sarahz5 Member

I have had my fastest times when I am in a pretty big deficit. There is a trade off you get - if you've been in a deficit, you are likely to be lighter, and every pound really does add to your speed. I have honestly not found that a deficit impairs my performance at all up to half marathons, and I've done them both ways.…

Exciting!!!!

That is super helpful. I was right that the hills on the Poconos run would be fine for me, I've handled worse (though not in a tri). I am not trained for hills on the bike though, and honestly it's probably not overly important that I get trained on them for AC. Hmmm. Maybe that's a better goal for next year.

That does look good. I had to laugh at the 100% flat and fast... Yes, SOME hills. You are full of great recommendations. Seems like you all have differing opinions on good times to do a pre-half olympic. I'm going to look at the training plan I am using and think about it. (Going with Iron Fit - aspire to the Intermediate…

I don't think I would train FOR the oly, as in, I would not train to push hard in it. I wouldn't race it. I need to do one to get the swim distance under my belt without the pressure of the bike and swim distance looming. That said - my tri club IS going to do a mock olympic, probably early-ish in the season. So worst case…

Thanks! Love to hear about these experiences! I have no delusions about finishing well, I would just like to finish injury free, if sore and beat up.

;) Possibly! I am going to keep asking around before I commit. And swooning over Poconos in my mind. It really has to be a wave start... there's not much way to get in the water other than off the dock. I always fantasize about a mass start and just waiting until I am the LAST person in the water.

It's a wave start. I am concerned that i will be so slow that the wave behind me will catch up, but I figured if I stay far to the side I should be okay. It's in the back bay, so it's not enormous but it's big enough to steer clear. I watched the Int'l Tri swim there last year by the same race director so I know pretty…

Okay, I don't know if it will be this year, but I *am* doing that race. What a gorgeous setting, great courses, love everything about it so far. The hills on the run don't scare me (though I have never run after more than 24 miles on the bike so maybe I shouldn't be so confident). I would be more concerned about the…

Thank you all so much for encouraging me to do this, btw! It definitely pushed me over the edge from maybe to probably. I heard the cheapest spots are selling out so I will probably (there's that word again) sign up tonight.

I will check it out - might be too much altitude for me! - my friends who love NJ State keep trying to twist my arm to do that and have completely disagreed with the "gross lake" assessment! :smiley: Of course I was also thinking about the AC Tri Int'l, but I don't think I want to do two AC tris in a row. It would be great…

Hahahahahaha FULL. Yes that is crazier and makes me feel better! I don't think I will need a wetsuit - I hate them so far and sold my full Orca - but I am going to experiment this spring. My friend just told me about wetsuit shorts - best thing ever? Buoyancy without the straightjacket? To be honest, it's you men punching…

Nope, don't do it? Or nope, not crazy? And if you think I should hold off... is it because of the swim issue, or because you strongly recommend getting a full year of Olympic level training under my belt first?

Oh, and I feel confident I can carve out the training time.

Wow, I can't believe I have gotten good reviews on that!! A bunch of my friends love it and do it every year. I have already been leaning heavily - i.e., decided - towards Tri AC. I did the Int'l bike as part of a relay this year.

For olys, I always hear rave reviews about NJ State Tri and Tri AC. Neither is an ocean swim - first lake, second bay. I think I have decided to train my swim harder this winter and see if I can get just a bit faster and more confident, and shake the race swim anxiety I seem to get every time, so I can do my first oly at…

Congrats on the BQs and the AG awards! Earlier this week I jumped on a comp entry to the CGI Perfect 10 Miler (largest women only 10 miler in the US) today. I had just run a surprisingly fast tempo run, so I knew I had a strong finish in me. I figured I would be thrilled if I beat my prior 10k PR pace, 8:42. Instead, I hit…

Congrats on the impressive and classy finish. I'm sure that meant the world to that woman.

I ran Princeton too, spur of the moment (i.e., my friend got sick. ;) ) It was my first half after my disastrous Love Run this spring when I was injured and came in about eight minutes short of my PR. Today was my second best half time ever (first was Princeton last year), so with only about half my season's training under…

You should get a piece of reflective clothing if you don't have one - I love the amphipod Xinglet. http://www.amphipod.com/products/visibility/xingletsbelts I do wear my visor at night with my Petzl - it helps keep the weird halo effect out of my eyes. I have run in the middle of the night a bunch for Ragnar. I actually…

I changed my training plan last night thanks to this thread. :smiley:

Honestly, I swear by a pair of Champion shorts from Target and a pair from Old Navy. I wouldn't go so far as to call them "compression" because I don't think at $14.99 they are offering anything technical, but they are the same idea. I wear a M or L and have chub rub. You have to go with the tight shorts, in my experience…

Well, unfortunately we didn't make her goal - she really seemed like she was struggling and I didn't want to push her too hard. She was definitely lagging behind me when I was trying to get her up to pace. But she really liked my pacing and said she felt better during the race than she ever has. For me that means she…

Tonight's the 5k - I found a woman who has been running for awhile but hasn't been able to break 40:00, and I'm going to pace her to a PR. She has never run with a watch or an app! I'm excited. I think she should be able to do this with a partner, no problem.

Thanks for the commiseration and advice. Going out last is really smart - I'm going to do that. I may go without music at all - that usually slows me down. I really hope someone will take me up on the offer to pace them - I need purpose. :smiley: But also, I can run! And that's a big improvement over the past month or so.…

Just requested to join the Strava group. It may be just the thing to shame me into fitting in all my miles. ;)

This is interesting - I have always relied on McMillan to set my race paces, and those are more like 25-30 seconds apart for each doubling. Starting from my 8:00 5k pace, that would be the difference between an 8:30 pace HM (not even close!) and the 8:47 pace half I am a few seconds from reaching. I guess McMillan just…

You are already doing 20 miles a week? For how long? Maybe this is just me, but I would guess that you could definitely do more mileage at a go if you spread it out differently (or maybe even if you didn't). You could probably do a 10k now.

Thanks Carson!

To clarify, I really am not running anywhere near race pace. I have an 8:50 HM pace and I run my 12mi+ runs at around 9:45-10:30. But reading this thread I feel like I should maybe be running more like 12:00/mi. I think I am going to go out with my HRM next run. I was regularly running around 165bpm when I was using it,…