Andrew Haberkorn's Group - FULL (Page 11)

I'm pretty much in the same boat with the sprint plans. My normal training run is about 30 minutes and my long run is a little over 40 minutes. I thought about upping the ante and choosing an Olympic distance plan but my swimming ability is just shy of non-existent. I like your idea of maintaining your run and adding intensity, hills, etc., but I'd like to hear what our resident fast guys have to say as well.
-b

I get in the same boat with training plans. I think your approach is perfect considering you are already putting in the miles. You may want to ramp up the higher intensity workouts slowly. I find the higher intensity is more likely to cause pain than the longer duration. So keep the running where you want it, and use the plan to improve the swim and bike. At some point, the plans become more 'guidelines' than strict rules.

@Bendart - No naming of the bike. I barely named my dog My thoughts for your plan are the same as above. If you have the time to continue the volume in one sport while ramping up the other two according to a plan, that's great. One of the biggest issues is that there is only so much time in the day for working out. Glad you're up and about now! Oh yes - there are good exercises regarding breathing in the swim. Total Immersion calls it 'Skating' I think. I'm sure there are videos on YouTube to help.

Congrats on the bike!  That's a solid one, and I'm glad you took the time to get fitted on it.  It really is amazing how much of a difference a bike can make!  I think you might surprise yourself someday when you are able to get up to 15 miles without any issues.  

BT's plans are a great resource for those getting into the sport or looking for some guidance, but you've run into the "flaw" with them - they aren't tailored to you specifically.  I think your personal plan is solid, but would echo others that mentioned you need to add in the speed work slowly.  With intensity comes more pounding on your body.  A lot of times the engine is stronger than the rest of your body, so it is easy to push your legs, etc. harder than they are ready for.  I'd start with one speed workout a week and go from there.

Also, there is a lot to gain by adding mileage if your body can handle it.  Depending on where you are in your training, it might actually make more sense to add more volume vs. intensity.  Again, you have to build slowly here.  Just something to consider as you work this out in your head.
  

I got back on track yesterday - the run was a bit rough since I hadn't done a thing for four days...and now today I have a major migraine as a new challenge.  If I can mostly treat it with ibuprofen, it should ebb a bit by evening and sometimes exercise helps. 

I'm planning on a 45 minute to 1 hour bike. That would be a big deal for me to make it to one hour on there. Ben says that the seat uncomfortableness goes away with time and I'm finding that to be true.  Because of the Ironman video link I'm actually looking forward to tonight's ride ! 

I love checking in with y'all and I'm simply hoping to keep up the consistency of last week and up my minutes.  Last year I was hovering around 350 minutes/week. At this time I'm only about half that.

In terms of nutrition, this week was not a total bust but I was not on program like last week. Wednesday begins a new WW week, so the plan is to get back on track with that as well.



Edited by gcoller 2011-01-18 2:17 PM

Team,

First and foremost, wow!  You guys are all doing a really great job from what I'm reading.  Your dedication to training and consistency will certainly pay off in the long run.  Before sharing my weekend workouts, I wanted to ask the group for topics they would like covered in my weekly (that I've yet to start) write-ups.  Is there a question you have about triathlons in general?  Something race specific?  Training?  Let me know what you'd like me to dive deeper into, and I'll do my best to cover off on all of the inquires throughout the next couple of weeks.

As for my weekend...with the long weekend, came some long workouts.  I'm finally starting to get back into the swing of things, which is good considering my first race as a pro is in March (woah!!!).  

Saturday was actually a relatively easy day.  I only had a swim scheduled for the AM and put in about 3500 meters (long course) with the master's group.  The main set was 4 times through a 200 @ 2:50, 100 @ 1:25 and 4x50s @ :45/:60 (alternating sprint/ez).

Sunday was dedicated to my first "brick" workout of the year.  For those that aren't familiar with the term, it basically means a workout where you incorporate 2 or more of the events in a triathlon.  I went with the bike/run brick.  The bike was an "easy" 2 hours with hills.  That was a cake walk.  I jumped off my bike ready for my 40 minute run.  I was supposed to go easy for 15' then 10k race pace for 15', then cool down.  Things were going beautifully until about 12' into the hard effort.  I had been running ~5:25 pace when the wheels fell off!  Needless to say, I have some work to do if I'm going to hold that (and hopefully faster) for a full 10K.

With the extra day off work, I wanted to push my Monday workouts.  I ended up swimming solo and putting in 5000 yards.  This is my longest swim workout since high school, and something I need to do more often.  

I took about 2 hours to rest before heading out on my run.  I had a 40' run, with 10' warm-up, 25' at 10k pace, 5' cool down.  I was determined to have a better showing vs. the day before.  The warm-up was uneventful (as it should be) and then I hit the gas.  I started out at 5:40 pace to avoid blowing up.  By the end of the run I was holding ~5:15s and felt strong.  I ran about 4.5 miles at 5:31 pace.  Still work to be done, but this was a step in the right direction.

