Beer Drinkers Appreciation Society (BDAS) 2022 Mentor Group - ALWAYS OPEN (Page 10)

Hey, hope you and your family are OK.  I'm like you, probably would have never called in sick in normal times but here we are.  Glad your kids are OK - funny how this thing more or less leaves them alone when so many other bugs get them an not use adults.

Originally posted by Rollergirl D-1, leaving in an hour. 3 hours drive, pick up my start kit, check out the course, jog the bike to get the legs going after taper week (it’s 4 x 5k). Dinner and bed. Start at 8:35 tomorrow. (CET) We are 7 women in my age group so if one is sick, one injured before today, one gets a puncture on the bike and one twists her ankle on the run, I’ll get on the podium I need to channel my inner Steven Bradbury… After the race, back to the hotel for a shower and then back to the venue to watch the pros race in the Swedish (and Nordic) championship. It will be a fun day!

Rock it, Fit Nat!!!

Nice work, Nat.  Can't wait to read the RR.  I bet you have some low-hanging fruit to tweak on your racing, and maybe you're right that you aren't good at getting into the pain cave and staying there.  Sprints should hurt.  Racing well is really an art and we don't do it enough to really master the little things, too.

@Nicole - setting up a schedule is huge for me.  I plan out my calendar about a month in advance in Training Peaks, managing how much work I want to do in all the disciplines so I can manage improving vs. killing myself, which at 53 YO is always a trade-off.  And while your sports don't directly translate to SBR they have a training cost and benefit nonetheless.  If you have a HRM you might want to use it during those sessions to see how much cardio work you're getting in .  Strength and core work for me is going well...I mauled my abs this morning with some weighted long-arm crunches so that'll hurt tomorrow. 

Running is going well for me - best in years.  I got in a little fartlek speed work this morning to get my interval process started.  Hoping to get in one day of intervals, one short easy run and one longer run, 8-10 miles total and be able to hold that through the summer.  I gotta be careful as I've only run 350 miles in the past five years and I don't want to repeat my end of 2014 disaster where I pushed my running volume WAY too far.

After reading your RR and your world-leading transitions, you might be right on the low-hanging fruit.  How about equipment and bike fit?  Aero helmet?  At this point those get to be expensive seconds saved. 

You could experiment with your run pacing.  Most of us try to negative split our run efforts, but maybe try going out hard and fading, then pushing through that hell to the finish.  Again - sprints should hurt. 

My prediction was quite accurate on that front, so my 2200 yard swim this morning was sssslllloooowwww.  Felt better afterwards then had to have some dental work done - I should get some stress points for that for sure. 

It's hard to improve dramatically in all three at once (I think you have the fourth discipline down pat with transitions).  That said, at 2:00/100, there's something to be gained on there, whether form, pacing, or sighting, or all three.  For biking, like Andrew said it's all about hard intervals over a period of time and that's hard to do during racing season, and then for running it's running often with just the right amount of interval work.  I dropped 2 minutes off my 5K time in about a year with focused running (every run has a purpose) maxing at 15 miles a week so it can be done without a huge mileage commitment.  I also learned to be tolerant of that VO2 max discomfort during a 5K - lots of self-talk and mind games.

RE: weight loss...so tough to judge how much it will impact your overall performance.  Losing weight will slow you down swimming a little (less buoyancy), sometimes a lot on the bike (lower power and momentum, especially on flat courses) and for running...it depends.  Obviously if you're carrying around 10-12 kg of unhealthy weight that's one thing (and doesn't appear to be the problem based on your profile and race pictures), but simply "eat less cookies" isn't always as simple a solution as it sounds.  And besides, I like cookies.  I've raced everywhere from 88 to 96 kg and the sweet spot for me is around 90.  Anything lower than that I start to lose muscle, it requires a huge commitment to diet and lifestyle that would likely result in divorce. 

I was toast yesterday afternoon and evening, went to bed early and work up today just beat down so taking a day off.  I think I overcooked my strength/core training on Tuesday plus sitting in a dentist chair for 2 1/2 hours just cooked me.  Back at it tomorrow in the pool and for a run later in  the day.

RE:  returning from COVID, way too many variables other than going by feel with a slow ramp-up, watching out for some of those rebound symptoms some people get.  Hopefully you'll be back to normal really quickly, and I think your plan is really solid.  I think most of those people with the major training impacts were from the original strain or Delta, and being vaxed and boosted should help you too. 

RE:  my back - me too!!!  They're definitely not totally behind me but I think I'm getting into a much better management strategy around it which should allow me to run enough to compete, but my 25 miles/week days are also behind me I think.