Full Vineman 2014 Triathlon : Official Thread (Page 5)

I second the vote for Maffetone training.  I started using it when doing marathons and it really made a difference on my aerobic fitness and got me a great PR on my last race.  I'm using a somewhat modified version where I kept all of my runs and bikes @ <Zone 2.0 for December through February and now am raising that to z2.5 in March.  I've again seen great improvement on my aerobic fitness going from runs that would have an average pace of 9:10 to last Monday's which was at z2.3 with an average pace of 8:17.  Was able to carry on a conversation with my training partner the whole run.

So training's going well for me.  I've been dealing with a nagging glue/upper hammie issue that is quite frankly making me cranky.  I've struggled to pin down the cause and the Dr's can't really put their finger on what it really is.  Got some new stretches/strengthening exercises from my PT that seem to be helping, so fingers are crossed.  I don't start my actual training plan until April 6, so am doing my aerobic build right now still with the last few weeks of training coming in at about 11.5 hours.  I'm working on form in the swim, not really aerobic endurance, following the theory that the better form will drive a more efficient stroke and improve my times with no added effort.  Good theory, but dang, swimming is (for me) hard and by far the most complicated of the S/B/R.  Just got my Tribike refit dropping the handlebar by another 10mm, so adapting to that, and also added some arch support to the bike shoes to see if that would help the nagging hip issue (fitter speculates that since I have high arches, I may be collapsing it on my left side during the downstroke which would cause an uneven rotation of the hip and issues there). 

So, lot's going on in training, but loving it.

Swimming:  Endurance workouts vs. drills. 

In all my past training that I've done on my own, I've only done endurance sets, mostly a series of 100's or a straight swim, with most sets being in the 2000-3000 yard range.  This worked out well for me and I was really pleased with the results in my HIM where I posted a 35:10 for the swim which was a pace of 1:40/100.  I felt I could do better but didn't really know how to go about the 'better' part.  I hired a coach for a few sessions and got some advice, but it really didn't get me a feeling of improvement, and the times didn't change all that much.

For this training cycle I am really fortunate to have a training partner who is an excellent swimmer who readily can identify areas of improvement and provide drills that help me fix my stroke issues.  I can really feel the difference doing the drills - how my pull is impacted, where my rotational issues lie, the imbalance that comes from single-side breathing, etc. (needless to say, I've got many different areas to work on).  I'm adopting the approach that this will make me more efficient, gaining speed without extra effort, and will let me leave the water feeling more energetic when I go to the bike.  Right now it is a bit of a struggle mentally as I've lost some of my endurance in the water - noticeably so - such that I'm breathing heavy after doing a couple of not-so-hard 250's on 4:30, but I'm going to stay the course as I really do believe this will have a long term payoff.

So to get a little discussion started, what approaches have you taken in the Swim training area, what has helped you see the most gains, and what - if anything - are you doing different this cycle?

I'm a couple of weeks into the official plan now and training is going well.  This week was about 13.3 hours with a long ride of 4 hours/66 miles in a combination of flat and hilly (total climb of ~2700 ft.) terrain.  Felt good about it and the transition run afterwards was OK as well.  The swim is progressing with a continued focus on form more than speed, although a recent workout called for 20x100 on 10 seconds and I managed and average of 1:42/100 which for me is the best I've done - so hopes are high.

So by now everyone should have hotel reservations, etc.  Where will you be staying?  I'm at the Flamingo in Santa Rosa which is about a 30 minute drive to the start of the race.  My training partner and family are staying in Healdsburg which is about the same distance.  Now that I'm in official training mode, I'm looking over course maps/elevations and checking up on past race reports.  Anyone else started obsessing yet?

Rita, seems like you are really getting the double whammy right now!  I'm with you though; never remembering that I'm not a kid anymore . . .  Hopefully all gets back to 100% soon and your are back on track with your training!

Brian, that sound like a pretty nice meal.  I will definitely give it a go.  I get up there on Thursday, and don't leave until Sunday, so who knows, I too may end up having it two times!

Rita, you are coming off of a tough week and did your longest run yet WITH a good dose of hill work.  I think it is natural for you to feel like it was hard work.  On the plus side, you said the cardiovascular side of things felt good, and that's a solid win since what we are training for really relies on the endurance part of the equation.  I'd suggest you make your next run on a flat course that you've done before and see how you do there.  If it is your next run session, however, you still may feel a bit sluggish after the run you did today!

Rita, glad to hear things are (getting) back to normal.  For me training is a constant battle with injury or overuse and I have to keep reminding myself that the current pain will just be a memory in the not to distant future. 

