IT band problems?

Here's an article I found with stretches among other useful information: IT BAND.

btw... 216 days till Vineman.

Enjoy the last bit of a life you have until January 1st.

cheers.

Training for Week 01/01/2007

Mon
Strength Training: 3 sets 20 reps each set. Light weight. Full Body

Tues
Bike: 1 Hour. Work on Form

Weds
Swim: 1 Hour. Work on Form

Thurs
Run: 30 Mins. Work on Form

Fri
Swim: 1 Hour. Work on Form

Sat
Bike: 25 Miles

Sun
Run: 30 Mins / Hills

WildFlower

In order to do the Vineman, I figured I should do at least one Olympic Triathlon first. Actually, I should do at least any type of triahlon... but I figured, olympic would be best.

In any case, WildFlower opens up on December 1. Who's with me?

Jamba Juice Wildflower 2007 Info page

DESCRIPTION

The Wildflower Olympic Distance Triathlon is an amateur age group and relay team event. This world-class course includes a 1.5K open water swim, a 40K (extremely hilly bike course) and a brutal 10K run course. The race will include the Wildflower collegiate championships. The best college triathletes from around the country will be competing for Wildflower collegiate, individual and school honors. It is a great race for both beginners and accomplished competitors. The Olympic Distance race will also be part of the Triathlon Club Team Competition* event.

Endurance Athletes

We endurance athletes are indeed kindred spirits. We are held together by a common bond, and share many of the same fundamental values and principles. Ours is an unspoken creed of solidarity and comradeship, in good times and in bad.

A Froggy Story

A man was out jogging in the forest one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me I'll turn into a beautiful princess."

He bent over, picked up the frog, and put it in his pocket.

The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will tell everyone how smart and brave you are and how you are my hero."
The man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and returned it to his pocket.
The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I'll stay with you for a year and do ANYTHING you want."

Again the man took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

Finally the frog asked, "What's the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a year and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"
The man replied, "Look, I'm a Triathlete. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog is cool."

~~ba da bump~~

Beating the Winter Blues:How to Stay Motivated During the Holiday Crunch

Her SportsNovember/December, 2004, p. 20-22
It’s late October and you’re heading into the holiday season with feelings of dread rather than cheer. You may have been pretty good about eating healthily and working out regularly, but you know that November and December are different. You’ll be busy with holiday parties which means eating more. To make matters worse, it’ll be cold and dark when you usually work out, so it’s much harder to get out and exercise. You’re afraid that your efforts to stay fit all year will go for naught. When January 1 comes, you’ll feel like a total blob and be wracked with guilt for allowing yourself to once again fall into the “holiday health blues.” You also know that you’ll be making lame New Year’s resolutions and starting from scratch trying regain your healthy lifestyle.
But don’t despair! This gloomy scenario doesn’t have to happen this year—or ever again. There are steps you can take to avoid this yearly winter trap and enter the new year having enjoyed the holiday season and still remain in fine shape.
Choose Fun Fitness
read more...

source

Goals for the Holidays

Hi everyone.

With the holidays rolling around now, I figured we can do start thinking about a goal for the holidays. Training is just around the corner and will be here before you know it. In stating that, I thought it would be good to put some thought towards where we want to find ourselves on January 1st.


My Goal for the holidays:

* Run over 40 miles from Thanksgiving to New Years.
* Get a new gym membership (so i can start swimming).
* Start routinely stretching in the mornings.

what's yours?

Ironman on TV

Don't miss your chance to watch Ironman on TV! The Emmy Award winning NBC coverage of the 2006 Ford Ironman World Championship will air on December 9.

Because it's friday.

I don't know about some of you but planning to train has taken some of the excitement of how I felt when I signed up. Now I know the feeling will come again from time to time, like my first work out of the year, or my first blog post about training. Or even my first event of the year, the nervousness and anticipation. I'm sure it won't be anything like that on race day... I'm almost positive I will be in shock the day has finally come.

So, I will leave with you my mantra that always makes me giggle with excitement:


It's all about the medal!

More reasons to ride...

source

SOME BASIC TIPS WHEN PLANNING YOUR TRAINING SESSIONS

-- Specificity: Ensure that all your training is specific to the event you are training for, don't run mile after mile for a sprint triathlon, ensure that each session has an aim, i.e. endurance run / speed track session.

-- Progression: The body is a marvelous piece of engineering design, as you train it becomes stronger. However if you maintain the same training level, your body will maintain the same level of improvement. In simple terms, avoid allowing your body to become use to its workouts.

-- Overload: This must be done carefully, to avoid causing stress on any of your body systems. Listen to your body, if it feels tired let it rest, remember fit bodies are not built in the gym, they are built whilst resting. (This is my excuse for sleeping every afternoon, and I'm sticking to it).

-- Reversibility: Keep your training regular, if you stop for two weeks, then a lot of the previous work will be lost, make time for training, but avoid letting it take over your life, triathlete's have a high divorce level.

