Training Updates

Saturday, April 21, 2012 --

A few updates to mention today.  First off, Thursday night was a Team Bicycle Planet training session dedicated to working on T2, the bike to run transition.  We set up a bike rack in the corner of the parking lot...racked our bikes, set up our transition areas and got to work.  We talked a lot about how to get through transition as quickly as possible and some of the big dos and donts of triathlon transition.  One big hit of the night for some of my teammates were elastic laces for the running shoes.  About half of us, myself included, already had elastic laces on our shoes and in a matter of seconds had convinced the other half to make their way to the shop after practice to pick up elastic laces of their own.  It's no secret that having elastic laces shaves precious seconds off of a transition, but more than that I really like how they can never really be tied too tight or too loose.

After some chatting about how to speed up transition, we put our newly learned skills to the test; starting about fifty feet away from the transition area, running in as if we were entering T1, taking out the bike, riding a few hundred yards, and returning to test our times for T2.  It was a lot of fun, and there are really some great people to learn from and offer tips to on Team Bicycle Planet.  With my first triathlon of the season only two short weeks away, I really want to spend some time at home working on transition at home.  One big area I'd like to work on is mounting and dismounting the bike.

My last big tip for transition...keep it simple.  A good transition set up has only the essentials.  There's no reason to unpack every piece of triathlon gear you own just in case you need it.  This comes mostly with experience, but eventually you will be able to figure out exactly what you need for transition, and have a nice routine down to get in and out quickly.

Aside from my triathlon two weeks from today, I am also running a half marathon two weeks and one day from today.  Training for that has also been going great!  Today I went out for my long run and was very happy with my 10 mile run in 1:26:50.  I ran with a pace of 8:41 min/mi. which for me is very fast.  It appears that all of my winter work on my running is really paying off, and I could not be happier!!!

I am super excited to get out on the road in race conditions to test out these new legs!

On another note, I am seriously disappointed with how the New York Rangers have played the last two games, and really hope they can turn it around first in game 6 to force a game 7 and then really give it everything there.  Lets Go Rangers...I still BELIEVE!