THE SLAYER RULES-FULL Up (Page 11)

Great advice Slayer and I think everyone on here struggles with balancing work, family and any sort of long distance training. For me i am only building up to 70.3 this year and for me the goal is to get 80 % of my training done in the early morning. This means 5-30AM Swims, 6AM Runs on the weekend and 6-30Am bikes on the weekend. Even my longest bike ride 4-5hrs i will be back home by 10Am and still have the whole day with the family if I can move. Wife has been understanding so far but it took her a whole year and a half to get used to the idea that training will be taking away some family time.

Point being train early AM if possible it reduces a lot of stress and it only takes a month to get used to waking up at 4-45AM

On another note today was the first morning I swam in about 2 months. Did over 1000 yards but slow pace about 2min per 100. I have to put in a lot more swimming in so will be building that up. Had a good run yesterday (Sunday) as well so overall happy with my training this weekend. Slowly ramping it up in Z2 but it will take me few wees to get used to adding the swim and bike to the mix since i've just been running.

Edin

Don't worry. I will get to those issues.

Run.

Run was my failure at Coz. I got off the bike feeling fine. I ran the first 3 miles at a better than 9 min/mile pace. I was so thankful to be off the bike I thought the run would be a breeze. At about 3.5 miles my feet began to hurt. Every step was excruciating.  I blame this on my shoes and lack of training. I switched to a lighter shoe. Big mistake. This year I will wear my trainers.. For nutrition I simply ate and drank what they provided. Pretzels were my favorite.

The talk of getting buy in from significant others makes me grateful that my wife also does tris.  Im currently trying to convince her that next year will be an IM year.

Tried again to run this weekend, still experiencing knee pain, so Im going to take a couple more days off and hope it takes care of itself.  Replacing runs with swims, but Im itching to get back out on the trails.

I'm back!  Sorry, kids, crazy week.  Here's my vow to my mentor group: No more excuses!  I've gotta train and I've gotta report and not make any excuses not to.  Boom!

I followed my plan okay last week, but I'm really ready for it this week.  Today was a rest day.  I went on a really fun trail run with my pig ninjas Saturday that was just gorgeous and super motivating. I was slow, but didn't feel too tired afterward.

Bad news: Yesterday was an unintentional rest day involving all-day vomiting thanks to the wild Saturday night we had involving a mechanical bull, bad food and way too much booze.  No more partying for this girl!  My abs and back are still sore from the heaving.

Good news: when I eat paleo (no grains, lots of healthy protein and produce), my acid reflux goes away.  When I eat any type of grain, it comes back.  Crazy but I'm happy to have found this out!  The weight is coming down, slowly but surely.  Have maybe 5 pounds left.  I also feel very motivated about swimming. The coach is completely nuts, so of course I love him!

Here's to a solid training week everyone!

nerdjock is baaaaaaaaaaack! yakker! good work on the weight loss but perhaps there are nicer ways to do it?

Peter: what kind of run approach are you going to take with your coach's input?

Vibratingp00 be careful! rushing back hurts in the long run, no pun intended. We all know that but the pressure builds and we rush back and mess up all the healing that took place...

I made my little time today count 5x800 at 6:22 on the tread with 400 rest at 7:41. Shanks is sprinkling some V02 work in amongst the volume. Taper for the ultra trail race on 28 Jan starts  next week. only a 4 hour trail run lined up with jbyce this Friday! that knocks off a half hour...yes!

Bring it y'all!!!!

In response to Peter:

What shoes do you wear?  Do you wear any orthotics?

I've found that liquid nutrition works really well for me on the bike.  I used (and use) Infinit and it's really great.  No complaints AT ALL...and I'm picky

You mentioned that you biked everywhere but are looking to focus on your run this time around.  Have you tried running to your errands?  I made excuses to run everywhere.  Run to brunch, to the market, etc.  Sometimes if it was far away, I would run in one direction and meet someone there to take me home.  

Family buy-in:  This is a tough one.  What if you commit to x number of family only activities per week?  Maybe every Sunday the family goes to brunch and does family stuff all day?  You could fit a long run in super early before family time begins.  Or a weekly date night with your wife?  That way she gets personal attention.  Maybe you could print out your training calendar, with the workouts scheduled at a certain time so your family knows what's going on and can plan around it?

