Nevergivin's Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 10)

driveradme - 2011-03-29 5:34 AM Im pushing a great week of run focus of 1 hour every day with varying workouts of tempo, interval, neg splits, etc. It band issues are going away after some aggressive treatment and am enjoying this run base build for another month before I begin my HIM program. Ive lost 30 pounds in three months and have 20 to go before i can start washing my clothes off my abs lol! I know once I start the program I can not afford to limit my intake or even think about weight loss. Its all about experimenting with weight maintenance. How does everyone deal with this? I plan to take in calories every three hours, I will do this until I sleep. Right now I dont eat after 6p. One more month! May sign up for at least a pikermi or something to break things up for me. Just looking at the HIM program looks pretty daunting. Little room for sleep it seems

I am dealing with this very issue right now.  I am into my 9th week in my 20 week half plan and when I signed up for my race i signup for the over 40 Clydesdale division (200 lbs. or more). One I want to be competitive with others to push me and two I didn't want to have to lose a whole bunch of weight and effect my training which I believe it would do.  I have about 6-8 lbs. to lose prior to my race in late June and I am just accepting that I'll race at this weight and be ok with it.  I have been as low as 189 from 260 three years ago.  Once I started training I gained weight, but my fitness level is increasing. 

I have to say I don't monitor my eating as much as I used to.  I want to get there but haven't the energy to put time into those kind of details right now.

It's a 10 mile run this Sunday (Cherry Blossom). Hoping to come in somewhere around 9:15/mile. Respiratory bug going around in our household. I thought I was getting it yesterday so I did Nyquil last night and DayQuil this am. I went for an interval run (tapered), and now I know how it would feel like to run on the moon....I almost fell asleep a couple of times. The good news is symptoms have not really progressed...hoping it was just a false alarm.  I would hate to feel like crap for the race. It's our first time doing it (lottery registration) and it appears the weather will be good.

This weekend is the end of a recovery week for me- easy 90 min bike/30 min run today to get ready for whatever torture coach has in store for me next week.  The off week was timed really well, as my daughter was sick with a stomach bug most of the week, so I have had to be around the house more.  On the plus side, tommorrow I have a fit session at the local bike shop for a P2.

Some day I hope to be fit for a P2 or any else for that mattter that says "TRIBIKE".  Enjoy your fitting.  : )

Had a pretty good weekend of training.  Was able to get a 39 mile bike ride in on Saturday; pretty windy.  Why does the wind always change on the way back so you are pedaling into the wind both ways.  Guess some extra training and take what comes in stride.  8 mile run this morning and a long 2300 yd. continuous swim this evening.  Have day off tomorrow and then it is back at it on Tuesday.  I am going to have to get up early in the AM to get some of my workouts in this week it is looking like a very busy week.

I didn't do so well on my nutrition on the bike.  I am going to have to set some alarms on my watch to remind me to drink and eat on time.  I also was going to use some of the Hammer Endurolyte tablets (electrolyte replacement tablets) to see how my stomach handled them.  I may try some on my run as well.  Seem to sweat so much more running.

What does everyone else generally use?

Congratulations on a great race!  That's quite an improvement on your previous time.

My first sprint is this weekend, and I have to say I'm a bit nervous.  Training has been rough lately.  My last run was Thursday, and I ended up with some kind of knee 'thing'.  Not pain exactly, but it felt weird, like it needed to pop, if you know what I mean.  I ran through it, but it seemed like at any second it might go out and give me real trouble.  I run tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.

Travel kept me from doing a brick this past weekend like I had wanted, so I'm going into this race having done only a couple of bike/run trials, and nothing where I put it all together, like last year.  I'm getting better times in training than last year, but still I wish I had a few more weeks.  I plan on going for good even training this week.  No pushing hard, but not much of a taper, either.

I'm probably worrying too much.  I think I'll start to get excited when my wetsuit arrives.  I travel the week after, so I'll post results as soon as I can.

For 1/2's I use gel from a flask, I plan on taking two gels per hour with my drink to get 250-350 cals per hour. The gel flask allows me to use any gel I want(I use hammer)without the hasssle of wrappers or stick fingers and is very compact and easy to carry, one for bike and one for run. I use endurolites also and use one or two per hour. Practice will solidify your routine!

20 laps this morning and 4 miles.  I'm as ready as I'm going to be for Saturday.  I've been looking at my numbers, and I'm trying to be realistic about my goals.  My overall goal for this year is to get into the top half of my age group in any particular race.  To do that in this race, based on last years results I would have to shave about 8 minutes off my total time.  

With my recent runs, I might be able to take 1.5 to 2 minutes there, but biking I'm not convinced that I'm much faster.  It's hard to tell becuase my training route includes several bridges and a couple that I have to slow significantly down for (single lane passes) which wouldn't be the case in Galveston.  In any case, if I can push it to average 17mph instead of the 16.16 I got last year, that will give me another 2 minutes.

So last year I did it in 1:19, but no swim.  Add 12 for the swim and 2 for T1, that's 1:34.  So perhaps I should be shooting for better than 1:30 in this race.  That won't put me in the top half of my AG, but I could consider it progress.

I'm not sure.  It feels like I'm sandbagging on my goal, but the math doesn't leave much room to assume otherwise.  What do you guys think?  Last chance for some mentoring before I head for the coast!

-Mike

I think goals are imperative to motivate us during training and racing. I don't think I have ever ran a race without a goal, but I have noticed that with experience that the gap between my goals and result keep shrinking. That might be a factor of being more realistic or just getting to know myself better. 

A couple of things I have learned:

- My goals are mainly finishing times rather than rankings on my AG. There is so much vairiability from one race to another regarding who signs up. I have done tris with multiple "first timers" and then I have been caught off guard with races filled up with serious athletes. This influences where I end up ranking.

- Race adrenaline helps you perform physically (a tad better than training times).

- That same adrenaline is some times to blame for mental mistakes that can be time costly, particularly during transition (i.e not finding your bike rack, forgetting something, etc). Spend enough time rehearsing this. Making up 1 minute on a 5k run is much harder than loosing it on transition.

Good luck...most importantly, have fun and be safe (so you can come back and try it again).

Total time was 1:36:12.  Even though I didn't hit my goal, I don't feel bad about the individual sections.  T1 took way longer than I expected.  Bike was not as good as I had hoped, but the crosswind was a killer.  My run was a personal best, at 9:51 a mile.  Full report forthcoming.

I'm not sure I will be doing a mentor group, either, but I hope you all have great success going forward!

All the best,

Mike