GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 113)

ANNE again -

Ken is a stern taskmaster......but I think I see his point. I have dramatically limited my running when on trips with Lynn that might involve hiking and/or serious walking, just because she would draw and quarter me if I came up halt and lame and couldn't do the designated traipsing with her. Our somewhat tacit agreement is no trips in spring and summer...........and so far that's kind of flying okay, sort of.

As for you and Guelph, that should be okay. It might be tight, but 8 weeks is a pretty good bit of time. And there IS something to be said for resting it between now and the 22nd. That's two weeks, and while you'll lose a bit of fitness in that time, it won't be much. Your aerobic engine should be fine, and your legs will gain a different kind of strength, so I think you should return to running without having to take too many steps backwards.

Guelph is the 20th or so, and Muskoka is, um, five weeks later, so that should be enough time to add on another 5km. (Get those 10 down, the next 5 should be a piece of cake! )

I mentioned to Tracey that I have neuroma concerns, and in the past half hour I've also satrted to worry about my palntar fasciitis. Bad run today, I guess!!

SHAUN again -

Classic is kind of shuffling along, what people do in the "tracks" of groomed trails. The skis stay parallel to each other at all times.....and ideally both of them pointing straight ahead!

Skate skiing is what you see Olympians, and lesser hot-shots, do. The skis are almost always "vee-ed", and the motion comes from a lateral push-off. Each year I tell myself that THIS is the year I learn to skate-ski.....but then I hear this little high, squeaky voice coming from my groin that pleads with me to reconsider such rash thoughts. And I do. Until the next year. Ad nauseum.

There are more or less specialized skis for skate-skiing, so what you probably have are ones that are best for classic. (For which your groin is already thanking you!)

I will locate my copy of Fitz and check those plans. A few thoughts:
(1) Longer bikes are probably fine. If anything can safely "go longer" it's the bike -- no shoulder issues as with swimming, no overall pounding as with running.
(2) He MIGHT want one or the other to happen first, but in the real world things can't always happen that way. There are certain times when one specific workout HAS to follow another, but I doubt he has any that are set up that way -- except for the bricks. But bricks are usually one workout divided into two tightly-fitting parts -- not like a separate run and a separate swim.
(3) Hmmm. Thought I had a third, but can't think of it now!

As for the morning swims, you might find that that suits you really well. Some people adjust to early morning workouts quite quickly, while others never quite pull it off. Give yourself a couple of weeks to see if your diurnal clock can make the necessary adjustments. Or you can be like SteveA with his REALLY early workouts, in which case he is messing more with his nocturnal clock!

Finally, well done on the otdoors run pacing! That might be an indicator that you've done enough of this sort of thing indoors so that now you have a good sense of what sort of pace you are holding, sans monitors and read-outs. That's a fine evolutionary step!

I just discovered Tri-zone.com.  LOVE THEM!  Tried out the tri tops through them - they're in LA, so it's next-day shipping at no charge and prices seem good.  I ordered 6 tops, will keep one and return the rest and never have to go into a store.

I was thinking of getting my inhaler refilled - I'm definitely going to now.  The elevation at IMSG has me concerned, so it might be good to have that puppy in the back of my jersey in case I need to open up the lungs.

STEVE -

The DeSoto 4-pocket ones are manna from heaven. I have photos from Mussleman '08 in which the stuff in the pockets is visible as weird little bulges. Gel packs get bulgy when there are two, and even though flasks don;'t move around, they sure do bulge. But hey -- this ain't no beauty contest! The DeSoto tops have side mesh pockets, so that makes a couple of other spots for nutritional ammo. I guess the new tops now have the pocket in the back, which I don't like so well --- even though in photos it doesn't suggest egregious "love handles", which could happen with the side pockets!

I will check to see which of my tops have which type of fabric. I think the Carrera line has a smoother, "silkier" fabric, whereas the Forza ones are kind of coarse. Some of their tops are labelled "Skin-Cooler", I think, and that's the coarser material. As much as I think it DOES help with cooling, I don't like the feel as well as with the other fabric. I'll try to figure out which is which.