I hear complaints about how IM training dominates my life.  Not just my time, but my focus and my thoughts, as well.  Of course, if I'm not training, I hear this about work, as well.  It's so easy to become obsessed with it.  It's good for us all to strive for balance...but not if a mechanical bull is involved.  One of the ways I've found to balance this is that most of my friends in SD are also triathletes, so I get a lot of my social interaction along with my training time.  I also schedule regular dates with my honey.  It gets harder once the fatigue sets in, but I'm going to try really hard this year.

I disagree.  I think you can train well but also have life balance.  Of course, you're not going to win the IM and if that's your focus or you're trying to KQ, then you probably can't have balance.  However, if you're an AGer and you're looking to have a solid race that you're satisfied with, I think it's doable.   If you schedule every single workout, and get it done early, you can have family dinner every night, have a date night each week, etc.  It's really all about time management and prioritizing what's important to you.  For me, the key is getting everything done early in the morning.  I also have to focus really hard at work to get everything done so I don't have to work on the weekends (as most in my profession do).  I also spend a lot of time on Sundays getting food prep for the week done so we can sit down to dinner every night and talk.  A huge disclaimer, though, I don't have kids.  That adds a whole new level of difficulty to the situation, but I still think it's possible.  Of course, I grew up in a home with a single mother who worked 3 jobs while going to school full time and never felt neglected. Perhaps the multi-tasking ability is genetic .  Most people I know have way more time than they think they do...but a lot of that time is wasted on crap, like TV or doing nothing.  To be balanced we have to use our time wisely.  Off my soapbox now.

I'll let you all know how my strategy works out in July 

yes without a doubt kids make it harder and so do high maintenance spouses and demanding jobs. put it altogether and your best shot is to shoot to just complete it in a solid way.

my thinking is that you are going to do it, go all in but not a lot of folks agree with that. its much less pressure the other way but i think i am leaarning that you can shift cognitively expectations to make things easier on yourself. i like your suggestions though to help the family buy in. sometimes you really need to just have a serious chat and decide if they are in or out. if out then "its not gonna happen" per Peter.

for all you mentees, i think i reached the limit with my fam. thats why im taking the year off from IM. but they said go for it in 2013!

My wife does also but don't underestimate the toll it can have on your relationship. When you are hitting the big volumes during the the final builds you spend as much time recovering. Normal chores and household duties get neglected.

The family thing can be difficult. I try to do most of my workouts when everyone else is asleep. This means getting up at silly o'clock some days but this was my choice to try ironman so it should be me that makes the sacrifices. I'm fortunate that i work only 10 mile from home so i can do the commute either on foot or on the bike. Although this is difficult at the moment with the weather being quite bad.

Just nailed my 1st weeks training with the exception of 1 run so i'm pleased with that.

I donnt wear orthotics except in my ski boots. I wear Sacouny Guide 3 for long runs. The guy from the shoe store convinced me to try Kinervas. I like the shoe but they just don't offer enough cushioning. I have been using the Kinervas more frequently during training but will go back to the Guide 3 for my long efforts.  

As far as running goes, I have really upped my frequency and volume. Running errands is tougher do to time and not having a good way to carry stuff on my nasty, sweaty body. I have made a habit of running to work

Taking a year off IMs now will allow you to do IMs for many years.  It's important to take a break before the fam says never again!  The all or nothing mentality is something I think we all deal/struggle with.  It comes with the Type A personalities that most of us tri peeps have.  I know I have a perfection complex.  Tris are actually a way for me to deal with not having to be the best all the time.  It's humbling to get my azz kicked and I've told myself that I'm doing this because it's fun, not because I have to be the best.  In every other aspect of my life, I have to be the best.  Best scientist, best cook, best dressed, etc.  It's completely nuts and not sustainable.  I work hard at training, I enjoy it and I love to race.  I'm not gonna win, though, and that's okay to me.

I guess, ultimately, we all have to decide what we're willing to put it, what we expect out of it and why we're doing it.  This differs for all of us and that's what makes it such a great group.

Jbyce is jordan byce on this mentor list. we are running an ultra trail marathon (50k) together at the end of the month (Mountain Mist in Alabama)

Peter-jordan runs in those kinarvas and loves them. i ran in the guides to get my BQ. love saucony, but have shifted to brooks for regular heavy trainer and use zoot ultra tt for short course tri and zoot ultrakane for longer course and marathons.

