Newbz' group is FULL (Page 11)

training is going well here and i'm moving into full time training this week:-)
my general fitness type workouts/training schedule went well, and starting tomorrow i move into full time workouts heading into the season.

had a great 10 mile trail run in the mud and rain this morning.

starting this week running mileage will be up over 40mpw, cycling is adding back in starting in the 5-6 hour range, and hopefully new gym membership will be good to go for swimming:-)



Everyone keep up the good work.

For the 25K race in New Orleans I had to get up at 3:10 AM. I thought to myself – Who’s idea was it to do these races. Such an early morning after a Saints playoff win – remember, you have to celebrate these – this has only been the 3rd win in history.

So, we got to New Orleans at 7:00 AM about an hour from the start of the race. I was definitely not feeling good for the race. I was a little scared about the distance. Sure I had run 15 miles before but I have never raced the distance. I was unsure of my pacing.

I decided to set the GPS watch for the same time as last week – 6:55 minutes per mile. This would be a challenge. This 25K race (15.5 mile race) is on a levy along the Mississippi River. This means that there will be a wind – a strong wind. I started out and tried to follow the virtual trainer and I was successful for the most part. The wind was brisk but tolerable. I soon found myself in a group of strong girl runners. I tucked in behind them to break the wind. I kept with them for several miles. They started to break up and slow just a bit and I had to take the wind on by myself. This was brutal. I got caught up in no man’s land. I trudged along. As I neared the half way point the wind got even stronger. It was in your face. Another runner caught up with me. He was wearing a 70.3 New Orleans shirt from last year. I started to get chatty. We talked about the race for a couple of miles. I asked him his age to make sure that I would not get beat out – he was 30 – 34.

As we rounded the turn around the wind just stopped. There was no wind on the way back – the air was still – it almost got hot. As we talked he said he was from Hattiesburg – we had not really looked at each other but I quickly realized that this was Chris S. – a local triathlete – I know this guy. This is a small world.

I had been chasing a guy in a purple Louisiana shirt for all of the race and he was a few hundred feet ahead of me. Chris and I had run along for a couple of miles but I picked up the pace with 4 miles to go – Chris fell back a little bit.

I was on my own but my pace quickened. I was making good time and gaining on the man in purple – just not gaining quick enough. According to the virtual trainer guy I had lost 200 feet to him at the turn around but I was making time now. At mile 11 or so I broke even with the virtual trainer guy. And I just tried to put more time into him. I never caught the guy in purple – he finished 15 seconds ahead of me but I did put 300+ feet into the virtual guy. I finished 10th overall with a 1:46: xx time for the 25k averaging 6:53 minutes per mile. I saw one of the girls after the race and thanked her for breaking the wind the on the way out – she got a kick out of that!

So true!  I think this each time I get up so early to do a race.  Why am I doing this to myslef??

BTW -- enjoy the Saints' run.  I'm looking forward to watching them plan MN next weekend.  I'm from Green Bay, so have some interest in seeing how Favre plays.  Not sure if I should be pulling for or against him!

nice job on the run, how many races have you done in the past month or two?

I'm excited to get back into it and really start training and seeing where i can take the running this year!!

Sweet race James!  I am hoping to be able to pin up some strong races this year and seeing you doing well is helping me with additional motivation.  As soon as I can get my TT in for the run I should be able to apply some of theat info to training and racing.  Hearing you talk about the racing and HR you're running at, I am pretty sure I am not pushing myself in my races.

I just gave myself a pretty hard workout on the bike and it was a learning experience.  Since I haven't done a TT in either the run or bike I was not sure what I would be able to accomplish with some"threshold work.  I did find out I couldn't sustain a mid 160"s HR for 6 min. on the bike.  I am going to get my TT's done soon, maybe the run tomorrow but I'll have to see how I feel.  My legs are a bit sore from the 8 miles yesterday and I did kind of hammer the bike for a short time tonight.

David, I'm glad to hear your training is going well.  It seems like you have been answering a lot of questions form us newbie's and not had much training time.

Besides me has anyone else heard of the book I recommended to Quintan?  Swim, Bike, Run?  It is written by Wes Hobson, Clark Campbell and Mike Vickers.  If so I was wondering what anyone else thought of it.

training up till now has actually been where i would like/am happy with it, i just spend too much time online when in the apartment. whenever i am working on workouts, editing photos, etc, i have this open so i am here to answer questions. up to this point the goal in workouts is more to get general fitness up and get myself ready for a full training load. from here on out stuff gets mroe structured and i start down my plan (similar to some of you guys working off of plans) for the season.

