Gray Guys/Girls Maturing Triathlete - Always OPEN (Page 12)

Here's the updated challenge numbers -

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Didn't Jimmy Buffet say something similar? 

". . . how it got there, I haven't a clue."  

Hi Stephanie,

Yes, we always have room!  Welcome.

Four-months is plenty of time to develop base fitness and put yourself in position to finish your June sprint.  Two things that will help - have a plan.  Whether that's one of the free plans here on BT or you find one elsewhere, have a written plan.  Once you have the plan, consistency is the real key to success.  We have great bunch of people here that are happy to answer any questions you might have so please don't hesitate to ask.

You may have noticed we have a weight-loss/workout challenge going.  You can find the details probably a couple of pages back at this point.  If you'd like to participate, simply jot down your current weight.  Every Sunday we do a weigh-in and then post your gain/loss and your workout minutes for the week.  Somehow, seeing your name on a chart with numbers next to it provides some motivation.

We really only ask one thing - that you participate in the forum.  None of us has all the answers so hearing from members with different ideas, opinions, and feedback is always helpful.

Again, welcome to Gray Guys/Gals.

Hey Steve,

I experience this same thing on a regular basis.  In my case, it generally revolves around swimming.  Workout starts at 5:00a.  It's 63.7 miles from my driveway to the pool parking lot - meaning I have to be on the road a little before 4.  When the alarm goes off, the negotiation in my head immediately begins.  Like you, a calm inner voice begins to give all the reasons why I should just pull the covers up and go back to sleep.  As if the early call isn't bad enough, it's winter, so we've had a few mornings where the inner voice really had some good arguments.  One morning in particular, the wind chill was about 10 below zero, there was 6-8 inches of snow on the ground and more was coming down.

I agree with you, the more consistently you are working out, the easier it is to ignore that inner voice.  The more times you tell that inner voice "NO," the easier it is to ignore the inner voice the next time.

X2 on Scott's 64 mile commute.  My local pool is about 3 miles like Steve's as well.  Scott - don't be too hard on yourself - if road conditions are bad - stay home!  Especially with high windchill factors.  Maybe go for coffee instead.

Now you're making me feel really guilty about not getting to the pool this week .  At least mine's only a 10 min drive away.  I have that same inner voice though - always giving me lots of excuses to skip the workouts.  You asked before what's keeping us from reaching our goals.  In my case, I think it's mostly just me getting in my own way.  I know what I want and I know what I need to do to get there -  it's just a matter of making myself do it (like getting out of bed in the morning to go for a swim). I find it way too easy to talk myself out of doing something - certainly a lot easier than talking myself into doing it.  The days when I don't think too much or too hard about it and just do it - those are usually my better workouts and I'm never sorry that I did them.  That's also the good thing about having a plan.  The workout is already set for me, I don't need to think about what I'm going to do or how to do it, I can just get out and do it.  

Janet

I'm not so sure 64 miles is evidence of dedication so much as it's just more proof that swimmers are, by definition, crazy.  I was swimming 6-8 hours a day by the time I was 13.  Doing crazy things in the pursuit of becoming a better swimmer has always been part of my paradigm.  No sense in changing at this late date.

LOL, that's EXACTLY what my inner voice said just his morning!

I think I define my goals with my priorities in mind. Yes, I could attain higher athletic excellence if it were a higher priority but it isn't so my goals aren't as high at they could be. 

I feel I am achieving my athletic goals.  If I ever get to a point where I don't feel that I am it will be time for me to try something new.  For now Triathlon is what I enjoy most though so I am sticking with it.   

A little trick I learned that has helped me is to have the negotiation in your head BEFORE that inner voice is talking to you, trying to talk you out of doing the workout.  You know as soon as the alarm goes off in the morning, that little voice is going to start.  You know what you are going to hear.  If you have that conversation beforehand, a practice conversation if you will, you will be ready.  When that inner voice tells you it's cold and dark outside, you will already have the answer.  When you hear, 'but you don't REALLY need to swim," you'll have your response ready - "Doing this triathlon is important to me and to do a triathlon I need to swim so YES I do REALLY need to swim."  Arm yourself with responses before the negotiation and you will do much better during the negotiation.

Another thing you can do is use this group as it's designed to be used - for support and encouragement.  You can post here that you are going to do XYZ workout tomorrow - include as many details as you're comfortable with.  Tomorrow, there's a whole group of training partners here that are going to be curious how your workout went.  Once you've "gone public," you've introduced a new level of accountability.  The next day, you can come back to the group and say, "My workout went great," or you can come back and say, "I hit the snooze button and went back to sleep."  I suspect anyone posting a workout publicly would prefer to come back and talk about how great the workout went.

Wow!! I only took Wednesday off for Valentine's day (I did swim first though) and I'm way behind.  I've read all the posts but so much to respond to and my short term memory is lacking.

I swam today and managed to swim pretty consistent 50m intervals at the specified rest period (15 secs) and felt good throughout.  I did notice my swims slowed slightly in the last few intervals but my overall average was right on my STP pace.  Because of how I felt today i'm going to go to the pool on the weekend and do my STP test over again.