-- Tedium: One of the reasons a lot of good triathlete's come from a different sporting background. Keep your training interesting and varied to keep motivation high. Train with new partners, do different runs i.e. track sessions, hill sprints, fartlek, off road, sand dunes, treadmill - try spin classes anything that will keep your mind and body working.

source

The Quick Start Guide to Triathlon

by Brendon Downey of EnduranceCoach.com

Triathlon, it's a goal for many to complete a triathlon - fortunately they are not all as long as Ironman! Here is the quick start guide:

Swim

For a lot of people the swim is often the area that creates the most fear of triathlons. A 400m swim can be very off putting to non-swimmers. If you haven't swum for a few years/decades or never, start slowly (see the programme). Choose an event that caters for beginners, there are many that have swims in pools and others that have swims in shallow water, most mini triathlons aren't held in surf so you needn't worry.

Key Training: You only need to be able to swim the distance safely, speed is not important. So if that means alternating some sidestroke with some freestyle so be it.

I would recommend that you do at least one open water swim before your event, preferably at the venue of your triathlon. This will help you get comfortable with what will happen and that will take some of the apprehension out of the actual day. Obviously if you do this, make sure you have a swimming buddy or better yet someone in a kayak.

Things you need for the swim: Goggles, Swimsuit. Recommended: Wetsuit (They make you float!)

Bike

The easy part of the triathlon!

Key Training: This leg is short so you don't have to do a lot of training to get ready for a 10km cycle. If you don't like to go on the roads, another good option is to use the cycles at your local gym. But using the cycles at your local gym is not going to develop the skills needed to be able to ride safely on the road, at some point you do need to get out there. Start off on either pavement or grass (if it's dry enough) - your local school grounds are a good option. The key is to be comfortable on your bike, know how it works and be confident riding on the road.

Things you need for the bike: Helmet, Any road worthy bike.

Run

Yes it's called a run but you can actually walk. There's no rule that says that you must run the whole way - in fact many people will walk all or nearly all of the run section. Make sure that you have some energy at the end so that you can look good as you run across the finish line!

Key Training: Build up and do one run or walk over the event distance prior to the race. If you have never run before, start with a short walk of say 20 minutes and include a little running. The bottom line is that at the very least you can walk the whole way.

One of the hardest parts of the triathlon is the start of the run. When you get off the bike your muscles are tired from cycling and also your body is sending oxygen to your cycling muscles creating the 'jelly' legs feeling - the best way to get around this is to do a couple of "Brick Sessions" (because that's what your legs can feel like). These involve a short run off the bike on a couple of occasions prior to your event, even just 2min running after cycling will help.

Things you need for the Run: Running Shoes

Lastly don't forget to have some fun and enjoy the experience!

SOURCE

Target pace training

By Matt Fitzgerald
source: Active.com
August 17, 2006

A target pace is an average running pace associated with an event time goal. If your event goal is to run a 3:45 marathon, your target pace is 8:35 per mile. If your goal is to run a 39:59 10K, your target pace is 6:26 per mile. And so forth.

Whenever you have an event time goal, your entire training program should be focused toward achieving the ability to sustain your target pace in that event. This doesn't mean you should always run at your target pace, of course. But it does mean you should include some target-pace running in your weekly training throughout your training program and do a fairly large amount of training at or near your target pace in the final weeks before your event.

In addition, the rest of your training -- that is, your workouts at slower and faster pace levels -- should support your objective of achieving the ability to sustain your target pace.

The reason target pace training is so important is that the body adapts very strictly to the specific exercise demands that are placed on it. One ramification of this principle of specificity is that your body will adapt well to running at your target pace if you regularly train at your target pace. It will achieve greater metabolic and neuromuscular efficiency and better fatigue resistance at this pace. And on a psychological level, you will also find it to be more comfortable.

Before you can train at your target pace you must, of course, choose a target pace, which means you must choose a goal time for your event... cont

Article about the Vineman

Vineman Half Ironman Triathlon

By Brandon S.
Pain shows us how strong we are. After last weekend I am convinced of this. After 151 training hours of swimming, biking, and running, I flew to Sonoma County, California for the race.

The Swim

I arrived at the transition area at 5 AM to set up my gear and prepare for the race. This is always the most stressful part of the race for me as I see for the first time the length of the swim course and begin to see my competition arriving in droves. The Vineman is one of the most competitive Triathlons in the country, so needless to say, there were some athletic people showing up....

continue reading HERE

what is the vineman?

The 2007 Vineman Ironman 70.3 Triathlon (formerly the Half Vineman Triathlon) will be one of four 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run triathlons in the United States which will be qualifiers for the 2006 Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Kona, Hawaii! It will also include 100 qualifying spots for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships on November 11th. This event has become one of the most popular and highly competitive triathlons in the world. In 2006 we will be limiting the field of entries to 2000 athletes.

The Vineman Ironman 70.3 Triathlon will be held on July 22nd, 2007 in Sonoma County, California (about one hour north of San Francisco). The event consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. The point-to-point event begins at Johnsons Beach in Guerneville and takes entrants past literally hundreds of vineyards and dozens of wineries before it finishes up in at Windsor High School (just north of Santa Rosa). The course is a tour of Sonoma Countys beautiful wine country, passing through four different grape growing regions: the Russian River Region, the Dry Creek Valley, the Alexander Valley, and Chalk Hill.

source: VINEMAN