Gladiator, what i think you are asking is when is a good time for you to do your first 70.3. if so, we need to know your endurance background again. please re-fresh our minds about what your long course background is.

i came to the sport with a couple years of running under me and did a 70.3 at the end of my 2nd season. I had already run a marathon though. the way i approached it was sprint in the spring, olympic in summer, 70.3 in fall, and IMAZ in Nov. 09. it helps having a wetsuit legal one as your first!

well done silverback25!

ashley makes good points again! the problem is when you go sub 14/13/12 what have you, ashley. when you can taste the sub 1030s or the 9s like i can it makes you forget that life is more important than the hamster wheel that is our sport. thankfully, imcda smacked some sense into me or id still be chasing my tail!

Ran 4 half-marathons, preparing for 1st full marathon. Longest run 31k in 03h:07min. Best Half-Marathon race 01:45:15. Working on swimming technique...

I def think there is a balancing act that has to be addressed when training for longer events. Luckily with my job, I can plan my day accordingly around most of my workouts. If this can't be done, I go to bed early and knock it out before the wife wakes up.

More so than time constraints, I will say financial restraints are more of my problem. Not as much a not having the finances as much as a I ROI type thing. I don't think it is fair to my wife to spend one to two hundred a month on coaching. I love this sport, but I much rather take that money and travel with my wife. My training consists of my watch, my shoes, my bike, my goggles and my heart. I can be a MOP racer devising my own training plans and training on perceived effort. Sure, at the end of the day, hiring a coach and training with power/heart rate, would make me faster. But to me, I have to ask myself the question is that what I really want. Currently, I am content with going out and busting my and racing vs myself as opposed to others in my AG.

Peter-Kinvaras, Love em. Best shoes I have ever owned. Put about 350 miles on current pair since Nov. I will say that shoes are very person specific. Once you find ones you like, ride em until they change the design.

well said Jordan. if you can shut off the external challenges and make them internal you are much better off. in other words, trying to compete with yourself vs compete with others. im an external challenger that is doing my best to transition but its not easy. i just love to compete against others too much. its in my nature like i bet its in a lot of our natures.

gladiator, if i was coaching you, just based on the surface info i have at my disposal and assuming that you can train 12-18 hours per week or more if need be, i think the end of 2013 would be fine for a 70.3 or 140.6 provided its swimsuit legal. i think you could get done one sooner but it might be ugly. it all depends on your training time and expectations. thoughts everyone?

I am not a gifted athlete. It was a 2 year plan for me. 1st year was to bridge from Olympic distance to HIM. The second year was to bridge from HIM to Full. I ramped up my training about 6 months before the IM.

As far as time commitment feel free to look at my logs. I was doing 10-15 hours per week. The other thing to remember is after these really long work outs I was spent. I was worthless as far as having enough energy to do anything. I would recover, wake-up and do it again. 

For me it took 100% commitment, any less and I would not have finished. The main reason I am doing it again is I want to have a respectable time. Not KQ but respectable..

A masters class is equivalent to swim team for older swimmers. It is usually led by a swim coach. There are a lot of different formats on how they are run. It's a great way to meet other swimmers and train as a group.

By short segments I mean 10-20 mile rides. It depends on how much you are riding but I have cycling friends tell me you don't really build much endurance until a 2 hour warm up and then ride hard. They also ride 80-90 miles a couple of times weekly. Some even more.

Gladiador, I think if you can do a marathon, you can finish a HIM. Note I did not say compete. I don't think your issue would be the swim or run. Biking would be the key. Get on that bike and ride. You can survive a swim with limited training, same for the run. This is said with the caveat that all you want to do is finish.

whoops i mistyped 12-28. i corrected it to read 12-18. i really think the key to long course is heavy z2 training. i used to think it was more of an equivalent mixture of v02, tempo, and long slow distance. after i ran the whole IMFL mary at 3:53 on a fast bike, and killed the rev3 knox 70.3 back half of the run, i bought in. I still sprinkle the other stuff in but the majority is z2/endurance work. i keep repeating myself because its so important to recognize your key workouts are your long run. long bike, and long swim. thats the most specific workouts to the 70.3/140.6 race courses. be prepared to train alot if you want to be comfortable and finish strong or "solid" as Ashley says.

my bet is y'all will do more long stuff before this IM and see major improvement!

I don't want to sound like I am knocking the shoes but is was not a good decision on my part to pick them up a month or so before the race and run in them a couple of times and then race. I still wear the Kinvaras a lot. I also carry a lot of weight and think I need more cushioning then lighter people