Dirk's Junkie group - CLOSED (Page 12)

It varies. 4.3 miles, 4 miles, 6k, 5.5 miles, 4 miles, 6k, 4.3 miles, and finish with a 3 mile.

Three of the courses are repeats in the series.

bswcpa - 2012-01-15 6:54 PM  DIRK - Congrats to your daughter and her selection to the special swim team! It's nice to see you brag on your girl.

I have the same question as Curtis - for the 200 TT swim - do you want us at full-out effort? I'll be heading to the pool Tuesday. Hope everyone had a nice weekend. My kids have off school tomorrow and I'm taking my daughter to the mall (in your neck of the woods, Dirk and Allison) to look for a dress for her first high school dance. Looking forward to fun memories. Will walking miles and miles from one end of the mall to the other looking for the perfect dress count as a workout?

Thanks Brenda.  I may be a little partial but she (and my other daughter) is a special girl!  I am proud of both of my girls, beyond belief.

It may be my computer but I couldn't open the attachment.  Let someone else see if they can open it before trying to re-post something.

I think modifying your plans a little would be a good idea.  After I looked at your logs earlier I noticed your cycling to be quite low for time and distance and that's where I would begin to develop a more aggressive approach.  Again, cycling can be attacked more safely because of the lack of impact.

The swim would be the second thing you should try to adjust.  As Warren said, the swim could be kind of like your warm up for the rest of the race.  As you can spend time in the pool I think you should try to get your swims up to at least 2500 yards.  But this should be done more slowly than the bike.

Once someone else determines if they can open your planned WO attachment, then I will see about checking out my computer.

I think picking up volume sooner rather than later would be beneficial all the way around.  The sooner you can train at the level of your "A" race the better.  Remember, the plans offered on BT are guidelines and can be adapted pretty easily to your needs.  If you want to slightly back off the run because you have that covered well and pick up the others to gain fitness by all means do it.  I trained almost all of last year at a HIM training level and I expect to do rather well (for a newb to the that distance) because I have spent so much time there.  (Pretty soon I'll be trying to put that plan back into my schedule.)

The last thing, possibly, for tonight, I have officially closed the group.

For the new members in the group the past couple of days, I suggest you go back and read the other pages before you joined to catch up.

And also, this group is really a joint effort by me and 4 others that came from the last session.  We have a really good group of people assimilated to help everyone from the newer athletes to the most experienced among us.

Thanks for welcoming me to the group everyone. I'm glad I snuck in before it closed!

I should have warned you all, I'm kind of chatty.

Brenda, I started some physical therapy for my back a couple of weeks ago. It has helped a lot already so I'm feeling very encouraged. Have fun dress shopping!

DirkP - 2012-01-15 7:36 PM

bswcpa - 2012-01-15 6:54 PM  DIRK - Congrats to your daughter and her selection to the special swim team! It's nice to see you brag on your girl.

I have the same question as Curtis - for the 200 TT swim - do you want us at full-out effort? I'll be heading to the pool Tuesday. Hope everyone had a nice weekend. My kids have off school tomorrow and I'm taking my daughter to the mall (in your neck of the woods, Dirk and Allison) to look for a dress for her first high school dance. Looking forward to fun memories. Will walking miles and miles from one end of the mall to the other looking for the perfect dress count as a workout?

Thanks Brenda.  I may be a little partial but she (and my other daughter) is a special girl!  I am proud of both of my girls, beyond belief.

The 200 TT should be an all out effort for everyone.  The real deal will com e a little later once everyone is more comfortable with the 500 TT.  I just want everyone to get comfortable in the water first, then let the suffering begin.

And, I don't think I am willing to count any shopping toward any training. LOL

Morning everyone and welcome to all the new members. There have been so many over the weekend, I'm not sure I can remember who I haven't welcomed!!

I messed up my schedule today by forgetting to put the drier on last night, so my single pair of swimming trunks was still in the washing machine when I got up to go to the pool this morning! Oops!I stuck the drier on so I'll just have to move back my schedule a little bit.

