TRI (Totally Radical Improvement) - Clydes/Athenas to competitors - Re-Opened (Page 12)

Matt, All I can say is congratulations triathlete! Great job getting the job done in some trying conditions. I've done a few races in the cold/wind, it really sucks a lot out of you on the bike in my experience. So don't stress about that. Glad you enjoyed it, and good luck for the next one. 

Mitzi, even tho it's feeling a bit better, go see the doc. Get yourself healthy, and injury free before worrying too much about training.

Kim, that's good to hear you're hitting the spin classes... even tho you might not be outside on a real bike as often as you'd like, all the spinning will help you improve on the bike, so good work! Good work on your long rides too, that's an area I've slacked in since my HIM... I've got to get back into the habits of a nice long weekend ride. 

Training for me hasn't gone to plan this week. I've missed a few workouts, firstly due to being stiff and sore after my fall, and since then life has got in the way. Hopping to have a big end of the week and get up towards the 8-9 hour mark for the week. 

Matt - congrats sir you are a triathlete!!  Revel in your accomplishment - don't overly critique your first performance but know that you can and will improve.

Mitzi - what is the status on your foot?  Do what you can for now - try to eat right, bike, lift or swim ... stay active and positive.

Kim - I have taken one spin class and it was an experience - I loved your blog story about your uninspiring music during spin - can't say my experience was anything like that but I can say I definitely want to spin again.

Today I had two workouts planned - an interval run and a gym workout.  Due to time constraints and a dentist appointment I did the tempo run and tomorrow's bike workout and will do the gym tomorrow.  My kids get off at 2:45 and I can do the bike at home so that was a no-brainer.

I have been nursing a foot "injury" for about 5 days now - I must have hyper extended my left foot partially because my big toe and the tendons on top of my foot were swollen red and purple ... they are now a greenish hue.  I figured I would run and see how it goes ... and I had the best training run of my life.  The run called for a 15 minute warm up then four 5 minute tempo runs at 10k race speed with 1 1/2 minutes of light jog recovery between each ... then a 10 minute cool down.  I set out at an 8:24 pace ...and when the intervals were equated in there my mile splits were 8:15, 8:05, 7:34, 7:38, 7:28, 8:36 ... for me this is blazing fast ... in fact today I covered 5 miles in the fastest time I ever have - I hit 5 miles at 39:02 - to put it in perspective my fastest 5 mile RACE I did in 41:28 ... and when I finished (and I took it down a notch the last mile point one two) to get it to be a 10k distance ... I would have shattered my best 10k race time by 4 minutes - and I felt great - and felt I had more in the tank.  I feel so much better about my half marathon coming up in two weeks.

Hard work pays off guys and gals - I actually feel like I am becoming a runner and that in itself is an accomplishment for me.

Yesterday I got a big box from Active.com - my ambassador kit for the new race season - I am on Team SunRype and am stoked to be part of this group.  I will share more about it in the coming weeks - keep on keeping on!

I like this!

your 5 mile improvement made me do some thinking about my own improvements. I've only done 1 5k race as a stand alone event, did it in 29:xx, just under 3 years ago. Last weekends 5k (as part of a sprint tri, and after a crash) done in 24:54. 

Hard work definitely pays off!!

Did a longer swim set today - was exhausted getting into the pool (long day at work) and was pretty destroyed coming out of it.  I did some weird stuff (coach's orders) that I am not sure will make me better but I am sure looked goofy while I was doing them.   Check out the "Tarzan" set ...

Today's swim set:

WU-  200 choice swim
         8 x 50 Free alt fast/slow
                   (10-15 secs rest between) choice
         50 easy 

PS-    8 x 50 odds- 25 Tarzan (head above water 
                   swimming free)/ 25 3 up Tarzan Sprint, 
                   2 down easy
                   evens- swim 10 fast strokes/10 slow
          50 easy

MS-   2 x 175 Free (10 secs rest between all)
         2 x 75 Free
         2 x 125 Free
         2 x 100 Free
         100 easy choice
         (2 min rest)
         3 x 25 pull with handpaddles and buoy for    
                   speed  (5 secs rest in between)

CD-  200 choice

TY-  2,200 (was supposed to be yards but the pool was set for meters today so I did 2200 meters.

So far this is my longest swim session of the season.

When you guys get a chance check this out - reading this got me a bit choked up because I may look big and scary and tattooed and mean even ... but I am a sentimental mush:

Awesome inspirational story of the day ...

