Newbie, background and inevitable questions
Peter
Posts: 6
in General Chat
Hi Everyone
I finally decided to get my rear into gear and give a triathlon a bash next year. Its smoething I've always been fascinated by and having done a couple of Great North Runs, I fancied giving something different a go....
....then I went a step further and decided that by the time I'm 30 (I'm 27 in February) I want to have completed an Ironman
So, that being the case, a couple of questions I have:
I dont own a bike at present. With winter coming, would it be better to get a mountain bike for the bad weather and then have a look at a proper bike in the early part of next year to get me into biking routines and start training asap?
Would it be a good idea to practice my swimming technique in a pool prior to getting into open water (Theers a pool at the local gym but I'd need to severly work on my crawl lol)
Are treadmills and exercise bikes advantageous or detrimental to real life technique as I am sceptical that they may do more harm than good when I get out into the real world?
I think thats about it for now but I'm sure I'll come up with some more a bit later.
Oh and Hi btw!
I finally decided to get my rear into gear and give a triathlon a bash next year. Its smoething I've always been fascinated by and having done a couple of Great North Runs, I fancied giving something different a go....
....then I went a step further and decided that by the time I'm 30 (I'm 27 in February) I want to have completed an Ironman
So, that being the case, a couple of questions I have:
I dont own a bike at present. With winter coming, would it be better to get a mountain bike for the bad weather and then have a look at a proper bike in the early part of next year to get me into biking routines and start training asap?
Would it be a good idea to practice my swimming technique in a pool prior to getting into open water (Theers a pool at the local gym but I'd need to severly work on my crawl lol)
Are treadmills and exercise bikes advantageous or detrimental to real life technique as I am sceptical that they may do more harm than good when I get out into the real world?
I think thats about it for now but I'm sure I'll come up with some more a bit later.
Oh and Hi btw!
0
Comments
Firstly I'd say 3 years should be enough to smartly build up to IM-distance.
-Bike: if you can and want to afford both bikes,then get a MTB and a road/tri bike next year. But make sure you buy decent stuff( I didn't say expensive, though expensive is good [:D]).
-swim:this is mostly about technique, so sort that out first. Straightening wrong technique is harder then practising to gain swimming fitness; that comes along with the drill training.
Might I add: a club can do lots of good things for you. I trained solo for2 years,which was really great. Now I'm in a club for 2 years, and thats even better. You get extra swim lane opening hours(for free), group rides/runs, coaching, swim drills,...... and maybe some nice people to tri with if you want.
...although I'll admit it can be pretty damned miserable.
Anyway, there's another option for you: get a road bike and a turbo trainer.
Next, if your front crawl is poor at the moment it is most likely that you are doing it wrong. Don't bother racking up the distance until you have had at least some guidance on what is wrong with your stroke. You will be hurting yourself, getting demoralised and reinforcing bad technique. Don't bother giving yourself the extra difficulties of open-water until you can do the stroke.
Exercise bikes are OK, but you won't learn proper pedalling technique (i.e. you don't use cleats on a X-bike.) A turbo would be better.
Dunno about treadmills as a long term solution. You're probably more experienced than me if you've done a few half-marathons. Long distances will always be best done on a real run, but the treadmill/exercise bike combination can really come into it's own for brick sessions.
Did anybody mention brick sessions? No? Oh dear..... enjoy.
A thought on treadmills...
Aside from the tedium, I think they're ok, though they won't give you a indication of what your real speed outdoors might be. The only real hard and fast rule is to make sure you always run on an incline, as there's no air resistance in a gym and the carpet is moving beneath you so, although you are exercising, you are mainly just propelling yourself up in the air and landing again - if you put it on an incline, you have to drive yourself forward as well. I never run below 2% except when I'm running a programme on the machine.
They're also cushioned, so you are probably doing your joints less damage than running on concrete. That said, it's good to get out and run on different surfaces too.
Umm, can't think of anything else.
Oh, if you're injured, aquajogging is great. You'll look like a tit, but it's good exercise and practically zero impact.
No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.
Also buy GOOD QUALITY kit ie the best you can afford. Regardless of what anyone tells you, this is costly but worth it as it makes you more comfortable, faster and also you have to justify it!
Wish I could find a link to it... but ever since I read that I've always set the treadmill to 2 degrees and pretty much ignored the absolute speed, just used it to compare my pace week by week. I never try to gues my road speed based on what the treadmill says.
On the subject of aqua-jogging and other aspects of hydro-therapy, I'll be an expert on this shortly as my surgeon says this will be my main form of physio following my impending surgery, firstly in deep water wearing some kind of suit/appliance/whatever so I won't be putting any weight on my hip, then later in shallower water to increase the load... hopefully concluding with full weight bearing and blistering 30min 10km times (lol, I wish).
I think I'll go the MTB route first just to "get back in the saddle" as they say with a bike and different routes/roads while the weathers still a bit off
Fortunately, my gym offer swimming lessons so I might engage one of their trainers for an hour or two to get me going. I thought that might seems a bit daft at first but I suppose you dont ask, you dont know!
I've adjusted my treadmill running so now I'm on a 2deg incline everytime apart from the warm down walk and waiting to hear from a couple of local clubs about their meetings.
I'll report back with progress once I kick off properly
Cheers dudes!! [:D][:D]
I have a picture of Bop in an 'appliance' in the deep end...cue jaws theme. Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...