Newbz' group is FULL (Page 13)

From my blog:

On Friday I got up early and put together a good, solid 8 mile run. I started at a 7:30 minute per mile pace and tried to increase the speed each mile. I finished up the run at just about 7:00 minutes per mile with an average of 7:12 for the 8 miles.

I was planning on running again at lunch but got wrapped up in a racquetball game. It was good fun and probably a good idea to skip the run – I was already committed to running after work.

I wanted another 8 miles after work. I met Jim at about 5:15 and I was running home. Jim was going to run the first couple with me. This run was at an easy pace. I did, however, cut the run short. It just plan got dark – QUICK. I got 6 miles and called it a day. After I cleaned up - my legs were sore. Much more sore than they would have normally been. I guess it was just from the accumulating fatigue of 3 exercise sessions.

Jim came over to the house early on Saturday. We had planned on putting together a pretty long run. There was also a group ride a little bit later in the morning that I had wanted to do.

We went out at an easy pace. It took about a mile for my legs to loosen up. Jim dropped off at about mile 9. At the 10 mile turn around point I stopped and spoke with some cyclist. Jim never showed up. I turned towards home and put together some of my fastest miles – even up hill. This was the best that I had ever felt at the 10 mile mark. This feeling kept up and I felt great at 12 miles. At mile 14 I was still feeling pretty good – then it started to hurt. The last six miles were tough. I kept the pace up and I even ran mile 19 deep into the 7 minutes per mile area. I was a little sore after the run. I got 20 miles for the run and 34 miles in 2 days. Jim was waiting at my house when I finished. He got about 18 miles.

Sunday I was going to do the group cycling ride but laced up the shoes again. I headed out on the trace and my legs were slow and sore. I was thinking about only running 3 miles. Then I saw Neil heading my way. I turned around and ran with him for 2 miles. He had just finished up an 8 mile tempo run. I did the 2 mile ‘cool down’ at about a 7:20 minute per mile pace. I was now headed towards campus and would end up with 12 miles. I kept running and I was doing the numbers in my head. This was an easier run than the 20 miler the day before and if I just got 16 miles total I would complete 50 miles running in 3 days – a long weekend if you will. And that is what I did. 50 miles for Friday / Saturday / Sunday. I did something similar to this over the winter holiday and had a minor peak for the First Light Half Marathon. I am hoping for the same for “the WALL” 30k next weekend. So much for training smart.

dont hurt yourself

Got your wish!  Fun game tonight.
 

the way the Colts started I wasn't sure we'd be seeing them in the Super Bowl.  I could kinda say they pulled it out but winning by 13 points isn't what I consider pulling out a game.  I was pulling for the Saint's too but if they don't play any better than they did, they are going to get blasted.  I really want both teams to win but obviously that ain't going to happen.  I like the Colts but the Saints have been horrible so long I would like to see them win.  If it was anyone but the Steelers or Colts I'd be rooting for the Saint's for sure.

how's everyone doing today?

I'm doin good but my wife's going to drive herself into an early grave if she doesn't get some sleep.  She worked a 4 night stretch, one night off, worked last night and has 4 more nights to work.  So far shes had 3 hrs sleep today becase she's been running kids around.  I am taking the night off from training so she can get some sleep, or at least I hope she gets some sleep.  I am going hope to make supper for her but she'll probably kick me out of the kitchen.  Good thing its pancake night (so determined because I can burn water and "can't fix a sandwich").

cook em on med or med low if you are worried, flip em after you see bubbles all over, wait 30 sec, done;-)

I added some choc and peanut butter chips for good measure, that way it helps cover up the burnt taste.  They turned out ok.  I can tell cause no one has thrown up or been rushed to the hospital yet.  I better not count my chickens yet though.  I used to make cinnamon french toast and everyone loved it but I am out of practice and they all wanted pancakes anyway.

i think is you have the time to learn well/good teach, and the time to swim both it can help, but i think you could never swim another stroke and just be as well off.

Probably going gto depend on who you talk to at a given time.
I dont know how to swim anything but freestyle. i do a lot of kicking though.

Great, that's exactly what I hoped you would say.  

