Beginner 1/2 Ironman Plan Group (Page 113)

Agreed.  The shopping is "World Class" at Riverpark square.

Pops.  Windermere only has 200 or so at the starting line of the Mary, so there's a good chance we may run into eachother.  The start is in Post Falls, so I believe they have a shuttle that can take you for your convenience.  Check it out on their website.  You are a recovery machine.

Hit my 11.6 miler today.  I was a little off pace at 8:16/mile.  trying to maintain an 8:00/mi race pace for all my intermediate runs.  8:16 is more of my long run pace.  During this training cycle, I have only run 3x a week because I'm also trying to fit HIM training in as well.  So I have been running alot faster on all my runs to try and incorporate speed work into the runs.  This is the contributer to the discomfort/plantar symptoms in my heal.  I took a week off a couple weeks ago and iced and massaged and took ibuprofen.  It helped out big time.  Now my heal only bothers me on mile 1-2, and it moves to my achilles at 3-4, and then it's non-existant.

In years past, I ran 5 times a week, doing speedwork 2x and having 3x workouts of progressively increasing distance.  I feel like this is a better way to train for marathon, looking back, because you do not put the stress on the body with longer, faster runs.  Pace should be quite a bit slower (1:00 or so) on long runs than race pace.

I'm so glad the heal is holding up, I'm going to hit my 21 mile long run on Sunday at a considerably slower pace than previous long runs.  I don't want to mess with a healed thing.  Also hoping to get in a 2hr bike ride on Saturday, wife willing.

Well, my wife is definatively a "World Class" shopper so I will probably sign her up to run the half so she is too tired to shop.  She'd easily spend in a day what a new disc would cost me.

I was looking to be a faster swimmer with the bilateral breathing.  After reading these posts I realized I am putting too much thought and focus into the swim, like jobaxas said, it's the smallest part.  Biking is the longest and is my worst, I'll start focusing more on the bike than worrying about shaving off a bit of time on my swim.

My take on the bilateral breathing thing is that's it's just another useful tool for OWS. In high school, I swan just under 21 for 1500m (my dad claims I did 19:53, but that sounds too fast given my 400 and 500 times, and I can't find the sub-20 result), breathing only on one side, 2-2-4.  So I can't imagine it affects speed; many elite distance swimmers breathe mostly on one side as well. Never had any overuse injuries either; every coach I've had has said my stroke is well-balanced. That being said, in eight tris/aquathlons, there was one where I had serious navigation problems due to breathing/ looking only to one side, and maybe three or four where it was very useful for a section of the course. (All my swims have been in the ocean, so there's usually current.) I do practice it in the pool, esp. during warmup and less intense sets, but on hard swims naturally revert to my old pattern. But it's nice to have that tool available when I need it. If you can't do it, you can always just stick your head out of the water, do breast stroke, etc. but those do waste time.

Beautiful morning here in Saigon. Filling up my hydration belt and heading out for my "off-the-plan" long run while it lasts!

I see you rode for two hours.  Great job!! A 21 mile run on the heels of that ride should be a great confidence booster.

I took it easy in my five mile race this morning.  I year ago I would have pushed it and been limping the rest of the day.  The older wiser me feels great and will probably get out on my bike later today.  Its sunny and a bit warmer than forecast.  Hope everyone enjoys their Easter weekend!!

1000m tt done - not so good as last time it was closer to 19mins but i'm pleased anyway, I had consumed at least a bottle of wine the night before along with junk food, so was feeling less than athletic!  I'm lucky to have made 1000m!  Felt powerful in my stroke and my pace, unfortunately the pool was busy - one faster girl and three slowies, so lots of waiting around or overtaking which surely? affected my pace!

Today - well it's easter Sunday it's 6.10am - of course i'm off for a 10km run.  Then i need to take my bike to the track for more practice.  I practiced clipping in and out in the garden yesterday - not pretty, waiting for it to become second nature.  So whilst it isn't I daren't hit the road with traffic and stop lights.  Instead, it's the track or the trainer.

I need to bite the bullet like i did with the swimmng and get me a coach.  I'm sure an hour with a coach would fix up my worries.  Tuesday's job then is to find me one!  Now i've put the decision on BT it's a contract!

Happy swimming/cycling/runnng y'all!  And if you do any of that you deserve to eat as many chocolate eggs as the bunny brings....

I found it very helpful to practice this first in a narrow hallway in my home - it really worked well Good luck!

Hello group,

My name is Ken. I am not sure how to join this group. But here I am. 

Ken

I didn't get to it Pops, I always log my intended w/o on callendar and come back and plug in times after complete.  I worked in yard w/ fam instead.  But this made the decision to get to long run easier.  I'll look at adding more bike next week when I only have 1 day of rest like the plan calls for.

Hi Ken, consider yourself joined and welcome.  Good support and info here.

Got my 75 min run in today.  The distance from the dog event that my SO is at back to the hotel was perfect.  Beautiful sunny day, 17C (62F).  And my Canucks are headed for a win and the President's Cup for the second year in a row.  It's a good day.  Hope everyone has a good Easter, don't eat too much!