Since I'm off today as well I'm going to try and get a long bike in on the canal path where we run - it's nice and flat and I hope I'll be able to work on cadence and giving a consistent effort, although it's a gravel path, so who knows.

Also - can we upload planned training into our logs, I can't seem to find a way to do it...?

John

I'll be impressed if you add an OWS.

Hey folks.  I just had a 3 day weekend. 

My friday was going to be a longish run so I got myself to the gym to run on the dreadmill in front of a movie.  I noticed immediately that I felt pretty rough at my usual easy training pace.  My HR was tracking 10bpm higher than normal and my legs felt heavy.

I only made it 5 miles and threw in the towel.

I then took Saturday off, figuring that I may have overextended myself with last week's training.  Sunday (yesterday) I did an 8 mile trail run and felt good...except that my feet hurt.  Just aching all over, like I'm 80 years old.  Got better once I began to run, but it was a trail run so it wasn't easy on the feet.  Today I'm hobbling in lots of pain but at least my workout this morning began with a swim.  Then I did an easy 5 miles on the t-mill with the feet feeling fine once I began.

Good news...during today's swim I had a practice as good as any I've ever had.  I was outpacing a few people that I don't normally outpace (even before shoulder surgery).  I was breathing well, getting enough oxygen the whole time.  Really for the first time in I don't know how long my limiter seemed to be arm strength rather than aerobic.  Very encouraging.

I'm feeling REALLY beat up in the feet though.  Not 'injured', just 'tender'. 

Recent topics of discussion:

1. inside training tedium.  As I've said before there are only 2 things that keep me going indoors: group classes and video entertainment.  I'm fortunate that when I am watching a video while on the bike, I push hard on autopilot and get very respectable 'tempo' rides.  Running isn't that way, but doesn't really need to be.  It's all about easy miles right now.
2. Training plans written for time vs. distance.  Really not a problem.  The plan is probably written with HR targets for the various workouts to help you choose the right pace.  You can do the time without concern, or you can do a translation from time to distance that's appropriate for your current speed level.  Just a note on these training plans...Unless otherwise stated they are probably written for someone new to fitness preparing for the specified race.  If you are already quite fit, then you will want an 'intermediate' plan or 'advanced' plan.  If the plans available to you don't fit...for instance if you are training for sprint distance and can't find an intermediate sprint plan, then follow a half iron plan.  As Dirk has said, lots of distance is still the key to success for sprint races.  Almost nobody I know has ever trained for an Ironman or a Marathon without finding out when it's done that they are now faster in a Sprint tri or a 5k race. 

Matt, I owe you a frame.  Sorry I haven't gotten to packing that up yet.  I'll try to get to it this week.

I was watching some ebay auctions last week and it looks really good for you to be able to piece together shimano 105 level components for a killer price in the end.

I opened your excel file no problem.

It certainly seems like a HIM plan for a beginning athlete with a 'long' run of 3 miles during week 1. 

It is almost always the case that more is better.  There are only 2 reasons that doing more wouldn't result in you racing better.  The first reason would be if the extra workload injures you.  The second reason would be if 'more' means you outpace your body's ability to heal itself between workouts and your metabolic rate is exceeded day after day.  You just get more and more weak.

IMO, the second one is hard to do for athletes are our level of training.  And outpacing your metabolism's ability to keep up, for relatively short periods of time, can be good. 

Injury is really the key concern.  And 90% of the time this is a running injury as the other 2 sports don't have impact involved.

So ride as far as you can on your 2 daily rides.  Swim as far as you can in the time you have available during your weekly swims.

But when it comes to running, we need to be very strategic.  Many people believe that running more often is the key to adapting to the stresses of running and actually decreasing your chance of injury.  Key in this concept is that for a time, until your body is ready, that these runs must all be easy.  I would definitely go ahead with your plan to have 6 runs per week.  On the 'off' days feel free to run as little as 1 mile.  Depending on your current run fitness, your 'long' runs can certainly be longer than the plan, especially at the beginning of that plan since you are already fit.