Hey group,

been kinda MIA for a while in the forum, but have been keeping my training log up-to-date.  Not sure if I set it up correctly according to the directions so that this group could see it, but here is the link to it.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/index-weekly.asp?memberid=169216&year=&month=&day=

Also, about the bike portion, my bike just isn't going to cut it for my race, too small, needs a major tune-up and overhaul.  I did find this Vilano TUONO 2010 Aluminum with a seat and free pedals for 298.00 including free shipping....I know you get what you pay for, but the reviews were good and it is only a little bit more than what it would cost to get my bike fixed...also, this is my first race, so I don't want to invest alot............about the pedals, the bike comes with free ones, but I think I might buy mountain pedals, so that I can use my spinning shoes.  here is the link for the bike
http://www.roadbikeoutlet.com/0featured/vilano-tuono-21sp-shimano-road-bike.html

Edited by mbeall2 2010-01-26 2:56 PM

thats not a bad looking bike at all for the price!

I got my run TT in to night, finally.  It got me fired up and ready to train some more and harder to boot.  I was a little bit nervous about doing this because I wasn't sure what kind of really hard pace I was going to be able to sustain for 30 minutes.  I did have to make adjustments while on the run but I made them as early as I could. 

I started at a 7:03 pace on a treadmill and sped the pace at 10 min. to 6:53.  I was able to sustain this for the rest of the run and the reality is I might have been able to go a little faster.  As stated above, I was worried about doing this but I think it does give me a good baseline at this point.  I intend to do another TT in a month or so to allow some more adjustments.  Also I forgot to press the lap button at 10 min. and I pressed it at 18:47, how does this affect the TT data? 

My HR avg. for the final 12 min. was 167 and the overall 30 min. was 160.  My perception after the run is that I might have been able to run at something close to a 6:45 if I pressed harder.  My guess after looking at my HR data that it might have increased a couple BPM at that pace.

Oh yeah, this pretty much blows ALL my PR's out of the water.  This makes me happy and makes me feel pretty fast for an old coot.  Now I want to get faster!!!

Dirk - that is damn fast - and even faster for on the treadmill. I think the 12 minute average is probably pretty close - or close enough. Over the twenty minutes it prob would have been a little less than 167 but this being your first real test that is prob a wash. You will get better at doing these TT's - they do not get easier - you just get better at the pacing and the pushing. They are always hard.

Good job!

Nice job. I think for easy maths sake rounding to 165 or 170 would be fine. If you think you had more to give round to 170, if you are very injury prone go the other way. either way re-test in 3 weeks or so and see waht you can do then.

Thanks for the encouragement.  I hope to get faster.  I was out of town for the night and wanted to run outside but I would not have been able run in familiar territory and I was going to lose the natural light before I finished so I thought I should skip the trail and hit the treadmill.  The treadmill sucked badly too.  It had an enormous squeak every step.

I am glad I got the TT in because I found out today I am going to Oklahoma as a preemptive kind of thing.  Leaving in the morning.  They are expecting a large ice storm to hit somewhere just south of Tulsa in AEP's (my employer) service territory.  If things go badly and there a lot of outages I don't know when I'll be home again or be able to do any training, could be up to 2 weeks.  14-18 hr days will be the norm once things get rolling and I will probably be sleep deprived for much of the restoration efforts.

Any one know anyone around the area?  If so I hope thy have a generator or they could be out of luck for a few days.

people live in OK!?!?!

all kidding aside if things do get bad i hope all goes well. I think a lot of us take for granted the people out working on things like that, and dont realize while they site at home someone is out working in those conditions.


I got back in the pool today for the first time this season, holy god its going to take some work.
i made it 1600 and it almost killed me.
the few 100s i did were so much slower than over the summer.

Thursday I regrouped on the bike trainer front. I did the same 7 intervals (1 minute on 2 minutes off – warm-up / cool down of course). But this time I dialed back the intensity a fair bit. The working sets were conducted at 16% less than before. A little bit of a letdown but a complete workout is better than an aborted workout any day. And besides, it was good for my mental health as well. These intervals might have been just a hair too easy but I can always add to it later. I needed to have the success on the trainer.

