Tips From a Regular

A colleague of Neil's is a crazy tri-athlete. He lives in CA so his involve ocean swimming. Anyway, he offers these tips for training. Has also sent race-day advice.

I had a terrible day at the gym today. Mid-way through treadmill running, I had to get off for some quality stomach explosion time in the bathroom. Got back running a few minutes later and thought I may faint. So had to totally stop and didn't get to swim. Have felt crappy ever since then. What the hell?

1) Don't get hurt. Listen to your body, it talks to you every time you go outfor training. There is a big difference between, soreness, discomfort and pain.Training in soreness is fine, training is pain is not.
2) Hydrate and eat properly. Don't munch down cheesecake the night before a longSaturday training exercise and expect not to feel it. Find out what diet worksfor you the night before (carbo load) your bigger training days and also figureout what works for you for hydration. Get that stuff figured out early. And usethat stuff, it does work (electrolyte replacement fluid, goo shots etc)
3) Don't be afraid to pop some ibuprofen or other pain reliever or other overthe counter stuff to accelerate your recovery.
4) Have fun. There is a whole world of people out here willing to help and talk.Use them all but make your own decisions. Not everything works for everyone, soexperiment now. Train with people, don't be afraid to say hello to people whileyou are out.
5) Go see a triathlon. As I mentioned to you before, I met a lady doing this andthought this was a great idea. Watch the event and the transition, it will dowonders to calm you and help you understand how it goes.
6) Do some bricks. You have got to do a bike and then a run several times,replicating what is going to happen on the day. Get your running stuff etc inthe garage, go ride the bike and then bust in, change quickly and take off. Yourlegs are going to be wobbly but if you do it a couple of times they will get useto it.
7) Swim almost twice as long as your race distance. Swimming in a calm pool isnothing compared to what is going to happen on the day of the race. Get at leastone day in the lake etc that you will be swimming in so you understand how itfeels etc. If you are wearing a wetsuit, use it at least once before the raceand practice getting it off and on, got to use a greaser.
8) Taper properly. Don't expect to be busting out longer distances a week beforeyour race. Get that out of the way several weeks beforehand. Maybe do yourlongest brick three weeks before, try 15 miles on the bike with a 4 mile runimmediately thereafter. Then taper, reducing efforts etc. Swimming you can takealmost into the last several days.