Pilgrim's Group - Full (Page 11)

Hey gang, I finished the Black Warrior 50K in pretty good shape. I posted a race report on my blog.

http://clydeologist.blogspot.com/

I am traveling all day tomorrow but will be totally back Monday.



I am not familiar with that specific bike but Cannondale is a good brand that that price sounds about right for a good quality entry level road bike.

In order to know if 54 cm is right for you you need to be measured. I am 6 foot and like a little smaller road bike so I have a 55 cm frame on my LeMond however I like the larger frame for my tri bike so I have a 58cm frame.

They do make bikes in woman’s specific designs. The difference is that a woman's specific bike will have a shorter top tube.

Josh, AWESOME JOB ON THE RUNNING! I'd ask you to just monitor your legs closely because whenever you get a sudden increase in either distance or intensity you start to flirt with injury until your body fully adapts.

Here is something important to remember about stepping up your running. Your total distance shouldn't really increase by more than 10% per week. The big reason is because of your bones and ligaments. Your cardiovascular system will adapt first, then your muscles and then your skeletal system.

Pilgrim! Great race report and way to go pickin' yourself up by your bootstraps! Yes! YOU CAN! Now go get bandaged up! And congrats to your wife too!

Wow, Pilgrim! 31.07 miles. . . while sick. I noticed you rated mental exertion at a 5. Was the 5 because you were sick, because of the rough terrain that you had to contend with, the fact that it was 31.07 miles uphill, or something else?

Again, wow, that's superhuman to me.

Mark E.

Pilgrim, I don't even know what to say other than I am in awe I can't even imagine that. WAY TO GO!!!

Wow pilgrim, you're race report is amazing. Talk about soldiering on- its really inspiring! Love the war wounds- hope that all heals ok and you can take a little break and get rid of that flu!
Back at the other end of the athlete spectrum...I got along to race 5 in the series of races of which 6 will be my debut in 6 weeks. Held in the bay about 5km away from my race venue the Elwood Tri was really interesting. To be honest, I found it a bit intimidating- everyone in wetsuits and looking all kitted out- was relieved to see all shapes and sizes though. Watched my age group start- was relieved there are only about 15 in the age group so the start of the swim and around the buoys was not too crowded- looked manageable.
Picked up little things - like the marshals were very strict on people taking off their helmets before racking their bikes- sawa couple of people lose precious minutes having to put helmets back on (or even just do the straps back up). My race will be set up almost identically - so was good to see how it all flows. There were some good stacks where the bikes came out- again will remember my learning from last week to keep my head up and eyes open coming out- cause not everyone else does!
Also, it was a really hot day- got up to 34 degrees (or 93 in f)- so hydration was pretty key. I don't expect my race day will be as hot- however this is Melbourne- so you never know.

Saturday practiced bike mounting, dismounting and transitions for a couple of hours with the Tri Club. Key learning was to remember to take my helmet off after I've racked the bike (come race day I'll probably be doing the run in goggles and helmet ) Felt really confident when we did some open swimming in the bay- discovered I am fine when swimming with only 2 or so metres deep or in really deep water- where all you can see green- but felt that funny panicky feeling (and heard the Jaws soundtrack on my internal stereo) when we were sort of half way- could make out funny shadows and spooked myself- but stayed calm- and I guess what all this practice is about- we swam to about 200m off shore- just short of what we will do on race day.

At the race, found a supplier who hires out wetsuits- so might get one some weekend soon and give it a go- and then possibly rent one for race day- they're pretty pricey.

I put some pics up of the Elwood Tri on my album if anyone wants to take a peak.

Happy training!

Maree

Hey Julie,

Thanks for sending me the information on that other bike. I moved forward on the Cannondale R600 below. It's light, and came with aero bars and a computer. I swapped out the Look pedals for the egg beaters I bought and took it for a spin this weekend. Wow, what an amazing difference! Granted, I've never used shifters like that, but the seller was happy to show me how.

Thanks again!

Mark E.

Thanks for the kudos everyone! I rated the mental effort a 5 for the Black Warrior a 5 because I felt it took my best effort to keep a positive attitude.

Maree, I'm glad you got to go see the triathlon and meet some folks, it sounds like you had a great experience!

