Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
@ Justin
Honestly I feel like swimming in super windy, super choppy conditions is something you can only truly get used to through practice, so kudos for actually grabbing it by the horns and taking full advantage of the opportunity. If you end up doing an early/late season windy race next year (looking at you, Rumpus in Bumpass), you’ll be so thankful.Also can’t help with the webscorer issues, sorry! Would suggest emailing Bryan (racedirector@dctriclub.org) if you still can’t get it.
Congrats!
@Brian
Definitely second Coach AJ’s thoughts on taking 1-2 weeks off (can’t take off the beer/cookie weight if you don’t put it on). But I start getting restless after that, so these are the things I usually prioritize for a couple months (AJ may disagree!):
- Doing what I feel like: If I wake up and feel like going for a run, I go for a run. If I wake up and feel like going for a swim, I go for a swim. If I feel like sitting in bed and eating cookie dough, I sit in bed and eat cookie dough (in moderation). A few weeks of that definitely helps to reset the system– but I do try and do at least one active thing a day (mixed success).
- Low volume, low intensity: I usually limit whatever activity I’m doing to 1 hour (sometimes more like 45 min). No major intensity just a 2-3/10 on the RPE scale. If I feel like doing some sprints at the end, why not. But no “hammering” or “sending it”, just something short and fun (or no speed at all is fine too).
- In this sense, it’s a bit like early base training. I don’t necessarily structure anything, but all training has a very “low-key” feel.
- Occasionally I do some 1.5-2h group rides, but I’m generally not going that hard and its pretty social.
- Strength work: Personally I love a heavy barbell, so I use this time to work on squats and deadlifts (3×3 or 3×5, something fairly anaerobic). But if you’re not of that mindset, perfectly fine to do some body-weight strength work at home while watching netflix. The key here is injury prevention, so do whatever makes you feel good and also gets that taken care of for the upcoming season
- Cross training: Sometimes I’ll replace a day of running with a couple hours of pick-up soccer. Its a similar-ish stimulus, but a lot more social and a very different kind of fun. I’d definitely recommend mixing it up a bit (if you’re inclined) to break up the fairly mono-structural endurance focus of triathlon.
Moving up to the half distance will definitely be a fun step for next year, but for now I’d just focus on the above. If you do the best you can to just maintain a base level of aerobic fitness, you should be in good shape going to next year!
Nothing to add here, but congrats Brett! 2020 has been an actual dumpster-fire, so kudos for making something out of it!
@Brian that’s not a terrible idea. I’d be a little careful going from running in the heat (aka high heart rate) into the swim, but I’m sure it’ll work out fine.
But the Fairlington Tri also reminded me of this. Hopefully yours doesn’t get cancelled! ?
Not necessarily a tri, but I’m looking at doing a 10k as a time trial later this year (one summer humidity is over). I haven’t run a pure 10k in years, so I’m hoping even a decent performance will be a PR for me. So between that, an early fall FTP test, and maybe a swim TT or a maybe zwift race…..I’ve still got a decent amount to train for ?
Anyone else?
Hi Brett, can give some general tips on this (have done it ~10 times):
- Bike flights: I’ve found this is actually better for moving than it is for racing. The shipping times can be off by a couple days (early or late), and you don’t really want your bike showing up before/after youre at the hotel/airbnb. Plus it requires some lead time without your bike, so you’ll want to make sure you have a back-up (a roadie?) you can train on for the last week or so before a race
- I ended up buying a soft case a few years back (the EVOC one; but i’ve heard good things about scicon), its survived asia and south america so far. Fairly straight forward, just have to take the wheels, pedals, and bars off. Plenty of demo videos on youtube, just make sure you get a few rolls of bubble wrap. Also make sure you deflate tires and remove CO2 (explosive in air). Also, since (I’ve heard) you can now count a bike bag as luggage, this should be the cheaper option. I’d also recommend taking off the derailleur as I’ve had mine bent, but that’s personal preference. Also take of disc brake rotors if you have them, have lost so many rotors this way.
- If you do end up going the luggage route, make sure your bag doesn’t have any non-bike parts in there. I used to throw most of my kit and shoes in the bike bag, but apparently that’s not allowed anymore (since theres no fee).
- I’d loan you mine, but sadly I’m not in DC these days ?