Which tri-store are you using? I mentioned Tri-Zone to Shaun a while ago, but at any rate it sounds like you have one that works for you. Tri-Zone, by the way, is just outside of San Diego.

Are you a Padres fan? Tough times for the Padres continue, I'm afraid.....

How about the Royals? When I did Shawnee Mission Triathlon in '02, I saw two Royals games in the process. That was fun. There is a real difference between Cardinals fans (ultra-polite and well-behaved -- church picnic overtones) and Royals fans (possibly reformed barroom-brawlers). Well, that's based on a limited sample size -- two Royals agmes, one Cards game.

But I digress!

The hammy. And the runs. If you MUST brick this weekend, do just one, and probably keep it shorter than what you are thinking about. Unless the hamstring is golden, I don;'t think you should try the real long Sunday one. The one-hour effort on Staurday might be doable........but that's only four days after you bagged a run after 50 minutes, having thought about it after 40 minutes, and having had a wee warning sign 5 minutes in.

I'll poke aropund my own hamstring in a while and see if I can figure out what your problem area suggests - especially the part about being "less specific to the connective tissue". I had one serious bout of hamstring in Nov. '02, and that was when I was just shy of 54, and at that age it wasn't anything I could successfully run through; in fact, I scrapped a marathon because of it. But no two hammies are the same, and you have age on your side by what -- about 16-18 years from what I was when I suffered mine?

If you must do another long run, maybe keep it away from the bike - just do it on its own. But you're one of a legion of IMers who have had to shut down the run earlier than hoped for, and many of them have had great race-day runs. The risj is for someone who hasn;'t really prepared well --- and you know that I think you have prepared REALLY well. As I've said before, you have done more than your fair share of loooooong brick runs, and I'm sure that is a huge part of what was behind the higly-impressive 1:45 run at Showdown.

Maybe the ultimate question is how much do you think you can hate yourself? That is, if you blow out (even figuratively, let alone literally! ) the hamstring between now and SG --- do you have a deep enough wellspring of self-loathing to accommodate how hard you will be on yourself for XX weeks/months/years? I have had a couple of injury-induced bailings over the ryars that still weigh on me, although none - thank god!!!!!!! - for which I have done over-the-top training. I'm just saying......

Apropos to this, a recent issue of Triathlete had a piece by the oft-mentioned-here Matt Fitzgerald, and in it he says that 5 of his last 6 IMs he has had to bail on (it might be 4 out of 5, but still!). Can you imagine! I will try to find that issue and transcribe it here, I guess for everybody's edification. Anne raised some concerns yesterday, and Diane is worried about her race-ready status........and I ALWAYS worry about mine, so it's just cold comfort to know that We Are Not Alone in soemtimes being not quite able to toe the starting line.

My cautious money says take a gentle step or two back for a few days. As you say, your run is your run at this point -- mostly. In a perfect world, you do have time to make a few more small gains, but for the most part what you have right now is what will be there for you at SG. So, I just feel the risks are greater than the potential benefits.*


* (Short asterisk jump! I thought that for Showdown, and you rolled the dice there and came out brilliantly, so.......)

STEVE again -

I ended the above one quickly, due to thunder and lightning added to already strong winds -- I feared a power outage and losing all that blathering!

Three cheers for Tri-Zone!!! Did you get Jeff or Gayla to serve you? I think it's Jeff's company, but Gayla has been there forever. There is a third person, a woman, whose name I can't remember. Jeff has even been very generous about wetsuit returns after open-water swims.

One top, six tops --- keep 'em all!








Edited by stevebradley 2010-04-08 6:36 PM

Edited by midlifeinsanity 2010-05-25 7:53 PM

Yes, he is.      Especially since I didn't listen to his advice in 08 and raced Vancouver with a bad ankle and ended up in an air cast for weeks, (but not until we got home 2 weeks later).   Had to hobble around on one foot on our wedding day and spent our 'honeymoon' pretty much doing the same.   I can be tough when I want to.  

I think this break will end up being a good thing, and hopefully the extra biking will keep my fitness level up.   I really haven't been doing enough running IMO to have actually built up any great running fitness.   Glad to hear you think that Guelph and Muskoka are possible, if I things go well from here on in.  