Starting tomorrow, workouts are going to become more structured, and days off are dropping from 1-2 per week to every 7-14 days as needed. total volumes come up, some harder work is slowly going to get added in.

assuming costs work out, next race will be a HILLY 7 mile trail race next weekend, if not i'll be running a 3 mile TT next weekend to see where things stand.


as for the book, i have heard of but not read it yet. other good ones (and you can find most at local libraries) are: the perfect distance: long course (or half IM), its by gordo bryn and someone else. even if you are not going longer its a good book, more science based but if you are into that its got a lot of good info (i dont agree with gordo on a lot of stuff but its good too learn diff approaches).
another good one is triathlon for dummies (all of those books they put out have a lot of good info and are fun to read). check out your library and see what they offer. also dont count out the single sport books, often they contain some great info that will let you know a bit more about hte training in each sport than the tri books cover.

Happy Monday everyone. I had a great week of training last week and completed all but 1 swim workout. Yesterday I went for a long ride with a small group and we ended up at 70 miles. That is my longest ride to date. It was a tough ride as I was with a pretty strong group, but it's suppose to be easy right?

We averaged just over 19mph and though it was tough, it was doable. We had some pretty strong winds to deal with. I had not 1, but 2 flats on this ride. That sucked. It was only the second time I've got a flat while on a ride and if I recall correctly, in one of my previous posts, I talked about never getting flats and that I probably jinxed myself and guess what, I did. We were 40 miles into the ride as I have never changed a tire on the ride before, it was interesting to say the least. We were on a 8 mile stretch and we split up as a group and were to meet up at the end so when the riders behind me passed they made sure I had what I needed and kept going. 20 minutes later I was on my way. After stopping for that long, it was not easy to get back up to speed. Some of the group came back for me and got me back up to the front.

I got behind on my nutrition a bit and hit a wall  and lost all energy. We were stopping for a scheduled stop and I was able to catch up and finished strong. Overall good training ride and I learned from it. With the schedule I'm on, I should be well prepared for Florida 70.3.

Craig – As you have just learned – never talk about FLATS or INJURIES. NEVER! I did a lot of run mileage over the holidays and in the middle of a 15 mile run I had a friend say “It is amazing you haven’t been injured these last couple of weeks." I could have socked him in the nose. I’m injury free but – come on…

Dirk – I have always raced by heart rate. It has allowed for me to not go out too hard and to continue pushing hard during the run. For the past 6 weeks I have raced by pace. This is new to me but I have been able to race harder. I think seeing a sky high heart rate in the past has probably held me back. These last few races I have picked a pace that is just out of reach and tried to beat it. I have been successful so far! About the book – I have read that book but I do not recall the specifics. I have read about 50 books on triathlon and many on the individual sports. I am kind of a junky with this. I have 3 new books on my night stand right now – "Racing Weight" and "Brain Training for Runners" both by Matt Fitzgerald and another book by Jack Daniels. The Idiots guide to Triathlons is a good book – it covers all of the basics and has some generic training plans. I have also read all of the Training Bible’s. Good information but they were hard for me to build a training plan fromthe books - maybe too much information. One of my favorite books is "The Lore of Running" by Tim Noakes. This is a 1000 page phonebook sized running reference that offers scientific backed running advice (Tim Noakes is a doctor and researcher). It also has some very interesting history fo the sport. This is not always an easy read but it is entertaining. I really enjoy reading about science and sports and this book is great in my opinion. However, it is not for the faint of heart. Your public library probably has one of the editions.

Wilky – I live in Hattiesburg Mississippi and work at The University of Southern Mississippi. This is where Favre played. The number 4 decorates the stadium. This is also where Favre lives. We were talking the other day about how many FAINTS fans there are here. We love our Saints and we love our Favre. There are so many number 4 jerseys around this town – they have just changed colors the past few years. Lots of purple 4’s – where previously there was no purple. It will be very interesting with Minnesota driving in the fourth quarter for the game winning touchdown – Who Dat Gunna beat them Saints? – Maybe Favre. Now speculating further – If it comes down to a Colts / Saints game – that will be interesting also – The Manning’s are a storied athletic family down here in Louisiana…

