Day 125: Practicing Transition

Calli: This day was a very productive one. After the gym this morning we ran all sorts of errands. I feel happy that we made the best of our day, and it feels even better that we are getting more accustomed to the bike. The shoes were awesome with the bike today. However, we realized quick that the clips need to be tighter, and it’s going to take us time to get used to getting in and out of the pedals. It’s harder than it looks, and I am glad we are getting started now.  Think about what you need to do to prepare for the triathlon in your future!

Jose: Today we got to use our brand new Pearl Izumi Tri Fly III bike shoes. We actually bought them a few days ago, but we were looking for the clips that would fit the spinning pedals at the gym. I can say I’m very glad that we are starting to use the pedals with a stationary bike, because I’m sure I would have fallen on my face if I would have tried on a regular bike. Releasing the shoes is an art by itself! After that, we quickly moved to the treadmill. I’m getting used to putting my running shoes on quickly with my race laces, and then run comfortably. Since I had the chance to use the treadmill I went all the way up to a speed of 16.1 km/hr. I managed to keep that speed on 2 minute intervals until the 20 running minutes were gone. It’s good, but I need that speed continually for the whole 20 minutes.

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Day 123: Get Up and Move!

Calli- Hello fellow triathletes! I hope you had a successful day training just like me. I went on my 30 min run this morning before work, and it felt great. This time around my knee wasn’t tweaking and I got to run the whole time. I focused a lot on the placement and push off of my feet, and how they were angled. I realize now that I was probably landing too much on the right side of my foot. I let my foot naturally fall the other way and I felt much better. If you have any advice or similar stories then feel free to leave a comment.

Jose- The last two running days have been kind of bad for me. I don’t know why, but I’m running out of air too easily. My legs are all right though. Not like perfectly new, but I feel like I can go farther. I thought it could be hydration like I said on Monday, but today I was a more hydrated and I went through the same feeling of tiredness. I’m thinking 200 days in the future and the fact that I still need to reduce my time by at least one minute per km. I think I have to start including a little bit of treadmill at least to get the “feeling” of that pace, and then go practice outside.

“Everyone had a ‘risk muscle.’ You keep it in shape by trying new things. If you don’t, it atrophies. Make a point of using it at least once a day.” -Roger Von Oech

Day 121: Running… to get the flowers

Calli: The run today was great! I had to run on my own again and it was around 2pm when I had the time. It is nice to have a job that has flexible hours so I can use the day to my advantage. So, when I started running I realized that I needed sunglasses to protect from the wind and the sand that it carries. It is very important to be able to see where you are going when you are running. especially on a busy road.However, I managed to run farther than I have before, but because we haven’t had time to do strength training my knee had lost it’s strength. I had to walk the last ten minutes home because I was afraid I would permanently injure myself. After the walk, I felt much better. Remember to do strength training, and wear your sunglasses. 

Jose: The running for me was an early morning run. As usual, that’s the only moment I have all the energy to do my exercise or else I have to workout at night after an 8 hours work shift and it’s not that fun anymore. The lack of appropriate hydration made me loose a whole minute this morning. I was feeling tired after just 10 minutes of being out and I lost the pace several times. The moral of the story: HYDRATE!!!! I have been drinking a lot of liquids during the day and I hope to get back in track on Thursday. For tonight I made another quick run… to the flowers store! I wanted to give Calli a small present for Valentine’s. Good thing she loved them! Aren’t they nice?

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Day 116: It’s all about the Core

How many times do we use the core muscles to do any of the three tri sports? All of the time! Of course when you have to dedicate your time to swim, bike and run, you don’t have enough days during the week to go from one sport to the other and on top of that, hit the gym for a strength workout. Trust us on this one. We are trying but it is just too much work! Especially when you have a full 8 hour work shift to fulfill every day.

However, when we cannot find an extra hour during the day, there’s always 10 minutes that we can get from one activity to the other to do a quick and short workout. These workouts might not be as tough as a regular one, but actually you can make it as hard as you want while including the right exercises.

When talking about TOUGH exercises to pick there a whole variety of CORE exercises that we can guarantee to make you sweat and “suffer” for as little as ten minutes. We found this great article at Training Peaks, with all the exercises you need to have a great Core Training.

Training the core gives you balance and helps you with the form of any of the three tri sports. If you only have 10, 20, 30 0r more hours a week to do some strength training, make sure to not only include these exercises but to base your workout around them. Once you find better balance with swimming, and better form with biking or running, you will celebrate this very smart decision.

Oh… and if you have more time and you are strong enough… you should definitely try the second set of exercises shown in the second video of the article… Best of luck!!

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.” – Gail Devers

Day 114: Taking advantage of the treadmill

Running outside cannot be compared normally to running on a treadmill; since the treadmill simulates a full controlled environment while reality is that on race day you can face all sorts of different surfaces and elevations. However, the fact that they are so well controlled makes them the ideal place to practice and to perfect the different variables that are involved on race day.

We found an article at Active.com, of course one of our favorite sources, on Treadmill Drills to Hone Your Run Skills. The article explains very well how you can control and practice your Cadence and Technique on the treadmill to make your body used to running at a good pace with the correct form. The author Lance Watson, explains 5 drills that will help correct and maintain these two fundamental factors.

After reading the article, one realizes how important it is to keep at least some of the running days indoors. We really believe it is very important to focus on the technique several days a week until it becomes so natural to your body that you get to do it without even thinking about it. Especially these days in which we are controlling the running pace through the Podrunner music at 180 bpm. We hope to catch and retain the beat in our heads to sustain the pace during race day.

“Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” – Vince Lombardi