I'm happy to do more 50m intervals but I think I would like to add some 100's to the mix.

Scott - Is it okay to push the STP to try and swim a bit faster?  

All the treadmill talk has peaked my interest.  We've got a colder week coming up so I may bite the bullet and do some indoor running.  I'll at least set the incline to 1% and run some intervals.

Carl - I did look at the Roth course maps and the bike would be pretty slow for me so my options are pretty limited for a relay team.  It is hard to justify the trip just for a 90 minute swim.

I think if you talk to a lot of triathletes you'll find most of us struggled with our swims in the beginning.  Everyone has their own beginner stories.  On my first sprint I was 100% certain I was going to drown.  

Steve - I had pretty much talked myself out of Roth until I read your response and I was sucked right back in.  I have a tentative offer to form a relay team just today but I still have a lot of hurdles to overcome.

Stephanie - Welcome to the group.

There's no question that entering a race changes the motivation.  It's one thing to say, "I want to do that race."  It's another thing entirely to find the race, pay an entry fee, and have it on the calendar.

Looking forward to hearing what race(s) you're doing!

George,

It's completely normal for your pace to drop slightly towards the end of a STP set.  Swimming at STP is a relatively easy pace - you're swimming at or just below threshold which you should be able to maintain for a considerable period of time.  However, STP sets kind of "sneak up" on you.  At the beginning of a STP set, that 15-seconds of rest is more than enough to get your breathing back under control.  As you get deeper into the set though, it becomes increasingly difficult to control your breathing and feel recovered in 15-seconds.  By the end of the set, you'll typically not have your breathing fully under control before you push off for the next interval and your pace will begin to reflect that.

Whenever you are swimming intervals, it is better to calculate your send-off time rather than taking the set rest-interval.  For example, if your STP is 1:30 and you are doing short rest intervals to improve endurance - 1:30 (STP) + 15" rest interval = 1:45 send-off time.  It's better to do 10 x 100 @ 1:45 target 1:30;  then it is to do 10 x 100 target 1:30 with 15" rest.  On the surface it appears those two workouts are the same.  However, with the set send-off your rest is determined by your pace.  As you begin to slow, your rest interval shortens - making the workout more challenging.  With a set rest interval - you always get the full rest interval so the workout isn't as effective or challenging.

By all means, you can do 100's instead of 50's, you can also do 200's.  I wouldn't consistently do intervals longer than 200 as you'll begin to run into stroke degradation because of fatigue.  That isn't to say the occasional set of 400's or 500's doesn't have it's place but I wouldn't do that more than once a month at the most.  As to long continuous swims, I wouldn't ever do those unless psychologically you need to do it to have comfort with the distance or you are using the long swim as a threshold test (I prefer a STP test as it takes less time and requires less recovery).  I know you frequently have the opportunity to do OWS sessions.  An OWS is by definition going to be a long continuous swim.  The value of an OWS far outweighs any concerns with fatigue induced stroke degradation so if you can do an OWS,  jump in the lake and swim,

Developing speed - to increase your speed, you swim at STP minus 3-5 seconds per 100.  Because you will be swimming below your threshold pace - or faster than threshold - you will be accumulating metabolic byproducts - lactate, lactic acid.  You will need to increase the rest interval to 30-seconds to allow your body to effectively eliminate that accumulation.  For the sake of discussion, let's again say your STP is 1:30/100y.  To calculate the send off, take your STP and subtract 5 seconds - 1:30 minus 5-seconds =1:25, then add the rest interval of 30-seconds.  A speed set might look like 10 x 100 @ 1:55, target 1:25/100.  If you are hitting the target pace of 1:25, you'd have 30-seconds rest.  Just like a short rest endurance set, this will seem like a lot of rest . . . at first.  Very quickly you will find that you aren't fully recovered before you are pushing off for the next repetition (I'll let you do the math for a 50's set).  When you first add a speed set I wouldn't do more than one set per week.  Later in the season, you can go to two speed sets per week while continuing to do at least one endurance set per week.

For both endurance and speed sets, you can simply add repetitions as your fitness and speed improve.

Exactly!  By having the conversation beforehand in your mind, you are mentally prepared when it's crunch time and your inner voice is trying to derail your workout.  I encourage people to find their "one-thing."  What's the one thing that brought you to triathlon?  That's your ammunition when the inner voice is shouting in your ear.  For some, their one-thing is fitness, for others, it's competition.  Regardless, there is one thing that makes triathlon important - what is it? (That's a question for you to answer, not one that you necessarily need to answer publicly).  A couple of years ago I was working with a male athlete who described himself as "a middle-aged fat guy."  His one-thing was he wanted to see his 12-year old daughter at the finish line of an Ironman and show her that you can do anything you set your mind to.  He used that one thing to overcome countless obstacles during training and on race day, when it got painful during the marathon, the vision of his daughter waiting for him got him to the finish line.  Find your one-thing and you'll be much better equipped when the inner voice says "don't do the workout."

Just a reminder -

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