You don't specifically need a day off.  It's just important that the total work done over the course of a week is less than your body's recovery ability.  Then you don't get stale or overtrained.

And all of that talk about running takes 2nd priority to remaining injury free.

Hey John, I hate to tell you this buddy but your swim shorts are going to get wet in the water at the pool.  Just kidding.

I am in a constant state of turmoil with the pool I use.  The lap times are constantly changing based on high school swim season and club swim times.  Many times it's all I can do to stay there because I get frustrated by this problem.  I stick to it because it's $40 for 20 visits and I don't have to pay any other fees.

Jonathon, Sound similar to the run I had yesterday morning.  Yours is a little codler though.  But, like Warren, I would be much more impressed by a OWS today.

Jeff, sounds like a good swim for you.  I had a pretty good workout last week but nothing that I would say was particularly fast, just a really good workout.  What do you suppose the culprit of your foot pain is?

Ultimately, I'm not sure.

I'm tender at the back of the heels, that is very likely aggravated by the shoes I wore yesterday for my trail run.  They don't rub me ala blisters, but they press on the back of my heel ala pressure.  That seems to do it.  Plus it was off road with hills.  But I have this pain there chronically.

I also had some pain on the bottoms of my feet on the plantar's fascia.  But that seems much better today.

And there's a general achy decrepidness in my feet. 

I'm actually contemplating a circulatory issue.  I have some varicose veins and even permanent bruising down near my ankle on one foot.  But there are large bulges on each leg where a vein's valve is ballooning out.  poor circulation to the feet could be an issue, so I might ask my doc about it.  I guess it's a fairly simple procedure to strip veins and it can drastically improve circulation.

My wife said exactly the same thing. When she pointed it out I felt like SUCH A DUMB***. At 5:15 this morning the thought never crossed my mind! I stopped by the pool later, but I was trying a new one and it turns out they only allow members. This late in the season I didn't want to shell out for an expensive membership when there's somewhere else I can go, so no swim yet today.

I did get some time in on the bike today and got SUPER MUDDY which was awesome (my wife won't think so - I'm getting my own back for the comment about the swim trunks!). I could've gone further, but I didn't realize I was riding into quite a strong wind until I turned around and was averaging 2-3 mph faster on the way back than on the way out (and also getting less cold!).

Jeff - I hope you figure out the source of the foot pain. Thanks for your tip on chocolate milk - I've drunk a cup of hot chocolate (made with milk and powdered mix) after my last few workouts and it seems to be helping. Maybe it's all in my mind though! 

Dirk,

Have you thought about joining the Y here?  It's only about $30/month for an individual membership, and about $60/month for family.  I think there is good availability of lap swim (other than Saturday mornings when they give swim lessons).  They keep the temperature pretty warm at Parkview and in Columbia City, but I have been to the Aboite Y and it is much cooler. 

Happy Monday everyone!

So I spent quite a while last night getting caught up on this whole forum string. You guys and gals are some serious athletes!  I’ve already learned a lot from the previous posts here. I’m looking forward to learning  a lot more.

JONATHAN -  2 degrees! Yikes!  I feel like a wimp for not running this morning when it was 24 degrees out.  I will be getting out there right after work for an easy 2 mile run but the projected high here is mid 50’s so I won’t have to bundle up at all.

I’m definitely up for losing 5 pounds by Valentine’s Day.  I’ll weigh in on Wednesday.

I’ll get over to the pool Tuesday and do a 200. Swimming is my biggest weakness. I just learned freestyle last year and the breathing is still causing me problems. I think I swallow a bunch of air or something because I often get gas pains shortly after a swim. I was trying to use a Total Immersion DVD and book to teach myself since there don’t seem to be any adult swim classes at the YMCA where I do much of my swimming. In fact I may not have done 200 yards continuous freestyle without a pause ever.  Even in the super sprint I did last year I switched to breast stroke when I got too close behind someone. I just didn’t have the confidence to swim around him. Then I would let him pull away a bit and go back to freestyle until I caught him again.

