Beginner 1/2 Ironman Plan Group (Page 116)

I did the TT in the pool today as well.  Good time PI, You'll be out of the water ahead of me.  I did 100 in 21:00.  2:06/100.  This is exactly where I was 3 or so weeks ago when I swam a mile.  No worries for me, I just have to make it through the swim comfortably with energy in the tank for the bike.  That's the PC way to say I suck at swimming.

This is not a sucking at swimming situation! 2:06/100 is VERY respectable. Also, feeling ready for the bike is THE goal - you are right on track - seriously!

Swim squad below!  Tennis ball drill very hard. Try swimming freestyle with a tennis ball in each hand it's kind of like the fist drill but even harder!  I swallowed so much water!  But you really appreciate your hands when you get them back!

Warm up set with fins

200m Freestyle (50m breathe left, 50m breathe right)

200m Backstroke

200m - 6 kicks one arm in front, lying on side then full stroke and turn to other side.

200m - 100m front scull, 50m mid scull, 50m hip scull

200m freestyle - 100m tennis balls, 100m free

200m - otter scull without kicking!!!  WTF - took us forever to get to the other end!

Fins off for main set

4 x 250m free (50m tennis balls, 200m free)

Pull buoy set

200m - breathing every 6 (100m breathe left, 100m breathe right)

200m - breathing every 5

200m - 8strokes no breathing, 8 strokes breathe normally.

After this there was another 200m set of sculls with fins but it was late and I cramp if I put my fins back on so didn't bother - home for a beer and bed!

Way to reward yourself for what looks like a tough workout.

Both look un-sucky to me!  Great work!  I was supposed to get a 2 hour ride in today, but my son's baseball game went long, so only got an hour in.  He had 2 great hits and a couple great catches, so it was worth missing half the workout.  He is 16, and only started playing last year, it is awesome to see his progression in his sport!

I hear ya.  I'm trying to get workouts in and coach my son's Little League team at the same time - not to mention he is also doing AAU basketball at the same time.  It's tough getting to all the practices and games, but missing or cutting short some workouts is not really that important in the grand scheme of things.

Hi, I'm Mike.  I just signed up for my first 70.3 - Great Illini Challenge on 9/1, so on Sunday I remembered there were training plans on here, took a look, and realized I was exactly 20 weeks away.  I started the plan Monday and feel I should be able to stick to the plan well.  I did move day 5's bike from Friday to yesterday since it was 70 degrees yesterday and I wanted to get on the bike outside and tomorrow it's supposed to be down in the 50's again. 

I also started going to my local Master's swimming group yesterday.  I've never been a particularly fast swimmer so I figured now would be a good time to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I'm usually around 2:00/100 so I should have a lot of room for improvement since all I've ever done is jump in the pool and swim with no real idea how to get faster.

Hopefully with consistant training I can get a bit faster on the bike and run.  My best Oly speed on the bike is 22mph and that was only a couple weeks after getting my tri bike last year and I'm still getting a feel for it.  I'd probably be happy if I can average 20+mph for 56 miles.  For the run I usually run longer distances 9-10 min/mile (only half marathon I've done was 1:58), but back in high school I could run a mile in 5:30, so I should be capable of getting my pace down.  Lately my usual running habits have been to go out and run 8-15 miles at once, often a few days in a row (back in Feb on a warm weekend I ran 30 miles from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon), but then not run for a couple weeks, so regular running should allow me to actually speed up.

Good luck everyone with your training!

That's a smokin time trial!  If I could get anywhere near that, I would call it good and spend almost all my time on the road.  Great job!

Welcome aboard Mike, looks like your times are about the same as mine.  You'll find that most of us juggle the plan around quite a bit - it's pretty flexible.  I rearranged the workouts to fit my weekly schedule, and then micro-manage it on a day-to-day basis depending on weather and other things that pop up during the week.

-Ron

Truly remarkable as a "starting position" to begin preparing for your half-iron.

Note to the other newbies here:  Don't be intimidated.  This place is full of dudes who bike at 17mph, cannot swim 2:00 / per 100, and struggle to run more than 6 miles at 10 minute per mile pace.   

My first few months around here, I got pretty intimidated by reports like this, even though the OP certainly has nothing but the very best of intentions, it can be frightening to compare yourself against guys like this !!  

Um, yeah. I would be THRILLED to be where you are and I'm 11 weeks in I am supposed to be in recovery week and could not resist the season's first interval speed practice today.