Mark, a good bike makes a huge difference, huh? Congrats on your new steed.

Hey everyone. Kinda dropped-off the face of the earth with all the training from last week. Glad to hear Mark upgraded his bike. Maree, I'm rooting for you.

Did anyone else catch the recap of the Kona IM? Maree would've been really happy. Aussie Men finished 1-2. That was one of the only good NBC productions that I've seen recently. They really cheese everything up.

Well, I'm in Texas (Vernon, up north, on the Red River). I got in today, drove here, and went for a 5K run around the hotel. I think that was a good idea since my back was seizing up from being on the plane all morning.

Anyway, gotta head to chow. I'm on the company's dime so I think I'll grab a Rita with Petron. mmm. Sounds good. Hope everyone's doing well. I'll check-back-in tomorrow from Abilene.
Happy Training.
Matt.

I spent many of my high school years in North Texas. We used to face off with Vernon at track meets but they were too small a school for us to play in football. Vernon had a big old kid who was the best shot putter and discus thrower in our region. I always wanted to out throw him and never did but remained convinced he must have been 23 years old.

Oh yes, I definitely dig the new ride! One thing about those egg beater pedals, they don't right themselves like some of the other pedals, I sometimes have to flip them over to clip in. Now I need to get a battery and figure out that computer. Also, I read bad things about that aerodrink? You guys use it? I think I'll be happy with a good ol' fashioned bottle.

Tried a brick last night, but learned the hard way that I shouldn't eat for at least two hours before swimming.

Mark E..

P.S. - NEXT GEAR QUESTION> I've been looking into wetsuits and I know pilgrim suggested sleaveless. I also came across options for a bib with a swim top, swim pants, etc. at all3sports. Frankly, I'm a heavy drop and these suits seem to be made for skinny, well-proportioned people. Any suggestions for a short, fat wetsuit option?

Edited by meclavea 2008-02-20 9:50 AM

Dang... no one posted yesterday? C'Mon PEEPS!

ok... so I didnt post either ... I did walk/run yesterday morning and started my 24 hour fitness 24 day free membership, and got in some swimming with my volunteer swim coach it was great having someone look at what I was doing and give me specific pointers... she had me doing fingertip drills... good stuff...

hope everyone is having a good week of training!

josh

I would post except I haven't been doing much- and it looks like I will miss tri club on Saturday- as I have another comittment- so I'm having a crummy week Hopefully can get back into it next week! Also have a bit of a sore foot...how's that for an excuse...

Hey everyone, sorry I haven’t been around but I had a surprise business trip to Nashville this week and was to cheep to pay an extra $10 per night for wireless, that money could go t a race entry fee after all!

I did get in all the running I planned while there though so that’s good but I don’t much like running on concrete sidewalks through down town areas. I’m back home now though so can hit all my favorite places.

I haven’t ever heard anything bad about the aero drink before but I’m sure there are some complaints. I’ve been using the aero drink for 4 years now at every distance and like it fine. It needs to be able to fit between your aero bars and if it didn’t that would be a problem. If the bars are too narrow it won’t fit and if they are too wide you need to get an aero drink mounting system, which I use. I have had the yellow scrub pad looking thing bounce out on real bumpy roads but that’s not really a problem. My wife took her yellow thing out and replaced it with one of those round shower scrubs.

Huh, I thought the egg beaters never needed to be right side up, I thought that was the whole point of their design.

As far as the wetsuits go not everyone looks like the wetsuit models when they put themselves into one. I know that Desoto makes two piece wetsuits and you may be able to get a larger top and a smaller bottom. Go ahead and contact some wetsuit makers directly and talk to them. They will probably be very helpful. They do not want to sell you something that will not work. Triathlon is a high dollar sport full of loyal customers so they don’t mess around just trying to pawn stuff off.

The swim drills I use are the finger tip drill, catch-up drill, the one-arm drill and paddles. I also always swim breathing bilaterally.

Hope everyone is doing great!

