The official triathlon thread

[Pheidippides]

The official triathlon thread

Wow. My new bike is insane. I was doing 25 at one point and it felt like nothing.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I was going to make a crack about the 8% decline you must have been on, but I guess in your neck of the woods such a thing does not exist. 25 in the flats over any length of time is impressive; sounds like you have a road rocket.

[Pheidippides]

The official triathlon thread

I was going to make a crack about the 8% decline you must have been on, but I guess in your neck of the woods such a thing does not exist. 25 in the flats over any length of time is impressive; sounds like you have a road rocket.

The difference between my road bike and the tri bike when going solo on the flats is crazy. I was doing 20 mph in a 15 mph headwind for a bit. And my seat is super comfy.

[Pheidippides]

I got super humbled today. Brick workout - run 9, cycle 65, run 4. All with 15mph winds. I am wiped out.

I did sustain 33 mph for about a mile today (with the wind behind me). Would have been smarter to do that closer to home instead of 20 miles out.

[Joe Public]

I hit 33 mph going down a hill once, nikuman. That's really fast; it sounds like you're in a good place right now.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for training. Last weekend, I was sick and cut it to 25 miles on the bike and what was going to be 10 miles running. However, my stomach wouldn't let me go more than a mile out on the run, so I ended up running only two miles.

I thought a step-back week wouldn't be so bad, but this weekend was worse. With kids in urgent care for various sicknesses and the related needs to be met at home, I had time for a four-mile run. That's it. Work has been really heavy lately, too, so my weekday workouts have been spotty to say the least.

That's OK. I have about five weeks to make a good push. My goals for the race are now as follows:

• Easy goal - show up to the race. If I can get some training in between now and then, it should be fine. Easy goals should be, well, easy.
• Realistic goal - finish the triathlon. I still feel that this is a realistic goal. If I can stop missing lots of training days, I should be able to do this. If not, I stand a significant risk of bonking hard after four or five hours. It's not that I'll stop moving, but the race has a time limit for finishing.
• Stretch goal - finishing in less than seven hours. If I can swim and be on the bike in an hour or less, be off the bike in four hours or less, and run the half marathon (after the swim and bike) in two hours or less, I can hit this. That is an unlikely, best-case result based on my training so far.

[Joe Public]

Yesterday was a 45-mile bike ride; that's my new all-time longest ride. It looks like I went about the same distance as PAC, so I must be getting pretty good! I rode at a 15 mph average. I was pretty winded by the end.

I got off the bike, changed into running gear, and went out for a run. I wanted to go for 10 miles. About mile 3 or 4, my body really wanted to quit. I told myself I needed to go the 10 miles to be able to draw on the experience on race day. I mixed in a couple of five-minute walks, but I covered the 10 miles at an average pace of around 9:50 min/mile.

I was tired the rest of the day, but it was a real confidence booster. If I can go 45 and 10 right now, I have a great chance of going 56 and 13.1 on race day.

[Pheidippides]

The official triathlon thread

Yesterday was a 45-mile bike ride; that's my new all-time longest ride. It looks like I went about the same distance as PAC, so I must be getting pretty good! I rode at a 15 mph average. I was pretty winded by the end.

I got off the bike, changed into running gear, and went out for a run. I wanted to go for 10 miles. About mile 3 or 4, my body really wanted to quit. I told myself I needed to go the 10 miles to be able to draw on the experience on race day. I mixed in a couple of five-minute walks, but I covered the 10 miles at an average pace of around 9:50 min/mile.

I was tired the rest of the day, but it was a real confidence booster. If I can go 45 and 10 right now, I have a great chance of going 56 and 13.1 on race day.

That's a tough workout. I don't care what speed you ran at.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Yesterday a 46-year-old guy from Austin died within seconds after hitting the water in the first leg of the annual Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. The first leg is a swim from the island to SF, a 1.5 mile ordeal through cold, choppy water, made worst by this year's start which was three months earlier than in previous years. I hate lines like, "This gentleman obviously had a heart condition he was unaware of," as it reconfirms my fear that we often have no idea what's going inside our bodies.

[Pheidippides]

Yesterday a 46-year-old guy from Austin died within seconds after hitting the water in the first leg of the annual Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. The first leg is a swim from the island to SF, a 1.5 mile ordeal through cold, choppy water, made worst by this year's start which was three months earlier than in previous years. I hate lines like, "This gentleman obviously had a heart condition he was unaware of," as it reconfirms my fear that we often have no idea what's going inside our bodies.

I hate that line too. Bit of a strong statement for somebody to make in that situation, but he's probably right. I will be seeing a cardiologist before I line up for the Ironman. Family history is thankfully very good in this respect.

On another note, one of my friends at the marathon on Saturday got hyponatremia. It was pretty scary for a while.

[bluegoose]

Yesterday a 46-year-old guy from Austin died within seconds after hitting the water in the first leg of the annual Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. The first leg is a swim from the island to SF, a 1.5 mile ordeal through cold, choppy water, made worst by this year's start which was three months earlier than in previous years. I hate lines like, "This gentleman obviously had a heart condition he was unaware of," as it reconfirms my fear that we often have no idea what's going inside our bodies.

