts for the run and bike.  If you are not already a bronze or silver BT member I would highly recommend you join so that you can access those plans.

The bottom line is, you really need to sit down with a weekly/monthly planner and block out the times you will be at work, commuting, coaching, and taking care of the home front.  That will give you an idea of what time slots you have available for training. You may have to get very creative in order to squeeze in workouts.  Wake up earlier to get in a run or bike on the trainer while everyone else is asleep.  Many pools have 5 AM opening hours (at least around here), so that may be a chance to get in the pool before work.   If you are limited on time I think the best strategy is to build volume through frequency (especially if you aren't training for an ironman event).  Squeeze in short workouts whenever you can and the hours will add up.  There were some discussion threads ( here, here, and here) on how various people have dealt with time management.  Although much of the discussions focus on time management for ironman training, the same tips apply to training for shorter events.

 Run well at the Disney marathon

Isnt the Disney marathon in like a week??  Good Luck!

I will probaly do Spirit of Racine again too

Hi Rick, you're in.  WELCOME!!  If you would, could you make your logs accessible to the public so that we can see you training logs and keep tabs on what you've been up to.  I realize your probably just getting started with BT, so let me know if you have trouble setting things up. Go to the training logs help icon to get started.

We've got 6 people now.  Last year we had several drop out of touch early on and were left with a small group.  So, I'm keeping the group open for a couple more.