Hi Sarah

i do the swim drills from the 1/2 iron man programme that's up for free on this site- there are 3 workouts per week- one focussed on building speed, one on building mental toughness (i.e. just doing lots of distance) and one "race-specific" which seems to be a bit of a mish-mash of the two. I really enjoy them cause they mix it up and I don't have to think about what to do next week.
Only problem for me is I have some health issues at the moment and doc has instructed no heavy training for 2 weeks- so my dogs will be getting their morning walk but that will be it. Find it a bit frustrating, but will get back into it as soon as I can!
Happy training everyone

Maree

Get better, Maree. My dogs would be jealous about the morning walk thing. They make up for it by chasing me around the house when I get home.



Edited by meclavea 2008-02-24 10:22 PM

Feel better soon Maree! I am back in the swing of things after over a week off. The flu hit our household - not me thankfully - but my kiddos. My daughter was out of school for 6 days. Needless to say with the hubby traveling not much training was able to get done - well pretty much zero! I am excited to hopefully have a "normal" week this week. I found myself very grumpy without the workouts.

Hope everyone has a GREAT week!

Juls

Hey gang we seem to be slumping a bit. Winter wearing thin?

How is everyone out there?

Checking in... did 2.8 miles this morning 8:1 run walk ratio... felt good...

Nice run, Josh.

I coudn't bare the thought of running on a treadmill tonight, so I hit the cold, dark streets of the Atlanta suburbs. Wasn't bad at all. Granted, I'll have to go back and measure my distance.

RUNNING SPEED IMPROVEMENT QUESTION: I need to improve overall pace. This weekend I think I'll work on it at a track. In my younger days, we did what I think was called a fartlek, where a group runs in line around a track and the last person in line continuously sprints to the front. I don't have a group and I really can't tell my real-time speed. HOWEVER, I do have a heart rate monitor. Any suggestions on how much to increase or decrease my heart rate on intervals? For that matter, anyone have any speed workout suggestions?

Mark E.

Edited by meclavea 2008-02-28 8:07 PM

Nice run Josh! Can I tell everyone how nice it is to be back on track training wise from a 2 week unexpected break due to the family and flu Funny how addicting workouts can be both physically and emotionally. The next 4 weeks will be hit hard and heavy since my first race is quickly approaching. Josh - did you sign up for the 1st timers swimming wave?

Night everyone!
Juls

Mark, in order to increase your speed using heart rate you need to be working in your anaerobic zone and “red line” zone. Your anaerobic zone is 80 to 90% of your max HR and training in this zone teaches your body to tolerate lactic acid buildup, helps your body learn to process lactic acid and increases your lactic threshold, the point at which your body starts producing more lactic acid than it can process. You can do this intensity of running doing longer intervals. Speed work is done in the redline zone, which is 90 – 100% of your max HR. This is done for brief intervals.

A simple way to figure out your max HR is to take 220 and subtract your age. The resulting number is your max HR and you then take percentages of that number to figure out your zones.

Here are a few speed workouts that I had posted earlier.

Improve your running, workouts. The interesting thing about running faster is that in order to run faster you have to run faster…ya'll catch that? Seriously, you do have to run faster in order to get faster but there are a few ways you can do it. My preference is to run hills because it can be done at a slower pace and so you are less likely to get injured. Running up the hill builds strength and prepares you for a higher cardio workload and running down the hill builds foot speed, the three things you need to increase running speed. The other thing you can do is track workouts. Here are a couple of my favorite workouts.

Coach's quarters: 800 meter warm up, followed by 2 laps of coach's quarters followed by an 800 meter cool down. A coach's quarter is where you start at the end of the straightaway (the beginning of a curve) on a track and slowly jog the curve first starting at about 50 to 60 % gradually picking up the pace and when you hit the next straightaway your should be running at about 70% and continue to accelerate down the straightaway until you hit about 80 to 85% then round the next curve gradually accelerating to about 95% and then hit the final straightaway and sprint it flat out at 100%. Take a breather for a minute or two and then repeat for a second lap.

800 meter repeats. Simply run 800 meters for a warm up then run 800 meters at about 85 to 90% then run 800 meters cool down then 800 meters at 85 to 90% then 800 meters cool down and you are done.

Hill work and track work should probably be done no more than once a week so maybe one session of hill work and one session of speed work but be careful and pay attention to how your legs are feeling because these activities are very stressful.

Ah yes, those spin instructors talk about the anaerobic threshold all the time, where your body burns sugar and not fat (I think).

Thanks for the repost on the speed workouts! I'll give em a whirl.