David – I have been racing a lot. I have found that the race atmosphere has really allowed me to put some challenging runs together. I actually do not think that I am that much faster but I am racing harder and finally racing smarter. I have done 5 races in 36 days and every race has been solid - I smashed my 1/2 PR by nearly 8 minutes and this 25 k was just a couple of seconds off of that pace. My half marathon split during this 25 k would have been about 45 seconds slower and this was a much harder race with the wind. My next race is a 30k (18.64 miles) in two weeks. That race should solidify my marathon pacing goals. If I can run this 30k in the low 6:50’s then I might be able to maintain a sub 7 during the marathon. I would be ecstatic. Now that is a lofty goal (3:03 marathon) and just out of reach at this time. But I am working on it.

the perfect distance is not a light read at all, and there is likely way more info in there than most people will ever need, but its also a great resource.

tri for dummies is a lot of fun along with some great info.

swimming wise if you can find anything by doug stern (sp?) it will help a lot, or look for some of his videos online.

I got outside on the bike for the first time this year. It was an easy 30 miles. My legs were tired but I loved every minute of it!

Does anyone else here struggle with early AM workouts?  Any tips?  

It seems to take me about twice as long to warm up in the AM, and I struggle doing intervals at that time of the day.  I'm wondering if I just need to toughen up, or if this is a common problem.  It's a really convenient time of day to get a workout in, but it takes so much longer to get into the workout, that I can really only do easy workouts that time of day.

I don't have this problem on race day, but I think that's due to the extra adrenaline. 

Heck right now I would just take a couple of days I could GET a workout in.  I had to work a couple hours OT tonight to finish a job, got home and had to fix a tail light, headlight and replace wiper blades.  Of course the blade were done in 10 seconds but the I dropped a socket in a crevice in my wife's car and it took 10 minutes just to get it out, then my daughters car needed a new headlight.  Problem with my daughters car was the good light was so far out of adjustment I never did get it right yet and the way the put the headlights into the bodywork of the cars now makes it crap to get the shell out.

Enough of that junk though.  I used to run a lot in the mornings when I took my daughter to her Saturday HS swim practices at 6:30 AM but I haven't had to do that for a year and def got out of the habit.  I always did my long runs on those days 8-12 miles.  I don't like them now, nor did I like them then.  I am like you wiky, I can't get warmed up quickly at all.  I never have done any early morning workweek training because I get up at 5 AM already to be at work at 6 AM.  If I got up any earlier I wouldn't have a family very long because they wouldn't live with me and the lack of sleep.  What works for me is the 4-10 hr days that are my regular work weeks.  That allows me to get 2 workouts in 2 days a week, so most of the time everything works out for me.  Pretty much how you described those mornings is me too.

I can bike and swim in the morning (assuming i can get out in the first place, but then again i could prob bike in my sleep), but running is a whole diff story. once i have been up and moving around i am good, which is why i normally run in the later afernoon or night.


had my first faster run workout of the year so far, did 3x1 mile in the middle of a 7 miler and held 10k pace for each one (5:50ish).

I actually like to exercise in the morning but it does take a little bit of time to warm up. Once the light comes back in the morning I will start up a morning group ride twice a week. These can get pretty brisk. I also can do the 6 mile run to work in the morning. Sometimes these can be quality but usually they are just miles. However, knowing that I got the workout in before the start of the day is very valuable to me – you never know what will pop up and steal your time. I think the sluggishness is due to nutrition. It is just hard to get a real meal in my belly with enough time for it to digest before hitting the trail.

Also, I get run down during the day and sometimes just have no motivation after work – this is where making commitments with friends pays off. I will not miss a scheduled workout and leave someone holding the bag – I will ditch myself.

David – you are a fast man!

for me running in the morning is more a function of how long i have been awake and moving. (which is why i think races are ok because you have o get up and drive there mill around, etc.

I can work out running wise at least without eating no issue, and often run better like that. i think for a lot of people they just have a time of day they function better. i've never been a morning person at all though.

Yeah the morning runs for me aren't held back by eating either.  I don't like to eat before a morning run, or at least a meal.  I will eat a Clif bar or something light but def not a meal.  I did however eat a meal after my daughters swim meet tonight and came home changed and ran on the mill.  It was probably less than an hour between the meal and the run and I usually would not do that either. 

I was encouraged by my run tonight too.  I ran 3 miles in 22:30 which is a really good time for what I would normally do this distance.  Another good thing is my HR stayed at a high but comfortable rate (avg. 159).  I had some left and it is giving me more motivation to get the TT in as soon as I can calm the schedule down some.  With this kind of HR and the energy I had left,  I may be able to put up some race times this year that will be stinkin fast for me. I'm gettin fired up already. 