Ken is holding off his running as well, till we get back home, so that makes it a bit easier.     

Too bad about the bike...soon enough though! Soon enough!

Jammers are basically a speedo with legs or bike shorts without a chamois (padding) meant for you to swim in. Here's a link to TYR (Speedo brand competitor) that shows the difference:
http://www.tyr.com/shop/men-performance-c-1_2.html

Much less drag than the typical loose men's bathing suit and not quite a Speedo. They do take a little getting used to but after a few uses don't even feel like they are there especially compared to the longer length very loose 'board shorts'.

ANNE -

Oh, geez, don't you just hate that when it happens --- when Spousal Unit offers advice, and you ignore it, and it turns out their instincts were correct??

In your case, though, at least you got a good wedding story out of it!

Where are you now, maybe West Virginia?

SHAUN -

Keep talking like that, and Tyr might hire you as a sales rep. Great description to M of jammers!

I mentioned to Tracey yesterday a pool friend who left his swim suit at home, and he's one of the very few who wears an actual Speedo. Had he something not quite so "brief", he might not have misplaced it quite so easily!

All power to the jammers!

SteveB:

Oh no, not a neuroma!! I wouldn't wish that hassle on any runner. I hope that doesn't turn out to be your issue. Mine was really making me doubt whether I could continue with a serious training plan for my running. But luckily (knock on wood) I haven't been having too much trouble with it lately. I hope your issue turns out to be just a blip on the screen.

I used the Tempo Trainer for the first time yesterday, and again this morning. Yes, I took mine out of the bracket! Otherwise it would have been a little uncomfortable inside my swim cap, I would imagine. I put mine between my ear and temple area. I think I need to shove it up a bit further though because I think it was making my cap ride up and it almost came off my head a couple of times.

Very cool device it is. I find that it's helpful to remind me to keep the leading hand in front until the recovering hand meets it (rather than the "windmill" stroking). So I keep the leading hand still until I hear the beep, and that's when I can start pulling it back. It's easy to forget the beeping is there though, isn't it? A few times I caught myself not paying attention to it.

At today's swim I was really thinking about one tip that the TI coach gave us at the efficiency tuner clinic: to pretend you're climbing a ladder when you're swimming. You wouldn't take your hand off a rung without first putting the other one on the next. So that helps to remind me to not pull the leading hand back too early.

There's so many pieces to think about with swimming, and it's like my brain only has so much room to process and incorporate all of them at the same time (kicking from the hip, keeping elbows high, hip rotation, etc etc...)

Tracey

Heart rate 41/42? Holy cow, that's good! I had a proud moment at the doctor's a year or so ago when they took my pulse and it was 54. I love that my heart rate is considered to be "bradycardia."

Speaking of inhalers... I was diagnosed with asthma last fall. It's pretty minor though, luckily. I don't use my inhaler daily, but instead use it on days when I know I'm going to be breathing fast and hard in my workouts. It makes a huge difference.

Tracey

SteveB,

Not TYR. Maybe next time. I opted for the ClubSwim which is SwimOutlet's in house brand. I've also read good reviews on the Speedo Endurance line. Had I known that lycra tends to wear out so quickly, I would have gone with the polyester suit the first time around.

Once you figure out what size of items you need ordering online is no problem. Generally cheaper as well. It's always a wonder which ones will be good to deal with. SwimOutlet was suprisingly great to deal with. With a web layout I like to boot! I've used Tri-Zone to gather information but have not bought anything from them. I'm not overly impressed with their website but if their service is that good, than that can be overlooked quite easily. Some of the other tri websites have nicer layouts but I don't know anything about who runs them.

WOW!!! That's an amazingly low HR. I've heard numbers for Lance Armstrong RHR at 42 or 47 and some of the best cross country skiers at 47 and thought those were impressively low. I do not take my waking heart rate. On weekdays I wake up to an alarm which generally startles you awake anyways. If I woke up when I wanted to wake up most days, it would be interesting to see what mine was. Maybe I'll try and remember to do that tomorrow.