Great Story Paul,  Glad to see everyone is still moving along and getting better.

Been a good easy week of training.  Now 2 days off and 1st Sprint on Sunday.  Weather looks pretty good around 60, but strong winds.  The course I'm riding on is mostly North out and south back.  Down hill out and uphill back.  Winds are from the south.  So it will be real fast out and real slow back.  We'll see how it goes.

Goodluck mharvey642 at the Mean Green Triathlon.

In my thickest Irish accent:

May the current of the water push you.
May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

May the good saints protect you,
And bless you today.
And may troubles ignore you,
Each step of the way.

Swim swiftly. Bike hard. And Run fast

-matt 

Great job on the weightloss Matt. 

And good to hear there's nothing serious with your foot Mitzi

I've had a pretty unsatisfying week training wise. Work very much got in the way of things this week, so I've ended up quite short of my swim and bike goals for the week. I've also been getting increasingly tired, and ended up with 2 unscheduled rest days this week to try to catch up on some rest. Hopefully it'll do the job, and I'll be reinvigorated for a new week of training. 

Good race today, Finished 2nd in the Cydesdale division.  I'm attaching the race report.  

By the way I know that my tag is mharvey,  Just wanted to let everyone know that my first name is Mike, but there is a mtravis on here and his first name is Matt.  Sorry for the confusion.  

This event was also a college regional event. Being an indoor swim you put down your best guess at how fast you will swim your 400 and your number is assigned that way. I was standing in line with a bunch of college aged kids who looked like the could really swim. But then a guy gets in line right in front of me and he must weigh 260 lbs and looks like he hasn't worked out in 2 years. Listening to him talk I may be right. But he says he can swim. My ego doesn't buy it. So when I got in the water 10 seconds behind him my first thought is to pass him as quick as I can so that then the two girls behind me can pass me if they need to. So I take off way to fast and pass him about 35 yards into the thing and then realize I've been swimming way to fast and my breathing is out of control. And I start realizing that if I don't slow down I may not make the 400 yards. LOL. Well I do finish but the guy stayed on my heels the whole time. Lesson learned is gotta watch egos.

Mike, Way to go on with your tri! Those are some impressive times, you smashed what I did in my last one.

Mitzi, Yes I do follow a plan, but it's one that I've developed for myself. When I first started working out, and trying to be fit I followed canned plans, first the C25K plan, then a higedon HM plan. But I was never a big fan of the one size fits all training approach.

So when I started doing tris I started reading books, Specifically Joe Friel's "training bible" and Don Fink's "Be Iron Fit" where very informative. And with this information I've tried to recognize what sort of work I should be doing, and set a training plan to suit. I actually have an Excel file with my plan on it, it goes through to march 2014, with target races, peaks and tapers already mapped out. Note that I change it regularly as I learn more, for fitness changes, injury, change of goals etc. Also, I base my run training on the often referenced BarryP program, I've found running's gone much better since switching to that program last year. 

The BarryP program also matches my own philosophy, that at this stage of my 'athletic career' I have so much work to do the vast majority of my training should be in the 'base building' phase. 

If/when I stop making improvements I'll look at changing things up, either try a canned plan or a coach. And for that matter, if/when I pull the trigger on a full Ironman, I'll probably try a coach. 

Mike - nice recap on the race - you blazed through that swim holy cow!  Glad I don't have to race you as I know I can't hang with you in the water or running.  Impressive stuff!

Mitzi - right now I have a coach, I figured with stepping up to the full iron distance I would need some more focused training.  I can say this - I doubt I would use a coach again as I will have the plan he has provided to me going forward, though I do like the camaraderie and so forth that comes with being part of a group of people training towards similar goals.  There are 4 coaches working under he SSTC team - my coach has 8-10 people he is working with as do the others.  While I have not done group runs with them they do group runs, OWS (when its warmer) and group rides.  As far as the group goes all I have done with them thus far is 2 spin classes.

I had a pretty productive week - tallied 8 hours and 40 minutes and missed one gym session.  This week is lighter with my HM this weekend but including the race will still be a 6 hour week.

Saturday I did a speed workout in the pool - I am nowhere near as fast as Mike but I put in 44 minutes and did 1750 yards - mostly Tarzan sets with some sprints at the end - Tarzans are exhausting but I really feel like I am swimming fast when I am doing them - makes regular freestyle much less of an effort.  After my swim it was snowing but I went out and did my planned 5 miler - I was supposed to pace at 8:30 but the cold and snow encouraged me to HTFU so I ran a 7:52 pace instead - felt good and I got to break in my new sneakers though I am still on edge if I should race with them next Saturday.