At lunch I did a nice 5 miles outside. The weather was beautiful. An easy warm-up followed by progressively faster miles. I was running with some work mates and just enjoying the spring like air (it will turn cold again - but not like the midwest or all points North). The miles progressed as follows:

1. 7:40
2. 7:02
3. 6:55
4. 6:43

And on top of that I was running easy. It felt good. Now I just need to put together 18.6 of those last miles for this weekend’s “THE WALL” 30k. Sunday will be a challenge. This race will set up my paces for the marathon. I am going to try to excel and leave it all on the levy!

Question - Do to running long last Saturday I had to miss the first big group ride of the season. There will be another ride this Saturday but I am not sure how that will affect my 30k race on Sunday. The ride will be brisk and about 40 miles. Should I be smart or hard....? Decisions, decisions

if you are looking for a good time/PR absolutely dont do the group ride, or hang back with the slower people. perosnally unless i had a free entry and just wanted to get the long run in, i would not even go to the ride (i would have a lot of issues hanging back).

even more so if you have not been riding much.

On the bike trainer, as you are getting back into things, right now work on adding either to the number of intervals, or how long they are vs harder. ie if you did 10x1 min today, do 10x1:30 or 2 next time, or 14x1 min. you'll gain a lot more at this time of the year by lengthening the amount of time you are spending at pace vs going harder and harder. if you are on the trainer 2x a week then maybe look at lengthing one, and on the other keep the intervals a bit harder and adding to the number you do (so one workout bluilds and builds, 10x1 min now, 10x2 min later, down the road 4x5 min, 3x6, 2x10, etc. and the other workout goes 10x1 HARD, then 14x1, 18x1 an so on).
the longer intervals will give you your threshold workout, the shorter a 20min power to Vo2max depending on how hard you are going.


On the training front things are looking good here. very easy 13mi run last night, cruised through in the mid 7 min range. swim this AM (man its coming along slowly!!!) and a short lift. swim, bike, and run tomorrow.

Looking around for a 5k coming up, would love a shot at cracking 17min or at least see where thigns stand right now.

Thanks for the advice - I know that your tight - it is just hard doing the right thing. I think the weather may make my decision for me - good chance of rain tomorrow AM!

dont get me wrong, i have done things WAY dumber than that and still raced pretty well, but if you do want a PR its not the way to do it (and had you been going on this ride all along i might even say go for it, but the first group ride back normally elaves me sore for a day or two (like a race).

I am in Oklahoma waiting on a job assignment so I can do some good for the customers down here.  We arrived around 4:30 this afternoon and with all the confusion in the early part of these major storms we have to park it.  I hate this part!  I could be doing some good right now.

Well I did get a treadmill run in so it's not a total loss.  I did my first ladder workout and I think it was too much after 11 hrs in a truck today.  The plan was for 5 miles but I got a call thinking we might have some work and got off the mill to answer.  No work assignment but I couldn't finish my run because........well..........because.  You really don't want to hear. 

The work out was to accelerate for 2 miles and then deccelerate for the last 2.  I was able to go as planned until the phone call but it was very hard.  Paces: 8:00, 7:41, 7:30, 7:47 and 8:06.  I got .41 of the last mile in before I had to..........not finish.  Now that I am done I am sure glad I did it.  It's late enough now they won't call for work tonight and I'll get an early night and hopefully hit it hard tomorrow.

.....After the TT on Tuesday night do you think it was to early for a hard workout?  I am just wondering if my fatigue was the TT or the fact I rode/drove so long today.



Edited by DirkP 2010-01-29 6:36 PM

prob a mix of both. people handle travel diff. i get done with it and need to get out and do something, my g/f gets done and needs to sleep.

that + the TT prob was just a bit much. after a hard race (or an effort like that ) i am not back to full speed for a few days.

My training for today consited of cutting a bunch of broken poles up and getting them ready for new one tomorrow.  the ice is incredible.  The line we are working has about 2 inches of ice on it and the poles just couldn't take the additional loading and wind loading without splintering.  There are about 650-700 poles broken off in the Lawton Oklahoma region for my employer on the transmission side of the work.  I don't have any idea how many distribution (residential type) poles are broken.

The way it looks I will not be going home for a while...........a long while.  I am going to try to post a few pic's I took from my phone later, I don't know when because I need to get some sleep.