I've been tossing around the idea of trying my inhaler prior to swimming, but never have. I've gotten into my groove of what to do to get ready and tend to forget it.

Speaking of swims....Woke up early and decided that bed was more comfy and warm and welcoming than the outside world. Plus I was fairly groggy so I didn't go for a swim this morning. I'll try and start this on Tues/Wed of next week. My only real concern is what to eat before. Friel recommends gels in his Beginner's book, so I'll probably start there.

Talked it over with a coworker and I have the classic skiis with the 'fish gills' under the feet area of the skiis. Chances are I'll end up face down with the skiis 'Y-ed' at some point looking like a skater but I don't plan on going out like that frim the get go. On downhill skiis I did get fairly proficient at skating like that though so who knows.

As for Fitz, I haven't read the intro to the book so I wasn't sure if he had a reason for listing workouts above one another or not, just a thought. Let me know what you find out! Or eventually I'll look and see if he says.

I was thinking along the same lines with the run! My body can recognize a decent pace and relatively stay with it. I did look down a few times while doing the lactate intervals to see sub 7:30 miles. No way I was goign to sustain that for the long term though. Also knew there was more in the tank but did not want to push in fear of an injury from pushing it and injury due to really it was only my 2nd outdoor run.

Further discussion on clothes...Found a cheap source (trishots.com I believe) for Orca 226 Distance shorts (last year or early model) on closeout and off E-Bay a couple year old new Zoot shorts (seller has multiple pairs for sale). Figured I'd try out both see which one I like before dropping $75 or more for a new new new 2010 pair. Not looking at tri tops yet. Tried one on and I'm not quite willing to parade around in one of those yet.

What about the beloved Tigers Steve??? Or the Jays for that matter??? I'm by no means a baseball fan but it I am enjoying hear a lot about them so far this year. Hoping they do well. This city needs any good news it can get. My Wings are in the playoffs but I don't expect them to go too far. This being the 19th year they've made the playoffs, I think we are on the downward slope unfortunately. Their farm system is not what it once was and they've got a lot of older guys and younger guys but no one in the middle. It will be interesting to see how far they can go this year.

Hamstring Possessed - got a deep tissue massage last night, and now the leg feels GREAT!  Now I'm just wondering which one show up this weekend.  Hopefully the good one!

RACE PACKET was released today for IMSG!!!  Woo-hoo!!!  Very excited.  Lots of good information in there, so that helps.  The only question I still have is what to do about tire inflation on race morning.  The packet says that whatever can't fit into the green "clothes drop off" bag won't be accepted.  Not sure how big that bag is, but I doubt my pump will fit in it.  The general question is whether I just inflate my tires the night before and hope the pressure holds and is right in the morning, or are there generally enough tire pumps floating around race morning to check and top off pressure?

It's been a long work week - I'm REALLY looking forward to some long sessions tomorrow and Sunday.  Who'd have ever thought that 6-7 hours of solid biking/runnig would be something to look forward to!?!?!?!

TRACEY -

Maybe it WILL turn out to be just a blip, but I do indeed think it's a budding neuroma. This one is the same foot as the one that was removed in Jan '06, but that one was between the 2nd and 3rd toes, and this time it's the more conventional 3rd/4th junction. Damn. Damn, damn, damn. Of course, I'm hoping it resolves itself soon, gets better before it gets worse. It might be time to dig out my metatarsal pads!

Bad few days with the lower body. The neuroma, and then after yesterday's run BOTH plantar fasciia, and today in the gym I moved a bench and cracked it against my shin -- just about where I had the stress fracture in '00 and a subsequent hairline fracture in '03. Gulp. And my runs for several months now have been sooooo good!

So, I think I'll try to take tomorow off from running and give things another day to settle down. If bad things come in 3s, then I've just met my quota - neuroma, PF, tibia thwap. Now they all just need to go away, preferably as quickly as they appeared!

I'm glad you've made friends with the Tempo Trainer. What's the trendy acronym for it - BFF?

