SBR Utopia ---- Permanently OPEN!! (Page 10)

I think it is a very useful measure and agree that is more so the case with any hills than flats (although it clearly matters there, as well, just perhaps a bit less so than dragging your azz up the hills with those skinny roadies that always seem to find me for their "easy" rides through the hills).

As for Coggan's chart, while useful I think it is very much dialed in for roadies when looking at the shorter time frames (and I recall this coming up a while back, so apologies if this is a re-tread).  The short times with crazy W/kg are absolutely necessary to go with a break or bridge up, so they're appropriate for pure cycling.  

For the bike section of a tri, however, I think  the longer time spans (I dunno exactly where is the break - maybe 5'?) are more indicative of level of competitiveness (obviously not Category, but you get the idea).  While riding with roadies is a great way to improve, and part of that is short term power, we do ride with a different strategy and so emphasize a different band of the time/power/weight equation (IMO).

iow, I'm not going to feel badly that I fall into a Cat 6 or 7 for the short stuff.    I target holding my own over a longer, steadier course, and I'm happy with that. 

Matt

Need to go home and purge the run shoe collection...

... did a tempo run yesterday and felt the onset of Shin Splints!

I was running in Brooks Ghost 3's. Low mileage - but holy cow those were the brand new model in 2010/2011! Whoops! They are on Ghost 6 now! So, the 3's will go, and likely so will the 5's and a pair of Pearl Izumi Kissaki's that got me through Basic and OCS.

Luckily, no runs on the schedule for almost a week, and no hard runs for over 2 weeks. 

Any tips on what else I can do to keep shin splints at bay? Compression? Stretching? Rolling? Ice? All of the above?

Stretching made a big difference for me last winter.  The one that seemed to make the most difference was (no idea how I will explain this properly) doing heel drops on stairs but while doing so shifting my weight forward but still keeping the heel down.  For me that put a pretty good stretch on the shin up the front of my leg and a week or two of doing that consistently seemed to resolve the issue for me.  I do that regularly now for my stretching routine and haven't had any trouble with shins since then.

I haven't had shin splints other than very early on in running, but found that focusing on an increased cadence seemed to solve my issues

Speaking of testing and pacing, another data point:

http://www.darkhorsetriathlon.com/?deeplink_referrer=socialB_facebook%2F#!Anatomy-of-a-Performance-Test/c23k0/AE968A76-5A63-4DDB-9F5A-5503A3D9BE9A

Now I get the having a goal and starting below it idea. If you do what I used to do, which is to go out as hard as I can and try to hold on, you look like the chap who didn't do very well. 

My test is tonight as I was too afraid this morning

I can never test in the morning on an empty tank - needs to always be in the evening for me.  Regardless of the time of day, I'm still afriad.

I can't remember testing in the morning either. And that description fits the way I try to do the harder work rather well. A few minutes in I might have that "hold on" feeling as the target will be aggressive, but I still build into it.

aka "untrained"?

I always test in the morning on an empty stomach....that's the way I do most of my bike training, so I figure I might as well test that way too.  My test is tomorrow morning and I'm also afraid!

My experience has been that shin splints generally happen when doing too much (or too fast) too soon. Have you been doing tempos consistently? Was your pace faster than usual? What has your volume been like? What kind of surface were you running on and was it abnormal for you?

Shoes might contribute, but if the shoes have low mileage I don't know.  I don't think there is a whole lot of research on shoe age. So, maybe worth a shot. I'm sure things start to degrade but I'm not sure if it's significant. Plus new shoes are always nice. 

Rest and ice are probably your best bet. 

Must be.  At least that's what my roadie friends say!

They keep arguing for a Cat 6, into which they'd put anyone that runs even when not being chased.

Matt

On those charts, my 5s and 1 min power fall in the untrained catagory.  

Completely agree in my (our) experience.  I once got them from a pair of shoes that was a bad fit for me (Nike's back in the early 90's) and it took rest first, then a gradual build with icing right after to get rid of them.

The Better Half had them last year from pushing up the mileage too quickly after a couple sprints into a HM plan.  Same thing for her - rest then gradual build with icing.  

I've heard (as Arend says above) that stretching works for some, but it didn't do much for either of us.  Worth trying for sure.

Side note - dixie cups of ice (just be careful not to spill when putting them in the freezer) are great, as you can peel away enough of the sides to rub the ice up and down your shin while keeping enough on the bottom to hold it easily.

I hope they abate quickly for you.

Matt

ALWAYS in the morning for me.  I do however get up early (4:20) and won't actually be on the bike until 5:30 so I have time to get a bit of food into me and a bunch of coffee.  Same routine for workouts and tests.

I've done morning and evening testing and both seem to be pretty consistent.

Been told that foam in shoe degrades over time, whether they are used or not. I'd rather drop some $$ on new shoes and purge the questionable ones than actually end up injured.

I am running tempos consistently. My pace was actually slower than the last time I did this workout, about :30s per mile (I run tempo based on HR)... but my quads were feeling pretty trashed when I started (ran and hiked a very steep trail Sunday), so I might have been running a little weird. 

I ran a usual route for me. Usual surface. I often run a paved bike path - but it felt noticeably better if I ran on the gravel/dirt shoulder than on the pavement... which I usually do when the shoulder is there.

Anomalies were:

1. Coming off a high volume week - in all 3 sports, run included

2. Running in shoes that I haven't worn in a while - that are certainly old in years, but not miles

3. Running two tempo runs in three days. I've done speedwork and tempo that close together, but never tempo runs that close together. Speedwork is also always done on a dirt/gravel track.

Thanks for in input guys - looks like some RICEing, and then a careful trial run in good, new shoes (luckily I ordered Kissakis last month because I found out they're being discontinued) in a week. And a trip to the store for dixie cups - I love those little ice things

Are your logs accurate? Was the entire run tempo or was there WU/CD? It seems that tempo running is the bulk of your weekly run volume?

Logs are accurate.

The 8 mile tempo run I've done a few times is 2 miles warm-up, 5 miles @ 166bpm (or 8:15-8:45 pace, generally), and 1 mile CD

Just venting a little frustration with my training partner, since he won't listen to me.  Wants to go sub 4 in a marathon on superbowl sunday.  His running protocol?  He does one long run, building up to 22-24 miles over the last few weekends.  During the week, he does one run of about 5 miles.  WTF.  I tried explaining the conventional wisdom that the long run should be no more than 1/2 the total weekly mileage, but he insists.  I aksed if it was because of time or that he got tore up on the long run, he said mostly the latter.

Frustrating what stupid stuff people do.  And he's run a few marathons already, including NY 2013

That sounds painful. For both of you 

Good to hear about the swimming but not so nice about work.  

Well, to be fair, if you're going to compare yourself to the 5" and 1' chart, you should be on a road bike with the ability to jump hard out of the saddle.  There really is no point in comparing seated efforts, especially in the aerobars to the short duration side of that chart.

Congrats on the swimming!   Swimming with youngsters helps!    My swimming took a big hit over the holidays, I was working hard in a set of 100s last night and putting in mediocre times for me for the effort expended.  I know it will come back, but still.....

Sorry about the wotk stuff, hopefully it calms down some.  long distance tri and work/family committements is tough, and I don't even have kids

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I guess my issue with the 5' efforts and ftp (and I see now that they're on the chart) is like Matt, doesn't seem all that relevant to triathlon as those explosive breakaways don't happen.  Usually.