Training is continuing to progress well with 12 hour weeks being the norm, but looking forward to this stepback week that is less than 10 hours!  The only fly in that ointment is that Thursday is a 3200 swim/2:30 bike/1:00 run as a combined workout.  That'll be interesting . . .  So, last week the moon and stars, and more importantly my training partner's and my schedules along with "take your kids to work day", aligned and we decided to  drive up and ride the course.  The ride was to be 3 hours so we chose to do the back half of the course and plotted a 55 mile route.  Good news - they have repaved Eastside road and it is smooth and fast!!  Reports from the full Vineman last year reported it was as bad as Westside road and, from personal experience, that was really bumpy with 2" deep potholes, cracks and lots of lumpy areas.  I joined up with Westside on this ride about halfway through Westside and no sign of repaving there, but there was an earlier posting saying it had been repaved as well.  I hope that is true because the really bad part was the first half and that is what they would have had to have repaved. 

The course is as beautiful as I remembered with the grapevines coming in nicely.  I was reminded of how challenging the rolling hills were, so would suggest you find training routes that have rolling hills.  Chalk Hill seems to get less formidable each time I've ridden it and this time I rode up it while staying down on the aerobars.  The backside downhill of Chalk Hill is a blast with a short steep part and then a long gentle downhill that you can really fly on.  They have not done any repair work on the road to bridge transitions so be careful there if you go out and ride it, especially on one of the bridges on Chalk Hill.  It is bad enough that riders or race organizers have marked it with paint in the past, but the paint is kind of faded.  It was there that I heard a rider last year was taking care of getting in some nutrition/hydration in the 70.3, hit the transition, lost control and went over the side of the bridge.

There was a 25 minute transition run after the ride and although I told myself I was going to keep the pace slow off the bike, I was constantly fighting running a pace 30-45 sec/mile faster than I wanted to.  Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did you get yourself to slow down?  Last year during the Vineman 70.3 I failed miserably to keep it slow at the beginning of the run and it came back to bite me on the butt starting at about mile 8.  In the 70.3 I got away with it, but in the full, that is a recipe for disaster.  This will be a definite goal for this training cycle, and I'm going to incorporate a lot of 1-3 mile transition runs in to figure it out and train myself to do this right!

How is your training going??

Rode over the river and at that bridge it was not close to swimmable, but not to worry. They have a dam just below the swim start that makes a nice, full (enough), still section for us to swim in.  I just wish the temps on race day would be as cool as it was during the ride last week

Dan, I started at the corner of Airport and Skylane, and parked in an industrial park on Laughlin (which is the left turn off of Airport at Skylane (changes name there).  There was plenty of parking in the back so didn't think anyone would complain, and the park is shared by many businesses so not likely there is a facilities guy to complain.   I did this intending to finish the ride on Old Redwood/Fulton/Airport but there is construction going on at the 101/Airport overpass that makes the road pretty crappy for riding, so just stayed on Shiloh to Skylane on the return.  Here's the route I rode from my Garmin : http://connect.garmin.com/activity/486506717

Also, I made up a turn by turn with mileage.  The column "miles" indicates the mileage at which you make the turn onto the listed road.  Eastside shows two turns as you turn onto it and then further down there is a Y and just wanted to make sure I paid attention.  The same is true for Wohler, but they closed off the road there allowing you only to go to the left.  And I would recommend just taking Shiloh to Skylane at the end just for safety's sake.

 If you start down by the swim it turns into a ride closer to 70 miles, so for me that is a later in the season possibility.  Oh yeah, once you get back on 101 South, there's an In and Out Burger at the Guernville road exit (left side of the freeway).  Kinda hit the spot after the ride!

Today was an educational day regarding the effect of heat on performance.  My plan call for a combined S/B/R day with an 1800 swim/2:30 ride/1:00 run.  Swim went fine, bike was OK but pushed it a little hard and at the end it was warming up.  The run started out OK but it rapidly became clear that keeping my HR in z2 @ 9:00 pace was just not going to happen.  Kept up the pace and ended up doing 6.7 miles with the last 2 having my HR at or above z5 - clearly a recipe for disaster in any longer run - with a finishing temp of 93 degrees!  Gonna have to make sure to acclimate to running in the heat (afternoon) the last few weeks before the race!  Also, this underscored the need to not push the bike too hard, but I didn't feel like I was pushing too much at the time.  I guess it is a good thing there are lots and lots of training miles between here and the starting line to get this stuff ironed out!