That is a good visualization for swimming, the one about the ladder. I'd forgotten it, which is kind of surprising (or maybe not, for someone of my advanced years......and encroaching dotage? )

I've never been a golfer, but I once read that swimming is very much like golfing in the lengthy checklist that needs to be run through, all the time. I've been playing with the pitch of my entering hand, so virtually every stroke I am thinking about depth and angle, depth and angle, depth and angle -- along with all the other picayune details. So, I dig where you're coming from!

SHAUN -

Like much else in the world, the evolution of most tri equipment is minimal from year to year, but viewed from the perspective of 5-10 years, it's usually huge. That is, 2009 models of just about anything will be just about as godd as 2010 models. But if you compare 2010 with, say, 2004, you'll see some big differences. So, if you can find good 2009 equipment, the chnaces are that it will be every bit as good as 2010.

Garden-variety lycra can get embarrassing. One day you look in the mirror in the change room and can see your flesh through the virtually non-existent fabric......and you ask yourself how long it's been like that. Yikes!

Remember, that HR is waking; what happens an hour or so later brings it into the 50s. As for you and the alarm clock, let it startle you, take a few minutes to recover and stop hyperventilating, and then do the HR count. That's all fair!

Fish scales are definitely "classic", and what they will give you is a good amount of grip in a wide range of conditions. Also, you won't have to wax except when things are really extreme -- think 40F....or -20F! If you've been a proficient downhill skiier (I am not), you should have a good sense of what it feels like to have long. skinny slabs of wood attached to your feet, and you should master cross-country pretty quickly.

Tigers? I guess I want them to do well. My father spent several of his formative years in Detroit (lived on Woodward, even), sometime between 1918 and 1924, maybe. His preferred Detroit team was the Lions. I'm glad to see the Wings in the playoffs, and I too think they are on a slow downward spiral. They must be the oldest team in the league, and by quite a bit. On the other hand, it was that veteran savviness that enabled them to overcome the huge number of injuries they suffered this season and still make the playoffs. If they can stay healthy now, they might make it through a couple of rounds. I sure wouldn't want to be playing them in the first round! And the poor Pistons -- how the (once) mighty have fallen!

Finally --- OOPS! Forgot to do a Fitz search! I'll try to remember that for not-too-long-from-now!

STEVE -

Oh, your hamstring is a capricious vixen, isn't it?

If you are a hard-core gambler, you can inflate the day/night before and count on that being enough. If you are a mere roller-of-the-dice, you can hope to find a pump to use race morning. If you are a real worrier, you can either (A) get there really early and find a primo parking place so you can take your own pump in to inflate with and then get it back to your car, or (B) duct tape it or bunguy-cord it to a low branch in a tree near t-zone, and retrieve it post-race.

For my two irons, I chose Option A. When I thought long and hard about signing up for IM Louisville, I was all prepeard for Option B. Seriously. I mean that 100%. I would've trudged my pump to the t-zone race morning, inflated, and then strung it up in a tree. You shouldn't have the heat problem at SG wherein if you inflate the day before and if it's a really hot night, the tube could burst. But August 29, in Loo, that's a real possibility!

I dunno. Back in my workin' days, I think 6-7 hours of training was ALWAYS preferable to 6-7 hours of working!

Hi All
I'm just getting caught up after being out of town on business most of the week and then catching up at the office. I just take for granted that I'm going to have wifi in my hotel room these days, but didn't this time. I'm not sure which is more overwhelming to try and catch up with, being gone from the office for 3 days or being gone from GrooveTime! for 3 days.
Good to see so much activity. I plan to sign up for my first couple races this weekend, so I'm getting excited.
Denise, are you still planning on the Land Between the Lakes Tri in ALbert Lea?
Mark

Hey all! Hope you are ready for a good weekend.  It is a wet one here.  I swam today for the first time in a month, it was good, but I am SLLLLOOOOW.  And get tired quickly which stinks, and I blame on form more than anything. 

Tomorrow I have an 18 mile run planned, hoping the calf holds up.  It has been hot and cold lately.

Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Mandy

Actually we are in Chattanooga.   We are taking the quick drive down and plan to take a leisurely drive back home through West Virginia and other places.    Although even the I75 drive through Kentucky and Tennessee is quite beautiful.   Sure beats the 401.