On Sunday I went to a spin class with other members of the SSTC group.  I think my spinning experience is different than most as the instructor is a triathlon coach (as well as a spin instructor) and everyone in the class is doing olympic or longer distance this year.  This week there was 14 of us - the concentration was on heart rate and thresholds - it was fun and as my second ever spin class I thought was a nice challenge.

Today did the gym and an interval run.  My run wasn't to par with my recent runs - was freezing here today and windy and I seemed to have a side stitch the entire 6 miles.  Overall averaged an 8:20 per mile but can't say I was happy or felt comfortable.

My gameplan for the HM on Saturday is to pace out the first 7 miles at 8:40, Take the next 3 at 8:25 and then see if I have enough in the tank to run at 5k pace to the finish ... If I hit the 7 mile mark in an hour I should be good for my time goal. 

How does everyone's week look?

Man... You guys are fast...

My week was supposed to start with a 32 minute swim and a 64 minute bike, but I road 2 hours and 28 miles on my rest day on Saturday because it was beautiful outside... so I skipped my run yesterday. Today I did my 32 minute swim where I did intervals for the first time. I clocked 1100 yds. Shorter than i usually do in that time, but I am going to try to do something other than swim for distance now that I'm pretty comfortable in the water. I did a 200yd warm up then 300yds of 50yd sprints with 20 second breaks between sprints. 100yd rest swim and then another 300yds of 50s then 200 cooldown.

After the swim I did a 47 minute run I was supposed to do yesterday. 4.71 miles, so 9:59/mile pace.

The rest of my week:

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Swim 53 minutes

Thursday: Run 32 minutes

Friday: Cycling 107 minutes

Saturday: rest

Sunday: Run 53 minutes

Hopefully I can keep my runs under a 10:00/mile pace from here on out, but that one today was rough. Hopefully only because it was after the swim...

Brad, I"m curious... Your training program has some very specific times. Why are you running 47 minutes, instead of a nice round 45 or 50? 

So far this week

Mon, 45 min run

Tues, 20 min run and 50 min trainer ride.

And to come 

Wed, 45 min run, easy pace

Thurs, 75-90 min ride, @ about race effort

Fri, Long run 60-65 min

Sat, long ride, 2.5-3 hours

Sun, 60 min ride, 15-20 min brick run

No swimming for me this week as my pool is closed for the national swim champs. 

It is the Olympic training program from this site. It says it is a strict following of the 10% rule so every week increases 10% no matter what the time ends up being..

Hi guys,

Man the latest updates are soooo inspirational.  Great speeds, eager talk, so much excitement to the races and the training. Wooo hooo!  (I just came back from the gym so the endorphins are just lighting me up with positivity  ).

Before I talk about me . . .

Matt congrats on the  the weightloss.

Mike  the concept of trying to outrace the big guy, and barely doing it, is Hi-laaaaaaarious.  Yes, those gentle reminders to not judge a book by its cover.

Paul and Bulfrog,  thanks for sharing information on your training.  Both of you are such beasts when it comes to focus and structure.  It is impressive.  Part of my issue is that I am self-training, and the structure takes a while to start up, execute since it is ever-evolving as I grow in knowledge and try to manage it around the other activities I have to face in life in general.

Mitzi "friending" on BT allows you to look at your friends training blogs and routines, at the ease of a click.  May help to give deeper insight to training trends and strategies, or provide a basis for providing support for someone who may on the forum as much.  Glad to hear that your foot was just bruised.  That must be a relief.

Brad, Hi! Great steady workouts

--

Okay my training is kicking up as I'm putting it all together.  Last week not a complete workout week, but I did what I could when I could

Last week:

• Monday (B/S) = had my strongest swim ever, my confidence in the water was of the ch-chain.  800 yds in 30 min.  Spin Bike 8 miles in 23 min. My bike down, gearshift acting up.
• Tues (R/S) = did my 20 min walk/run routine using Podrunner Beginner Interval mix.  No swim due to evening mtg
• Wed (Bike/Weights) = No workout due to home emergency
• Thur (R/S) = No swim, home issues ran late, Settled on run only - 20 min walk/run routine using Podrunner Beginner Interval mix.
• Fri (Weights/Lite Yoga) = more home issues, got to gym late, just in time to spend 15 min in pool.  Decided to do Total Immersion drills
• Sat (Long bike day) = did 12 miles out of the scheduled 25 on spin bike.   Took my hybrid bike to bike shop since gear shift malfunctioned.
• Sun (Long run day) = Did 39 min run with Podrunner Speedbump interval mix.