- I opted not to go hard case because I’ve heard of stuff breaking if its not packed in there super snugly. Not sure how common it is, but each side has its pros and cons. Also harder to store a hard case.
- If you’re feeling kind of insecure about packing your bike (box or bag), you can usually take it to a shop and have them do it. Theres a fee associated ($40 at bike rack if I remember correctly), but its not the worst idea the first time.
- I’d recommend bringing some chain lube with you, i’ve found my chain can dry out while traveling (rubs off on packing materials).
- You’re definitely going to need to do a little spin (like 10′) 24h before your race, so you can figure out if something’s wrong and get to a shop to fix it.
I’ll go next!
Technically I still managed to get one race in this year (and somehow podiumed?), but I’ll give my learning points from the year of no racing:
1. Biggest lesson from this year is that consistency is king/queen! I’ve been spending as much time as I can on the bike during this period and can definitely feel it paying off. Since I started really hitting the bike in April, I’ve upped my FTP by 25W (20W over my lifetime best), I’m feeling a lot more “at ease” on the bike (esp at higher cadence), I’m able to hold high wattage for longer (PB long ride wattage), and I’m a lot better at recovering from hard intervals. Part of that is because of a new training plan, but I think the majority of it is just down to riding 5x a week for the last 3 months. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy– just consistent volume over the long term. I’m seeing pretty similar themes with the run– consistent mileage has a massive effect. Since there’s no racing, I’ve dropped almost all intensity (minus a weekly tempo run) and its helping me stay fresh and keep things ticking over from week to week. Its been a little harder to see the results with the recent spike in temperatures (I’m not great in heat), but I’m feeling a lot smoother and expect to see significant results later in the year. All this to say: endurance sports don’t need a bunch of fancy gadgets or an ultra-detailed training plan or anything like that, you (mostly) just need consistent aerobic volume.
2. I’ve actually started taking a lot of motivation (in tri and in life) from the glut of triathlon podcasts that are coming out during the pandemic. It’s been really good to tap into the mindset of people who are super successful at what they do, definitely reminds me of what’s important in life. Current favourite is Be With Champions, but there are definitely a few good ones out there for anyone who’s interested.
3. Idk how everyone else feels, but I’m more in love with the pool now than I ever have been. Nothing quite like a good afternoon set where your stroke feels like butter and you hit every single interval just right. The first few weeks back in the pool were a struggle but its definitely starting to get good now.
4. I love training and racing and being outside and all that…but honestly I really miss training with friends. We’ve still got a standing weekly zwift ride for now, so thats been a good highlight for me. But between the banter, the jokes, the high fives, and the tacos, definitely missing my training squad. We’ll get there soon enough…
I’ll go next!
Technically I still managed to get one race in this year (and somehow podiumed?), but I’ll give my learning points from the year of no racing:
1. Biggest lesson from this year is that consistency is king/queen! I’ve been spending as much time as I can on the bike during this period and can definitely feel it paying off. Since I started really hitting the bike in April, I’ve upped my FTP by 25W (20W over my lifetime best), I’m feeling a lot more “at ease” on the bike (esp at higher cadence), I’m able to hold high wattage for longer (PB long ride wattage), and I’m a lot better at recovering from hard intervals. Part of that is because of a new training plan, but I think the majority of it is just down to riding 5x a week for the last 3 months. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy– just consistent volume over the long term. I’m seeing pretty similar themes with the run– consistent mileage has a massive effect. Since there’s no racing, I’ve dropped almost all intensity (minus a weekly tempo run) and its helping me stay fresh and keep things ticking over from week to week. Its been a little harder to see the results with the recent spike in temperatures (I’m not great in heat), but I’m feeling a lot smoother and expect to see significant results later in the year. All this to say: endurance sports don’t need a bunch of fancy gadgets or an ultra-detailed training plan or anything like that, you (mostly) just need consistent aerobic volume.
2. I’ve actually started taking a lot of motivation (in tri and in life) from the glut of triathlon podcasts that are coming out during the pandemic. It’s been really good to tap into the mindset of people who are super successful at what they do, definitely reminds me of what’s important in life. Current favourite is Be With Champions, but there are definitely a few good ones out there for anyone who’s interested.
3. Idk how everyone else feels, but I’m more in love with the pool now than I ever have been. Nothing quite like a good afternoon set where your stroke feels like butter and you hit every single interval just right. The first few weeks back in the pool were a struggle but its definitely starting to get good now.
