Brian's group - FULL (Page 10)

IronCowgirl - 2010-06-08 5:53 PM I need some advice. This summer I will be working a job where I have to get up at 5:45 in the mornings and don't get to bed until 11:00 at night. I'm working with horses all day (bucking hay, saddling, fencework too) and entertaining kids in the evening, so I'm not going to have much leftover energy. I have one day off per week and I can usually count on having a free hour somewhere in the day. I want to keep in shape without totally wearing myself out, so I was thinking about doing a long workout on my day off (either cycling or running) and short, intense workouts during the week. Any ideas?

Also, someday I want to do a HIM. I'm not sure when in the near future I would have time to train for something like that, but I was wondering if I should wait a few years anyway. I'm nineteen, and I know that people my age can do HIM and IM but I was wondering how advisable it was. Any insight? Thanks

Re: summer work + workouts ... the watch word for all of this is 'consistency' in one of the three sports.  Consistency will continue to build your aerobic engine, inconsistency will allow it sputter down.

My recommendation would be to focus on running. You can get a lot of ftiness accomplished in a 45 minute run. There are running programs out there but suffice it to say that each will have you varying your pace for daily runs and one long slow distance run per week. Each will also follow the  axiom that you always go super-light the first run after your long run).

If you do not want to get too formal then just try to vary your pace with each of the daily run (slow one day, fast the next, medium the day after) and then always run less than 'medium' for your long distance runs.

Your long distance runs ahould progress in distance by about 5 percent ... but never more than 10%. Take one day off per week from running (this will allow your body to absorb the training and therefore make you faster, stronger, better).

The good news is that there ought to be a lot of soft surfaces and trails to run on.

Add in a swim and bike when you can for cross training but focus on developing your run.

By the end of the summer, you will be a running machine with an aerobic engine ready for anything ... including getting back on the bike and in the water for training for a HIM.  If you do one in the 20 yr old age group after spending hte summer swimming, I am betting that you will stand a good chance to qualify for Clearwater (<= not an exageration).

PS: Did I mention consistency?  It is consistency that will rev up your metabolism while building your engine.

Quick update - running technique.

So I'm half way through the "Chi Running" book. The main points I'd take away from it so far are:

(1) As brian said - posture should be straight (but relaxed) and you should tilt the body forward, with the pivot point being the ankles. This seems to be pretty key to Chi Running (and a number of other running techniques I gather). The logic is that if you're body is tilted forward from low pivot point, you are effectively "falling" forward, so gravity is doing the running for you and all you have to do is lift your feet off the ground (cool huh).

(2) Foot should land directly under hips - never in front of the body, as this would be (a) effectively acting as a brake and (b) causing jarring which can lead to injury.

(3) There is a walking exercise in the book where the author suggests walking around the room normally, then walking around lifting feet off the ground and tilting forward slightly. This takes you OFF the balls of your feet. He then goes on to say that running on the balls of your feet increases the work that the calf muscles are having to do, and that the calf muscles shouldn't be being used to run. So far there has been no direct discussion in the book of which part of your foot should be striking the ground, but this seems a pretty large suggestion that it shouldn't be the balls of your feet. Interestingly last week I was actively trying to run on the balls of my feet, and I had a lot of calf muscle pain afterward (I couldn't walk up stairs, the muscles were sore to the touch, and they took about four days to recover). So I am buying into this. The author (Danny Dreyer) also often refers to how the Kenyans run, and points out that they don't have big muscular calf muscles!

(4)Back to the tilt... The degree of your tilt, and the length of stride should determine your speed - not your cadence which should remain fairly constant (suggestion is 85-90). So to go faster tilt further forward (from the ankles, not at the waist). He refers to this tilt as your "accelerator"

(5) Legs should be relaxed. After strike it looks like legs bend at the knee to about a 90 degree angle.

I've only posted this now as I'm not certain how long it will take me to finish the book, and some of the advice from the book is different to what I had said I was trying in the earlier post.

If you are interested this is a link to a web page that has a small/short video of "good" Chi Running. It should start automatically (note that the website is in Dutch). http://www.loopblessurevrij.nl/

And the book is worth having a read of.

Cheers,

Rod.

That's really cool.  I wouldn't do them them more than 2 x or so a week as they may take too much out of your for you to get the tri specific training you need in.  I think they'll mainly help with speed.  You can do the whole program during the winter though and it does look really cool but it'll definitely require discipline to make yourself suffer in solitude.  Good luck!

Brilliant! Love it! (re: the You Tube clips)

ok.. I had technical difficulties.. Broken Laptop.. New one purchased .  The weekend is over... Plans for this week...

swim...bike...run.  I have to get some later morning bikings in so I will be acclimated for the heat when the race comes in August.... I am going to just have to suck it up and do it....

Rod...I don't know anything about seal in goggles, but my training partner says to put a few drops of contact solution in them before use, and it keeps them from fogging. I had fogging issues previously, and don't anymore.