Found out that I would not be able to train with NYCC group because my times the previous week were just too darn slow (Bummer).  Then later found out that my hybrid bike is too darn slow for me to have trained with it on the NYCC bike runs anyway - my hybrid is a the equivalent of of a cruiser mountain bike . My times on the hybrid vs my times on the spin bike for the same mileage were like night and day.  And all this time I as thinking that my legs were not strong enough .  

Mon weigh in:  Down 1.6 pounds

This week, so far:

• Mon (B/S) = Giving up on the hybrid, will be training on spin bike. 15/15 in 35 min.  It would have taken me 2 hours to do this on my hybrid. No swim, due to weather wanted to get home immediately.  Snow off the hook in NYC, bus routes were cancelled.
• Tues (R/S) = did my 20 min walk/run routine using Podrunner Beginner Interval mix.  No swim, got to gym too late.  Snow completely melted away.  Weird.

Mon weigh in:  Down 6.6 pounds (Total = 8.2)

-- Ony

Hi Ony, the simple answer is I run alot. For a more detailed answer see below

As a background, in 2011 I was training for my first HIM, using the clasic 3 swims, 3 bikes and 3 runs a week approach. I ended up with a serious calf injury which resulted in 3 months no running and no HIM that year. So I tried to find a better way to do things and ended up reading the BarryP program, which so far has worked well for me. 

I don't follow his program to the letter, but I do follow, and believe in the basic principle he preaches, "run often, mostly easy, sometimes fast"

During weekdays I'll typically do a short workout (Usually swim) in the morning, and a longer, main workout after work. I run 5-6 times a week and as per the BarryP plan my runs are broken up into 1 long, 2 medium and 2-3 short runs a week (Short = X, medium = 2X, long = 3X). The long and medium runs are done after work, when I do my main workouts. The short runs are done either in the morning on days I don't swim, or after a ride as a brick run. A typical week would go something like: 

M am swim, pm medium run

T am short run, pm bike

W am swim, pm long run

T am off, pm bike/short brick run

F am swim, pm medium run

S long bike

S short-medium run @ recovery pace (sometimes)

Currently my runs are short: 20 minutes, medium: 40-45 minutes, long 60+ minutes, which ends up with around 3-3.5 hours running/week. When peaking for the HIM I was up to 30, 60 and 90 minute runs. 

Almost all my runs are at an easy pace. Which is as per the program, as I get close to races one or both of the 'medium' runs can become speed workouts. But honestly, just getting the mileage in seems to be the main thing for me at this stage of me athletic development... 

It is a lot of running I know, but over the years I've found that I need to run at least 3.5 hours/week to feel I'm running well. Preferably I should be up over 4 hours/week. 

And for what it's worth, I've had some tight muscles on occasion, but have stayed serious injury free since switching to the more frequent running. Your results my vary however. 

Hope this helps. 

Thanks Bullfrog, it helps a lot.  And it makes quite a bit of sense, in that most running programs that I have seen, have at least a 5 day workout schedule, whereas triathlon training cuts it back to 3, I guess to accommodate the other two sports. 

In evaluating my training to date (from first tri in '09 till now), due to time constraints, I was thinking that going forward it my be in my best interest to rotate the focus year in and year out, as long as I am self training.  For example, my first year I focused on swim, because I never did OWS, and hadn't swam since I learned to swim 10 years prior.  This year, after my performance in my first Olympic, I felt I really need to gain confidence on the Bike, so if for whatever reason I have to cut out a workout, it will not be the bike. Also, when I trained for the Marathon, although I did run 4-5x a week, I felt that I could benefit from additional running, or at least one 26+ mile run before the actual marathon, simply to get my feet used to the pounding. (I thought I was going to quit at mile 23 because my feet hurt sooooo much).  

So I actually I was wondering if a Barry P like program would apply to the other sports as well, why or why not?  (Rhetorical question, but I guess I look it up and find out).

Thanks.

O!

Definitely not saying your hybrid isnt slowing you down A LOT, but your times and speeds on a spin bike will always be faster. I can average 26 mph on a spin bike for an hour and a half but at the same effort on my road bike with real roads and hills and wind its more like 18 mph... But it was more like 15mph average on my hybrid...