4. I love training and racing and being outside and all that…but honestly I really miss training with friends. We’ve still got a standing weekly zwift ride for now, so thats been a good highlight for me. But between the banter, the jokes, the high fives, and the tacos, definitely missing my training squad. We’ll get there soon enough…
Technically I still managed to get one race in this year (and somehow podiumed?), but I’ll give my learning points from the year of no racing:
1. Biggest lesson from this year is that consistency is king/queen! I’ve been spending as much time as I can on the bike during this period and can definitely feel it paying off. Since I started really hitting the bike in April, I’ve upped my FTP by 25W (20W over my lifetime best), I’m feeling a lot more “at ease” on the bike (esp at higher cadence), I’m able to hold high wattage for longer (PB long ride wattage), and I’m a lot better at recovering from hard intervals. Part of that is because of a new training plan, but I think the majority of it is just down to riding 5x a week for the last 3 months. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy– just consistent volume over the long term. I’m seeing pretty similar themes with the run– consistent mileage has a massive effect. Since there’s no racing, I’ve dropped almost all intensity (minus a weekly tempo run) and its helping me stay fresh and keep things ticking over from week to week. Its been a little harder to see the results with the recent spike in temperatures (I’m not great in heat), but I’m feeling a lot smoother and expect to see significant results later in the year. All this to say: endurance sports don’t need a bunch of fancy gadgets or an ultra-detailed training plan or anything like that, you (mostly) just need consistent aerobic volume.
2. I’ve actually started taking a lot of motivation (in tri and in life) from the glut of triathlon podcasts that are coming out during the pandemic. It’s been really good to tap into the mindset of people who are super successful at what they do, definitely reminds me of what’s important in life. Current favourite is Be With Champions, but there are definitely a few good ones out there for anyone who’s interested.
3. Idk how everyone else feels, but I’m more in love with the pool now than I ever have been. Nothing quite like a good afternoon set where your stroke feels like butter and you hit every single interval just right. The first few weeks back in the pool were a struggle but its definitely starting to get good now.
4. I love training and racing and being outside and all that…but honestly I really miss training with friends. We’ve still got a standing weekly zwift ride for now, so thats been a good highlight for me. But between the banter, the jokes, the high fives, and the tacos, definitely missing my training squad. We’ll get there soon enough…
@Romain Remember you don’t have to swim…..you get to swim ?
Just remember to take it really easy when you’re out there (including some back floating) and you’ll be fine. No structure, just fun.
Yup, its been mostly easy riding to minimize the overuse injuries. I had a slight achilles flare up while running a couple weeks back (mostly just soreness), so I’ve been using easy cycling to maintain some of the fitness while I build back the run volume (gradually).
@jorge bragging rights! With the amount of trash I talk, I gotta at least try to back it up ?
@brian 100% agree with you on that. Running is funny in that low intensity steady training can give you bigger benefits than it would in other sports. I’ve been playing with some maffetone-esque Z1 running over the past few months and its brought my easy paces down quite a bit (race shape is a different issue tho). Abe Lincoln was also a big proponent of low intensity running, so it can’t be all that bad…
With a couple of friends we created a little bet amongst us on who could ride the most consecutive days in a row for May (30 min minimum). So between normal training plus shorter spins on the other days, I’ve been really focusing on building time in the saddle.
Plus, as much as I’ve always hated zwift, it’s not terrible as a motivational tool.
Hi team,
70.3 FL (April) was cancelled and IM basically gave us a series of options. They allowed free transfer to one of 4-5 different races in the fall (IIRC Maine, Augusta, NC, Memphis, maybe one more), or a rescheduled 70.3 FL date (Dec). But no refunds.
Not sure if the BR race directors will go the same way, but just wanted to give everyone a heads-up as to what might come down the pipeline.
A lot of online fitness classes (I’ve seen yoga and beach body, hoping others will follow suit) are free or significantly discounted for the next few weeks. Since I’ve got a few extra bucks, I’m also hoping in on Zwift for the next month (or however long it takes).
Also, you can never do enough medial glute strengthening, so I’d recommend spending some significant time in the band while the training load is lighter. Also very keen to start my daily nap routine.
It’s a really unfortunate circumstance we’re in, but it’s necessary for community health. Let’s focus on what we can control for the time being.
