Coach Joe – No Crappy Excuses

ET Indoor Tri (1/23/22)

(Photo courtesy of Lee)

As I had mentioned last year, things did not go as planned. What was supposed to have been a 1-2 week stint on IR after Cypress ballooned because of work and personal issues. But I tried looking past all of that and towards the 2022 season.

For me, the season started with the ET Indoor Tri. These are always fun, great events put on by Coach Joe and his team.

While I had hoped for better, the challenges from 2021 showed up in the first race of 2022. My swim was shorter than normal by about 40m, my bike was shorter by about 1 mile, and my run was shorter by about a 1/4 mile.

Even though the results weren’t what I had hoped for, it was still good to get back to some sense of ‘normalcy’. I’m grateful to Coach Joe for continuing to bring back the series even while there were still some COVID concerns. I’m also grateful to Lee for all of his guiding help as always.

And the race will also serve as a ‘baseline’ for 2022. I know that there are going to be challenges during the 2022 season as I work to get back into a rhythm after losing so much in 2020 and 2021. I’m planning for and looking forward to a successful 2022 season!

National Beatings – Progress Report – 3/19/17

I love doing Experience Triathlon (ET) events. Coach Joe, the entire staff and all of the volunteers do such a great job with the events. I wish I’d been able to do the other two ET indoor triathlons, but the timing just didn’t work.

Going into this event, I had definite numbers that I wanted to hit on each of the disciplines. Not only would it be a good progress test to see where I was at, but also a chance to find/work out flaws. Even though I didn’t hit those numbers, it was still a good day and I found several things to work out prior to the outdoor season.

Specifically –
Swim: Managing torpedo kicks and breathing. One of the torpedo kicks was so strong that I ended up gliding under the lane lines. Not a huge issue since there was an open lane, but it would be in any of the outdoor races. While my breathing is getting better, I still need to work on it for mid to late race to make sure I can finish strong. During this swim, I couldn’t get enough of the CO2 out and was struggling in the last 6-7 lengths to get it done. I’ve already talked with my head coach on the breathing and am working out several things with that.

Bike: Being able to more easily clip in and making sure that I’m pushing harder in the first several minutes when my body is trying to recover from the swim. I thought I was going faster than I actually was during that first 8 min or so until Todd told me what I was at. Hopefully the tandem derailer will get put back on and I’ll get the loaner upright soon so I can get a lot more clip practice in.

Run: Making sure that a sports drink is in my water bottle instead of just plain water. I had Tailwind in there and it helped a lot. I am going to be trying a couple others during training, and go with whichever works best. Having that extra burst meant that I only had to walk once for about 30 seconds. That’s about in line with the Turkey Trot from last fall, which was my most consistent 5K.

It was back to training after this race as I continue to push towards the spring season.

And for any of you who have these as open dates, I would STRONGLY recommend signing up for the following:

ET Batavia – 6/11/17
ET Lake Zurich – 7/9/17
ET Naperville – 8/6/17

Indoor Tri Wrap-up & Training – 2/28/16 – 4/14/16

First of all, sorry for the long hiatus. Life has been extremely busy since late February and I haven’t had much time for blogging. This and the next few entries dated prior to today (5/20/16) are all ‘ctach up’ articles that have been in my queue to post.

After the last Indoor Tri post, I did two more – the final event in the MITCS series and the final event in the ET series. The first went really well; the latter had bumps. Specifically, towards the end of the bike at ET I felt really constipated. So I lost 4 minutes of the run while I was still taking care of that.

Overall, the Indoor Tri season was a great experience. Not only did it give me an opportunity to have targets to push for as I was training, it also gave me experience for the outdoor season. I plan on doing both the MITCS and ET series next year. I will not do Life Time again – IMO it was far too crowded, and just not a great experience. Combined with the fact that it’s the only for-profit race that I’ve had to pay for my guide, just not on my list for next year.

I greatly appreciate everyone who helped me throughout the Indoor season. Specifically Coach Joe, Todd, Lee & Steven who all really helped to make it work out.

In between the Tris and once the season ended, I was back into the pool. Although it isn’t a big jump, I was able to cut another 10 seconds off of my CSS time in the pool. I know that every little bit helps.

2nd Indoor Tri – 1.10.16

Having done the first Indoor Tri a week prior, I had a better idea of what to expect. And knowing what bumps could come up, I tried to put proactive preventative measures in place so they didn’t happen this week.

Early in the preceding week, I was concerned that I’d have to do this on my own since I didn’t have a guide. However, Coach Joe was able to help find one for me. And with the additional help of another volunteer in the pool, everything went great.

I was able to go further in the pool and on the treadmill than I had the previous week. TI did not go as far on the bike, as I lost time when my feet came out of the cages twice. The first time, I took the couple of minutes to let them fix it. The second time, I just kept pedaling because time was almost up on the bike.

I will be doing another ET Indoor Tri in March, and will look to improve on these numbers then!