I run with the areas big-time winners. When I showed up I noticed an older guy and a motherly-lookng woman. I was relieved...until I found out the woman was a marathoner and the dude just came in SEVENTH in his age group in the Boston freakin' marathon! There was one lady there who had never done this before and was pacing about with me and peed herself from exertion - this is NOT an uncommon occurrence there, though we're supposed to be working 'comfortably hard' - we all overdo it. And man, is it beautiful to see these people run. Aaron Stone, I believe, came very close to 2:30 at Boston within the last few years. Amazing. They win everything around here.

SO, out of 20 superheroes I was running lastish the whole time on the track - but I clocked in one interval around 7:45mph (1/4 mile lol) and my last mile which was 3 hard, 1 working rest, 2 hard, 2 hard, 2 hard (minutes with working rests) I was about a 9 minute mile. VERY good for lil' old me

I'm so tired I feel like a drunken texter. It was cool though - we do barefoot strides and steep hills and all that. It's humbling being last, but I've improved every year through this process. The 'coach' says I have the most positive attitude of anyone he's ever met. That made me feel like Rudy

It is indeed very humbling (one year of that in swim squad) - I am no longer last, far from it in fact.  The only time i'm last is in OWS when it's 2m waves and only the die hard superfish turn up!  Then I just hope that Coach Johnny will save me when I go under (he has once when I got a crippling cramp and had to massage my calf back to life and push me to shore!)

Allright Coller, your my new hero.  Keep at it.  That's very inspiring.

To date (day 104 or so ?) my longest run has been 9 miles.

Wednesday, I decided to see if I could do a 3rd lap around the lake-- so I did.  I felt pretty good, and did some hill repeats afterward simply to impress my wife, who was yelling at me thru the car window to get in the car before I have a cardiac event.

Anyhow, that was a 14 mile program, no walkin', and at 9:35 pace (2:17 for the whole deal).

NOW---- my back hurts.  My back never hurts.   I did get a new Tri bike on tuesday, but only rode it 15 minutes before I flatted.  I dont think the bike is a culprit here.

Is it normal to get lower back pain after introducing my fat sorry to a new distance ?    Can I bike and run on all weekend or must I wait and heal ?  I feel ready to go today despite moderately inconvenient back pain.  

Thoughts ?

My first thought is that was an incredible run.  What a huge confidence builder.  You must be super excited about it (I would be).

Second, if I had a new tri bike, back pain or not, I would not be able to stay off it.  I don't think its that uncommon to feel a new ache or pain after an effort like that run.  As long as you feel better now I don't think I'd limit my activity this weekend.

Again, nice job!!

Arrrrrrrrgh!  Tempo/long run finally done.  Not the confidence builder I hoped it would be. 20-minute warmup (can't function with less than that); 6 X 6 minutes tempo/4 minutes recovery; rest as normal (well, maybe slow) long run pace. 1:50 total.  Didn't use the HR monitor as I thought it would be too hot and no Garmin as I hate it, just ran by effort. Just felt slow, even on the tempo stuff. Kind of like running through cement. Some of the pickups felt better than others--no pattern like feeling good early on and then dying (heat or fitness issues), or feeling yuck early and then feeling better (slow warmup). Maybe I should have used the Garmin just to see if I was as slow as I thought. Anyone else feel like they just get slower with training? I feel like all HIM training does is develop my endurance. I can handle any ridiculous SBR combo that's thrown at me, but I just get slower, or at least I feel slower. Likewise the swim time trial--just felt like I was going to puke the whole time. Kind of suprised 1:40 pace took that much effort. Maybe it was 1:36. In my dreams, probably!

OMG I'm doing a sprint tri in two weeks--have visions of just dinking along @ 14+ minutes for 750, 25 kph on the bike, 8 minute miles on the run. (Okay, I realize for some that's hard; for me, that's dinking along at estimated HIM pace.)

Done fairly easy stuff all week, so I should be recovered. Maybe the weather (temp by end was 84, 79% humidity, heat index 94, low this AM supposed to be 79), or hauling 36 oz of water?? I get past caring about it/noticing it after a while, since it's always hot. Just that time of year.

Absolutely outstanding.  My back ALWAYS hurts at around 14-16 miles in at some place.  If the pain part doesn't go away soon, then there may be an issue, but if pain simply turns to really sore, as I expect it will, youre fine.  As far as limiting, I usually try to take a day easy after a long run, and for me that's a swim workout.  It allows me to get my muscles moving in a non threatning environment like the pool.  No injuries, and it actually feels pretty good to loosen up this way.