Again, I'm really impressed with all the work you guys/gals are putting in!  Keep it up.  It's definitely inspiring me to push in my workouts.

Drew



 

Ok so beginner ?'s If I am doing a sprint for my first Tri what is a realistic goal as far as time, I will finish. How about gear, I am going to wear wetsuit and wondering, do I wear a trisomy or my tri shorts underneath? I have watched some longer tri's and they seem to have changing huts, are these normal? I don't want to go full Monty at my bike I realize that. So these are a couple that come right to my mind.

now that made me laugh! I haven't seen any huts with the sprint distance, but I have seen more than I'd like to in transition...thanks for not wanting to be that person!!!

So am I supposed to wear bike/run suit under wetsuit? Glad I could make you laugh though

Generally for sprints and olympic distances, you wear the same thing for the whole race.  I wear a tri suit under my wetsuit.  You can swim, bike and run with it.  It has minimal padding.

 The HIM and IM races, since they are considerably longer, usually have a changing tent, where you can change into dry clothes and such.  Some people even change into regular bike shorts for the bike portion, then fresh clothes for the running portion at the longer distances.  It really is personal preference.

Edited by Dixbry 2011-01-18 5:23 PM

so, I'm working in the school garden today and chatting with an 8 year old classmate of my daughters.  He tells me he just had a swim meet last weekend, and got a trophy in one of his races.  I ask him what event, and how fast.  50 free, 27 seconds!!  Holy carp!  fast little f-er.

My 6 year old can just about take me in the 25.  It's very depressing.

OMG! - I'm sorry I missed this.  Congratulations on your new bike!  Canondale's are sweet.  A friend of mine can ride circles around me on an old CAAD3.  Your's is like 6 levels more awesome.  Do you have any pictures of it?

I'm going to piggyback on Bert's question about wet suits - If you're competing in a sprint and the water isn't too cold, how important is wearing a wet suit?  I've been looking at the previous years' swim times from the triathlons that I'm going to do and it looks like the fast guys finish the swim in 7 minutes and the slowest people are close to 20 minutes.  Let's say it'll take me 12 minutes (just picking a number), is a worth wearing a wet suit for that amount of time?  I'm not anti-wet suit.  I've never even tried one on.  Just looking for opinions.  What's a decent wet suit cost?  I can look them up online but I have no idea what I'm looking at.

Today was a rest day for me.  We got several inches of snow this morning and then... wait for it... RAIN!  Not a good combination.  Just a big bucket of muck out there.  

I hope everyone is doing well.  Keep doing your thing.

Dang - for me the hood, doors, engine - well everything would have been falling off in the first quarter mile.


Regarding what to wear under a wetsuit – I would wear the tri suit for half ironman and less. You will not have any problems. Plus, have you ever tried putting a cycling jersey on a wet body – take about time consuming and frustration. When I did a full ironman I put on nice bike shorts for the ride – It added a minute or two to 11 hours but I had no discomfort.

Also, a wetsuit will always be faster. The worse you are at swimming the more it will help you. You will not lose the time in transition.


I am off to my first Masters Swim class in about 10 weeks. Besides the getting up at 4:30Am this might be brutal.

I have always heard that if it is legal for you to wear a wetsuit, that you should.  It will only help you.  Well, as long as you swim in it before the race and get comfortable in it.

Mine gives me a little extra buoyancy, which is comforting for me in open water.  I suspect that because it aids a little in floating, you remain a bit more streamlined while swimming with it.

Also, I once swam into smack of Jellyfish (benefit of having a 1st grader is that you know Jellies swim in smacks), and despite being completely grossed out, I didn't get stung while wearing my suit.

I originally rented mine from an online source.  I really liked one of the rentals, so I paid extra fee to keep it.  The price was about half of a new one and I knew that it fit well.  (At least it did 40 pounds ago - but I'll be there again soon.)

I am super excited to ride it, but these short days don't cooperate for a bike ride after work..I will get a pic together to post this weekend. 6 degrees more awesome!! I should fricking fly then!
Looks like the weather was perfect for a day off! Hope you enjoyed it.

Thanks for the input.  I'll definately take the speed easy, something along the lines of some random pickups in the middle of one run at first.  I really don't think I can add any more volume, I'm pretty much at my limit for avaliable hours in the day right now.  I'm not 100% sure I can even keep my wednesday run after the pool opens next week and I add swimming back in, I may be dropping my run volume whether I like it or not just on a time management perspective...  we'll see.

Nutrition makes such a HUGE difference for me, physically mentally and emotionally.  I went hardcore last week, cut out all sugar, cooked eggs and fresh veggies for breakfast, lean meat sandwich for lunch, and a small simple dinner.  Less food, less junk, lots of fruits and veggies, lots of water, and no food after 7pm.  I feel great!  When I'm off the food wagon it's hard to remember just how good it feels to be on it.  It is definately more work, but oh so worth it! 