They questioned us for 15 minutes at the border this morning.   Hate to see what they do with shady looking characters.  
Was sunny and blue skies from Dayton on and the temp warmed up about Knoxville - 25 and sunny and supposed to be like that for the next several days.

Tonight and tomorrow morning is the last I will have internet access until maybe Tuesday when I visit a friend.   We are camping the next 3 nights.  

Wanted to mention that I read an article on running in the Globe yesterday.   Did you see it?  There was a diagaram of a leg, pointing out common running injuries and saw that there is a tendon called the Patellar tendon just about the tibia bone below the knee cap.   That is where I have been having soreness and tenderness when I say 'the knee'.   Also in the left knee, but to a much, much lesser degree - but I could notice it.    What is the cause of that and is it serious?   Fixed easily?   

Sorry to hear you are having a bad bout with running - hope it all settles down quickly.

MARK -

Glad you found us! Your presence brings us into double figures, so that's good. I think I should do a quick PM to some of the "laggards", which would be Kasia, Dwayne, Cathy, Lisa, and Arthur. Then there are the other four or five who have been gone for a while and - alas - may never return. Sniff.

Best of luck with those races; may they all have space available when you log on!

MANDY -

Given the length of time of your swim layoff, slow is fine! Form is bound to deteriorate, but should rediscover itself before too long --- or are you still pool-access-challenged?

Serious mojo being sent your way vis-a-vis that impish calf of yours! Here's to a rollicking good 18 miles!

ANNE -

Chattanooga?!? A quick drive indeed!

As for the 15 minutes at the border, and you not being shady characters.......maybe he saw your race photos? JUST KIDDING!

And speaking of which, I will not pursue that avenue any further -- for now. I think that will be a good thing to hold over you, for future use or something. I feel safe from further harm in tnat respect, with the bike ones from Mightyman standing at the pinnacle of Mount Ugly. I haven't really taken any worse ones, although there is one from some race a few years ago that has me emerged from the water, swim cap slightly askew, goggles themselves perched somewhat askew atop the cap, and with my eyes closed. That one was also worse than a dog's breakfast -- but not quite to the degree of those bike ones.

ANYHOW, I am not searching out your race photos --------- yet!

I didn't see the article in the Globe, but the more technical name for "runner's knee" is patellar tendonitis*. It generally results when the knee doesn't track correctly, and is often implicated with over-pronation. I'm sure you've seen people wearing a fairly simple strap (actually, more of a band) that wedges into the indentation between the top of the tibia and the bottom of the knee, and for most people those work well. For other people orthotics do the trick, or, less expensively a change in shoe type. And some people get by with rest and ice.

I will read up on this and see if what I have said is actually true! My understanding is that it can be a somewhat persistent problem, but is not a career-ender as can be Achilles problems or plantar fasciitis. I had it a couple of times many years ago in my earlier days of serious running, but in recent years it has not bothered me other than a once-in-a-blue-moon when it will get aggravated for no apparent reason, and then be gone the next day. I'll ell you what I learn further!


* I've seen more than one European publication refer to iliotibial band syndrome as "runner's knee", but in North America it always seems to be patellar tendonitis. Go figure. (Those silly Brits! )

TRACEY and MANDY -

Sox just gave up two with two outs in the bottom of the 8th, and K.C. is now ahead 4-3. Bloody hell!

But you're right! It's early April! Too early to panic! Everything will be hunky-dory!

(And at least the Evil Empire got clobbered by the Rays tonight. So there! Take that, stupid Yankees fans everywhere!)

ANNE again -

HSBC has released most of their tech-shirt designs, and they are largely uninspired. Cobourg is okay, Toronto is so-so, Welland is kinda cryptic unless stared at closely, and a couple (Bala and Binbrook) I could've designed myself. Gravenhurst is a bit dense, Cobourg reminds me more of a running race, and Woodstock has cahrm for soemone who likes an oblique silhouette of a tri bike. Lakeside and Bracebridge are still in the works. They are all posted in the April newsletter -- and maybe up on the individual race page, although I didn't look there.

Next five or six days are going to be nice and warm up here. See what you're missing?