Way to go on the run.  That's a big jump from 9 to 14.  Strong pace as well.

Yeah some days it's like you've made no progress at all!  I have days where I do my 6km circuit at work in my lunchbreak and instead of getting through it in my usual 32-34mins I scrape through in 42 mins.  WTF!  No idea, feels the same just am slower some days.

Today I did a 90mins run, I no longer measure the distance just how long I'm out there.  I use the Jeff Galloway run/walk ratio of 2mins/1min.  HIM program called for 15min at RPE3 so I took the first 15 a bit easy, then it was 60mins of tempo so i just went as fast as I could maintain the pace.  Then the last 15mins as the first.  I LOVED IT!  some days it just comes together.

Great as I had an inauspicious start to my day - front tire valve came away from tube so had to replace, went to pump up the back tire and the same thing happened.  Realised today was against me in the biking world so went for a run instead.  Now off to the LBS for another tube or 6!

In heat and humidity like that, I might die. 

I have workouts where I wished I know it would have been better to stay in bed.  Then most are just so/so, but it's the rare one's where you just kill it like AF just did, those are why we train.  They are rarer and farther inbetween than I'd like, but they always keep you coming back for more.

Well, I guess body and weather had plans of their own today. I always do a longer swim workout on Saturday PM as that's the only time I can get in a pool for more than 45 minutes. Looked at a couple of online workouts from NTC masters and decided I should do the speed rather than the distance one owing to recent water temps, approaching sprint, long run repeats this AM, and sludgy feeling. Just hammered 16 X 50 "fast" on 1:10--40 seconds on every single one, last one was 38. On the second to last one, I noticed it was a lot cooler, presumably because someone (lifeguard? cleaner?) had turned the big industrial fan on. On the last one, the air was almost getting chilly. Just as I started, it occurred to me that the cool air was coming from the side of the pool opposite the fan. Finished workout (4 X 150 of 100 IM plus 50 free; was a butterfly animal!) to discover sky dark with approaching monsoon clouds; temperature dropped about 20 degrees. Actually cold getting out as air now colder than pool! Still waiting for rain--there are often lots of "false starts" before it actually rains, then a few weeks before it becomes a daily occurrence and average temps drop. Everyone in the neighborhood is now sitting around, watching the sky, and hoping! Whenever it comes, it will be welcome. Just not during my ride tomorrow!

That happened to me last week! Way to be flexible

Har. Once again learned to be careful what I wish for. It did rain yesterday.....five miles west of here, which is where my long ride goes thru. Apparently a deluge. Minor flooding on the first ten miles of route. Hit a pothole underwater and back light became detached and was squashed by a truck before I could rescue it. (At least buddy and I weren't squashed, just soaked.)  Sob.  Now have to replace it at (jacked-up) LBS prices. Hit another badly placed pothole later (distracted when a motorbike buzzed my buddy and we both swerved) and ended up with banana all over my face, jersey, and bike. One of those you-had-to-be-there moments. Lost it and almost fell off bike laughing. Little cooler early AM, then fog burned off and finished ride/run in steambath; more buildup this PM, big rainstorm in city, then steambath again. 100 km ride and 10 km run felt good, considering all. So maybe I am Godzilla after all (another thread, pretty funny RE not getting sore). But very tired. Glad tomorrow is swim-only and out of floods/buzzer guys/crazed drivers.

Just wondering....exactly WHY is there a sauna at my gym, when we live in one already??

100km ride!  Jeez that's amazing!

Well this morning it was peeing with rain so I decided that my workout would be indoor - wise decision, I learnt via facebook that the track I usually cycle on was booked out for a race!  Glad I didn't waste 45mins driving there!

So today was 25min run, 2hour trainer ride (put in some big gear hill climbs) and then 25min run.  My legs felt great on the second run straight off the bike - I made sure I just spun the legs for the last five mins and it seemed to help heaps.

The next week (6) looks fierce.  Hope I can fit it all in. Public Holiday on Wednesday which will take care of the Swim bike and run scheduled for Tuesday.  Have to mix it up a bit which means I don't get the break Saturday but instead have two back to back big days in Sat and Sunday but I'm getting used to it!

Monday - swim squad only - a cruisey 3km no doubt!