I'd love to hear something about how you go about planning your year.  To what extent you plan out your races, how many races to do, how many "A" races, and how to go about setting up a training 'schedule' around those races.  As an example, if you've got multiple races over three months in the summer, how do you go about planning recovery and then trianing between the races?  What kind of volume/intensity do you use between races compared to the buildup period leading up to the first big race of the season?  That sort of season planning stuff.



Getting nervous yet?   What race is it?

My personal experience with wetsuits is that I swim about 10-15 seconds faster per 100 with mine on.  I'm about a 2:00 swimmer, so not very good.  I think the better swimmer you are, the less the wetsuit helps though.  Anyway, it takes at most an added 30 seconds to take the wetsuit off, so math wise any swim over 300 yards I should wear the wetsuit.  Basically, as the saying goes, if it's wetsuit legal you should wear it.

In my first tri, I wore tri shorts and a seperate tri top.  This worked OK, but I've got a little bit of a belly and it sorta poked out when the top would roll up a bit...  After that I bought a one piece trisuit on sale, I like that a LOT better.  Helps hold all my flab in place.  fwiw, I bought it about a year ago on www.bonktown.com   If you don't already know about them, well, I'm sorry for introducing you! 

I'll piggy back on what a couple people have said regarding wearing a wetsuit in shorter races.  Rule of thumb - ALWAYS wear it. ha!  But seriously, as may have pointed out, a rough estimate is that you save ~10 secs per hundred by wearing a wetsuit.  Hypothetically, you should be able to get out of a wetsuit in <30 seconds (minimum) in transition.  So unless your race is so short that your transition offsets that time savings, wear it.  FYI - there aren't many races where the swim is short enough for that.

In terms of wetsuit suggestions, this is one where buying used is tough unless you can try the suit on in person.  Just as with a bike purchase, fit is key.  A wetsuit that is too big will take on more water than you want, and a wetsuit too tight may make moving/breathing harder than it should be.  *Side note - a wetsuit will loosen up when you get in the water, so it should be pretty tight when trying it on.

Since fit is key, I always tell people to go one of two ways; 1) Try the suit on at your local tri/sporting good store, or 2) order from a company that has great customer service and will gladly accept exchanges.

If you are looking at purchasing in store or in-person used, there are far too many companies out there that make great suits for me to tell you what is best.  Xterra, Blueseventy, 2XU, TYR, etc.  If you find one that fits, it's likely going to be great for you.

If you are looking to purchase online, I highly recommend Xterra (full disclosure - I may be starting a partnership with them in 2011).  They seem to have the most bang-for-your-buck with their suits and constantly have 50% off sales on all of their models (it's hard to call it a sale since they always have it going on).  They are well known for having some of the best customer service in the industry and will gladly take your suit back if it doesn't fit and send you another one.  I raced in their entry-level "Vortex 3" last season and LOVED it.  For the price, I don't think I could have found anything better.  They introduced the "Volt" this year which is now their entry-level suit at $99, I believe.  It is sleeveless, but looks to be a solid suit.  

Which brings me to my last point on wetsuits (unless anyone has more questions).  Sleeveless vs. full length?  Which is better?  My *personal* preference is full length, so I would suggest to go that route.  Reason being, not only is their more material, which means more buoyancy, but it seemed to help keep my arms from tightening in cold water.  For whatever reason, when I swim in a short sleeve in cold water, my arms instantly feel heavy.  This disappeared when I started using a full length.  

The most common argument against full-length is that it restricts arm motion (this is usually coming from swimmers in my expereince!).  Honestly, the materials companies use now are so soft and flexible, that I don't feel like I am being restricted at all.  So at the end of the day, unless you find that a sleeveless suit is best, I would recommend the full length.  Take price, training and racing into consideration though.  If you are on a tight budget, or only train/race in relatively warm water, a sleeveless might make more sense.

If anyone does have interest in Xterra, let me know and I'll make sure you are taken care of (getting the best price, etc).  As mentioned, I've had some conversations with them recently and it looks like I may be starting a partnership with them for 2011.  I reached out to them based on my experience, so I do actually recommend them - it's definitely not a case of "they are paying me to say this."  I'm not fast enough for that!

Hope that is helpful!

Drew

No worries on not adding more mileage if time doesn't allow!  It's good that you are able to set your schedule and stick to it - it will help with consistency.  When you first start adding speed in, you could do something as simple as some short fartleks.  When I'm just starting to add speed in, I'll throw something like 15 minutes of fartleks into the middle of a 30-40 min run.  That 15 minute effort can be 2 mins at 10K pace, 2 mins off.  Really, you can mix it up however you'd like.  It could be 1 minute on, 2 off, etc.  It's a great way to get your legs going, but not beat yourself into the ground.