Holy carp.  Good on you.  That's a lot of thinkin' time!  Make sure that you add some salt to your bike when you chow down, I'm sure you'll need it!  BTW, totally agree on the chocolate gels.  Texture is terrible.  And I love chocolate!

Thanks!  Actually the clipping/unclipping is easy - i just can't seem to get my foot onto the ground, very inelegant!  Anyway it will improve - couldn't even ride a bike a year and a half ago.  Couldn't run more than 3km about 4 years ago and now have completed two marathons.

Progress is quick in the world of triathlon!  Thank God!

LOL I was talking to myself and the bike computer by the last 20 km, and most of it was not very nice, either!  I wouldn't classify what goes thru my mind at such times as "thinking":

"25 (kph), hold 25, dammit, what's this 24.9 stuff!""Yanti trained for an Ironman with seven hour trainer rides and you can't do three hours in an industrial park?", "At least you don't have no VC shootin' at you." (mantra of long-ago coach, an ex-marine), and "Turkish brunch, Turkish brunch...."

Then I skype home and Mom (73) says basically, "Suck it up, buttercup!" Turns out she rode 50 km then did 6 hours of yardwork. Geez.  Anyway, I did get a table and had a nice Turkish brunch (starts with veggies and bagel chips with hummus and just keeps getting better thru several more courses) and massage for my Easter celebration. Happy training, everyone!

Week 10, but yes, sometimes modify it or move workouts around. In my case, the longer "long" bikes have been due to my bike buddy--she's training for a double century (two 100-miles on two days) and we generally do a 100 km loop together (she does more later) on Sundays. Thought about just doing 70 km (2:30) as per the plan but I haven't ridden with her, or ridden outdoors, since last Tues. and afraid I'd be struggling next weekend if I didn't get the time in the saddle.

I've pushed myself to up the long bike so I can take advantage of both her company and the decent weather. (She's moving in mid-May, and I'll have no one to ride with again for the forseeable future. The clubs here don't allow women.) I knew this when I started prep in January so have gradually worked up from 2 hours to 100km (3:40-3:50). Our weather is such that I may not be able to ride consistently outdoors during the latter part of my training, since rainy season usually starts early to mid May and traffic and work schedule means if the weekend AM ride gets rained out, I'm not getting outside that week. So, in a sense, making hay while the sun shines. As for the bricks, they're big confidence builders--after my first 2:30 ride, I could do nothing but lie on the couch (and that was on a trainer, in Oregon). Now I've gotten to where I feel good running after 90-100 km. But again, may have to scale them back due to weather--either extreme heat or monsoon--at some point. It's not ideal; I'm probably peaking too early, but I think it's better to have the workouts in early than not at all, at least in terms of confidence.   Monday is always a swim-only day, thank goodness!

Hit the 21 miler today.  I was worried about foot for no reason.  Any Plantar or tendonitis that was starting is completly gone.  I has a 8:28 pace.  The course I had has to pretty decent inclines, or the pace may have been a little faster.  Anyway, I was taking it easy a little as I race in about 7 weeks and have 3 more long runs planned.  Week 14 starts for me next week.  I have all of the w/o's but one 30 min bike planned for next week.  Hoping to stick to it!

bcraht, maybe the Hawks will get another chance at the Canucks this year.  It's been a good back and forth the past two years.

Today is the start of my bike focus week.  I guess it's pretty good timing as I got out on the road for the first time Saturday.  After all the trainer work, I was pretty happy with my road fitness but it still takes time on the road to build up to race fitness.  My cadence is much higher on the road than the trainer which takes getting used to but I was comfortable in aero position the entire ride.

Plan has rides in minutes of 75,60,75,90, and 150.  Hopefully I can get at least three of those in on the road but we are supposed to have some rain tomorrow and Wednesday.  I am still going to try to get in four runs and three swims so it is going to be a huge week.

Yeah, that's a good rivalry.  There was a collective sigh when we won that series last year!  I think a lot of the players that heated the games up have moved on (most notably Byflugian (sp????)), but still good games between them.  Can't wait for Wednesday!  I love the start of the playoffs, hockey EVERY NIGHT!!

Got my long run in on Saturday while out of town--the distance from where my SO was running the dogs in an Agility Trial to the hotel was perfect.  Supposed to run 75min, distance was 79 min.  It was a beautiful day out as well.  Swam this am, really focused on using my lats.  Starting to really get that feeling.  Not that it is making a difference in my times, but I am expecting that one day, it will all come together...

I'm in week 14 and today was the brick with a swim and then a 90 minute run. 

The chlorine in the pool always messes with my sinuses for a few hours after a swim, but today was a whole different deal.  Two miles into the run, I got a bloody nose... really bloody!  All I had was my hands and my t-shirt, by mile four I was mess. 

Not exactly ideal to lose a pint of blood in the middle of a long run.  By the time I got back to the gym an hour later, I looked like I had just gutted an elk. 

Note to self: stick a couple of tissues in your pocket on long runs.