That is scary. And weird that it would happen within seconds of starting the race.

One of our local swim clubs here hosts an open water swim that has grown to be a fairly big event. It includes both a 1 and 2 mile race. 2 years ago there were 2 middle-aged guys that died in the race. One was not in very good shape and probably should not have even attempted the race. I think he had a couple of younger kids there when he passed. The other was a very fit guy that dropped just after finishing the 2 mile course.

Thankfully, it went off fairly well last year without any major problems.

I'm not sure that i would ever want to be a race director for an event where the success of the event is measured on whether or not there were any casualties.

[Joe Public]

I went 46 miles on the bike (three hours) and eight miles running (10 min/mile) for my long workout this weekend. I'd planned to run twelve miles or so, but I made a mistake calculating my supplies and was out of food and water for the last hour of the workout. My heart rate was 180+ and I was out of energy, so I called it good at eight and went home for the day.

I've been in the pool, which is coming along very slowly. I swam 25 laps the night before my long workout, or 1,250 yards (about 0.7 miles). That's the farthest I've gone, and I felt a lot better than I have in my swim workouts. It took 40 minutes to do, which is extremely slow compared to the speed of real triathletes and swimmers. It should keep me ahead of the cut-off time, though, which was a concern for me a couple of weeks ago.

I'll circle back and read the other posts from today in about a month. (These new smilies look funny; I sense a pelagius master plan at work.)

[Pheidippides]

Yesterday a 46-year-old guy from Austin died within seconds after hitting the water in the first leg of the annual Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. The first leg is a swim from the island to SF, a 1.5 mile ordeal through cold, choppy water, made worst by this year's start which was three months earlier than in previous years. I hate lines like, "This gentleman obviously had a heart condition he was unaware of," as it reconfirms my fear that we often have no idea what's going inside our bodies.

So, I looked this guy up. He had a score of races under his belt spanning 10 years, including four marathons and three half ironmans. Decent times too. But nothing for about the last six years. So he was experienced but not recently.

This makes me nervous.

[Joe Public]

49 bike/10 run. There was a strong headwind for most of the bike, which was a first for me (20+ mph wind).

I have a few questions for anyone who feels like chiming in:

• Is it worth it to get a tri singlet? I've just been changing from my cycling bibs to my running shorts. I could do the towel-wrap thing at T2, but I'll get the singlet if it's worth it.
• What are bike aid stations like? Do people stop and get off their bikes? What is considered good manners?
• Any tips regarding open water swimming?

[BigPiney]

49 bike/10 run. There was a strong headwind for most of the bike, which was a first for me (20+ mph wind).

I have a few questions for anyone who feels like chiming in:

• Is it worth it to get a tri singlet? I've just been changing from my cycling bibs to my running shorts. I could do the towel-wrap thing at T2, but I'll get the singlet if it's worth it.
• What are bike aid stations like? Do people stop and get off their bikes? What is considered good manners?
• Any tips regarding open water swimming?

1. I would not get, but I finally did break down and get some tri shorts befeor my 1/2. It was worth it. Before in all my olympics I had just worn some compression shorts under the wetsuit and then put basketball shorts over for the bike and the run. I did not look fast but I won my age group 3 years ago in St George doing this.
2. Many people will stop at the bike aid stations, others will roll through and the workers will hand off bottles and people will toss their old ones. Be very careful here. I saw someone go down in a bike aid station. One guy didn't need anything so he was flying through while others were merging in and out and the workers were standing in the middle of it. Slowing down for 5 seconds is not going to kill your race, but eating it on asphalt will.
3. relax, get your bearings often; if you are not fast, don't try and be near the front and just focus on the next buoy.

[Pheidippides]

1. I would not get, but I finally did break down and get some tri shorts befeor my 1/2. It was worth it. Before in all my olympics I had just worn some compression shorts under the wetsuit and then put basketball shorts over for the bike and the run. I did not look fast but I won my age group 3 years ago in St George doing this.
2. Many people will stop at the bike aid stations, others will roll through and the workers will hand off bottles and people will toss their old ones. Be very careful here. I saw someone go down in a bike aid station. One guy didn't need anything so he was flying through while others were merging in and out and the workers were standing in the middle of it. Slowing down for 5 seconds is not going to kill your race, but eating it on asphalt will.
3. relax, get your bearings often; if you are not fast, don't try and be near the front and just focus on the next buoy.

On number 1, go with what feels good. I have a tri suit that I've already done 3+ hour rides and 2+ hour runs (not back to back - separately) so I'm going to go with that, but lots of people will switch out to fully padded cycling shorts for half and full iron distances. Agreed with the rest. Also, practice sighting. You can do this either with a quick stroke modification every so often swimming freestyle (I practice it at the pool regularly) or you can switch to breaststroke for a stroke or two to sight (plenty of people do this). I'd practice breaststroke as an alternate "rest" stroke anyway.

The dirty secret about swimming is that everybody is terrified of it, even seasoned veterans, unless they come from a super strong swimming background. Hang in the back an take your time - focus on being calm, having a smooth stroke. Swimmers never win these things for a reason, at least not unless they are really great runners too.