Incidentally, my daughter PR'ed her 500 Free tonight at the meet (6:20) and I could tell she had some left.  She and I talked about it later and she agreed she hadn't left it all in the pool.  She thinks her coach is going to put her in the 500 for the Divisional meet coming up in a few weeks.  I'm going to help push her as much as I can but I think she'll do a good job no matter.

I actually like to race a lot too, before this year i raced a ave of 16 multisport races + a few running/cycling. This past season was a bit lighter but this coming season is going to be very full with two long course weekends (both TTTs) 1-3 halfs, a long course duathlon, and a few sprints. hopefully my body decides to hold up through all of it.

On a completely none-triathlon note, what do you guys like to do outside of tris, hobbies, fun, etc?

I LOVE to cook, grew up in a family of chefs.

By far my largest hobby/hopefully job soon outside of triathlon though is photos and photography.
Here is a bit of what i have been doing over the past few years or so (click older posts to move back through pages):
Fine art photos:
http://davidsavoiephotography.blogspot.com/

Sports:
http://davidsavoiesports.blogspot.com/

And a fairly recent project:
http://cornfedkillaz.blogspot.com/

I completed my Yasso 800’s last night at the track. I have been working my way up to 10 repeats right around 3:00 minutes. I started to fast and then dialed it back a little. I met my goal. This morning I did get a swim in – pretty slow. In fact much slower than Dirk’s daughter. But I am working on it and I think my speed will come back once I start scheduling the swim 3x per week.

David – I was a fine art major in college. I really like your portraits from 2007. I was really into sculpture and ceramics and after college moved into photography – so much easier on the wallet and portable. I did not need an entire studio. Also I enjoy documenting things and the lens definitely lends itself. I have not taken very many photographs – I lost my subjects and motivation but I have been telling myself I need to get back into it – funny enough I really like the way sports and fashion met. These are HDR photos but I still like them – I am sure you have seen them in all of the magazines - http://www.johnsegesta.com .

I work in computers and like to program some – trying to join sports with technology. I like to compare myself to the field in my races and write scripts that will harvest the data and compare my results to the top whatever of the field. I can see exactly how I compared against the competition in granular detail on the exact day in each discipline. I am a numbers guy.

i've seen his site before, amazing photos and one of the few people that uses HDR and cross processing effects on sports/people.

James, I am hoping my daughter's 500 time gets much quicker and provides more embarrassment to her fat old man who floats down the lane out of breath, with arm floaties on.  Both my girls make their daddy proud but I can relate to my oldest better because she enjoy's athletics most.  She's saying she going to swim with me in the HS off season too.  If she does I think we'll be able to help push each other to get better. 

I had a fairly good swim tonight but I was nervous about getting a lane with only 2 lap lanes opened.  As it turned out there were only a few people there and I was able to get into a lane with no problems.  The workout incorporated some speedwork, as I have been doing for all of my shorter swims, and a couple of 500's.   One of the 500's was done with intent to be under just 8:00 but ended up at about 7:45, the other (2nd one) was to be a bit faster and it was slightly faster than the second one at 7:38.  It seems after dong speedwork that my 500 time is quicker than I would be able to do without doing speedwork, any correlation or is it my imagination.

nope, swimming faster make you faster, plain and simple.

for two years i treated swimming like running, just get in and go, with one day of drills. got a bit faster and more comfortable in the water. Decided heading into my 3rd season i didn't want to be a slow swimmer anymore, cut out all the longer easy stuff (since then a year and a half ago i ahve no swim over 500 straight in a pool more thna 6 times). normal intervals now are between 25 and 200yr. with a few over that. main sets of workouts once i am swimming again are inthe 1500-3000 range, all shorter intervals. doing that for a year knocked 3 min off my 750m teim, 5 off my 1500, and 8 off my 2000m

its all about how far you swim fast.

I was just surprised after killing myself doing the 50's at sprint pace that I would be able to knock time off a 500.  My HR felt like it was extremely high and I was doing some serious panting.  I took about a minute and a half break before starting the 500 so I figured there would be some recovery but I didn't figure as much recovery though. 

I will be doing my long (time wise) swim tomorrow and will do some 200's as my main set and I HATE the longer sets because they kill.  They do more to kick the trash out of me than about anything I do for all of my training.  As much as I hate doing speedwork for running I think the pool is what kicks my tail the most.