Since we have a plethora of John’s, feel free to call me Vero if that makes it easier for you. It’s actually a name I’ve used for about 7 years in online gaming, so I’m very used to it. It means “truth” in Latin.

Welcome to all the new members from over the weekend.  I haven't checked in here in a few days, but I still got a good long ride in on Sunday.

With all the discussion about running in cold weather, it's really got me wanting to try it out.  I hate the treadmill, and my gym has a 1/9 mile track, so that gets old pretty fast, but I know I don't want to run on snow.  I'm thinking that when the sidewalks or local trails are clear I'm going to experiment with different layers so I can train outside.  I'm sure my dogs will like it.  I run with both of them attached to my waist.  My puppy (1 year old) requires constant talking to not pull me, but he does listen.

I got my bike back from the shop on Saturday.  New cables and housings, new tires, new handlebar tape, and new pedals.  Now I really can't wait for spring to ride outside again.

I didn't train at all today, since the girls were off school and we spent the day at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  It was a great day with them, so today became my unintended day off instead of Saturday, my normal day of rest and overeating.

Fun Run: ran at 6pm - light on/off mist. 7 mile run, 5 of it on the Monon trail - at 6pm, generally full or people, but not one runner tonight - only people I saw were 3 commuter bikers - and one guy walking his dog (hope he picked up the poop). Wierd to see no one - looking out for the Zombies on the way back  .

Moral of the story: Be smart- don't stop when the radar is light green - the surrounding cities reported only light drizzle - I was never rained on - it was a great run .

Hey all.  Today was a great day.  I'm always in a good mood when I have a good workout, and especially when I've strung 4 solid training days in a row, hitting all of my paces and goals.

By the way, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for your advice on staying on the trainer longer.  The simple trick of standing up on a regular basis did wonders for me.  I stood for 20-30 sec every 15 min, and I was able to make it on my trainer longer than ever before, with little to no pain on my rear.  Another reminder that the little things make a big difference in training.

I have another training item that's eluding me.  I read a lot about working on running cadence and that ideally it would be ~180 steps per minute (analogous to 90 RPM on the bike - coincidence?  I think not).  I have not been able to do this at endurance runs (Z2), and even at tempo runs (Z3) I only hit 160-170.  90 RPM on the bike is easy for me, but running cadence around 180 is quite tough for me.  Any advice?  Does it matter, in your opinion?  Feel free to tell me if you believe I'm over-thinking this one.

Curtis

Happy Monday everyone!

Jeff, good luck with your feet. I feel for you as I've had my share of foot trouble. Sometimes I soak my feet in a bucket of warm water with epsom salts. I don't know if it does anything but it sure feels good for a little while.

Swim for fitness class for me tonight. This is kind of a mixed up class. Most of the people that come on Monday nights are beginners and the instructor is working with them on TI type drills, counting strokes etc. The only experienced swimmers are myself and lately a local swim team coach has been coming just to get pool time. He swam competitively in high school, college and Masters swim as an adult. We have been sharing a lane and he is so much faster he makes me feel like I'm swimming backwards.

Did my 200 TT tonight but coach was busy helping one of the other swimmers and forgot to stop his watch!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH. We are guessing it was around 3:10. Lots of room for improvement........ I might try to do another later in the week and time it myself. My lane mate swam his 200 in 2:08!!

Try to vary your stride length and breathing. I've found I have two breathing patterns on long run - three steps in and three steps out or two steps in and two steps out. With the two in, two out pattern I find a longer stride and lower "cadence," while with the three I can get a shorter stride and higher cadence. I'm no expert, just my experience!

My current biking weakness is cadence - I can sustain between 90 and 100 on the stationary bike in the gym, but in the real world I'm only comfortable with 85-90. It feels like I just need more practice, but if anyone has any drills I'm willing to listen! 

J