Experior's Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 13)

I fell on my 2nd ride ever on my p2, right outside my house at the end of my 20 mile ride, unclipped left, tried to put right down!! it happened in slow motion and I managed to flip the bike up in the air attached to my feet and land on my back, phew!! I could not stop laughing I think from fear of hurting my baby!!

That's awesome!  Thanks for sharing.  They always happen in slow motion.  Glad the baby was OK. 

Hi folks, just to let you know its my first race of the season tomorrow, a 10 miler (running) called the Ferriby 10. I will be more of a run than a race, will take it nice and steady and report in tomorrow! Neil

Smoke it Neil!

Way to go Neil!  It sounds like a very pretty course, and it looks like you race strategy was smart and well-executed.  It's a great feeling to be able to push at the end.

Well do Neil! 1.20 for 10 is very good, make sure you recover properly.

way to go!  nice time and way to get out there so early in the season.

Whoohoo, Neil! What fun and glad you enjoyed it. And a t-shirt too! (I collect them too, love a good t-shirt)

Super job, Neil! Woo hooo!  Nice time on the 10 miler, wow!  And great job on sticking to your plan of just running comfortably.  Stretch those legs out today to help recover if you are sore or tight.

Michael, I have a question. What is your opinion of the hand paddles? I am not sure that is the right name but I used them once while training last year because my coach wanted me to feel the water-the catch and pull because I just was not getting it. I read somewhere they are a good tool for strength building. I don't have any and I wondered if they might help because I still don't feel like my catch and pull and push are not really getting me anywhere. I have very skinny arms and very little upper body strength. I am so slow swimming and when I try to add speed or effort I end up out of breath, choking on water and not able to do much of a continuous swim at all. I don't lift weights because of arthritis in my back so if that is the answer for building strength I would need some exercises that don't involve heavy weights or lifting overhead. That is why I was wondering if the hand paddles would help with strength.
Thanks!
Jan

great job on the race Neil,
isn't it awesome when a race plan comes together and you feel like you succeded in your race goals and now you have the confidence to go to the next level. Makes the training so worthwhile.
Dave

Another question for you to ponder Michael
For the past 3 Tri seasons I have been focusing on IM. So the bulk of my training has been obviuosly geared to that goal. Long distances has been the focus. I have incorporated all that a IM plan has given me with speed work, hill work, fartlek, power ect. But again geared to the IM race, well now I want to focus on shorter races, Sprint and Olyimpic so my question is  as follows,
My previous races have been
Sprint, 1:29:00 in 2009
            1:26:00 in 2010
Olympic 3:14:00 in 2008
              2:43:00 in 09
              2:42:00  in 10
How can I get faster, my swim time  for all races is about 2:00/100m my bike time is averaging between 26 and 29 kmh and run is 4:44/km in Sprint and 5:41 p/km in Oly.
 Is it just as simple as more time going faster? Or is it more speed work ? Lookng to take off 10 minutes in both races, already you advice on Transitions has helped. My transition times were in the 1:30 - 2:30 times so know I can take off a bunch of time there with lessstuff to do and better preperation in my transition area. Look froward to hearing from anyone with some advice.
Dave

Thanks dave, its given me confidence and motivation to push on now

thanks all for the best wishes since the race, all feels good today just a bit of post race stiffness, no dramas. Next race I think could be a duathlon subject to the timing of my youngest's bithday party!

Jan,

First -- be aware that swim is my weakest discipline.  (On the other hand, because of that, I've spent more time researching it than the other two.)

Paddles can be used either for helping to build form -- it sounds like that's what your coach was after -- or for helping to build strength, as you pointed out.  It matters what paddles you use.  The ones that are consistently recommended by good swimmers are Strokemakers.  I had to order them online -- they don't appear in my local sporting goods stores.  They come in many different sizes.  There is a size guide on their web site.  Be conservative -- i.e., if in doubt, go small.

For form:  the paddles will give you 'feedback' if your form is poor.  They will, for example, 'skate' off to on side or 'dive down' or 'rise up' if your hand position is not right.

For strength:  Just think of it as resistance training -- pull fairly hard and slowly 'against' the paddles on each stroke.

If you want to work on strength, you can do that with 'dryland swimming'.  All it takes are some resistance bands.  I like this video as an explanation.  (He has some nice form tips as well.)  You do not need to worry with heavy weights.   Raw strength is almost never our limiter in endurance sports.

If you use paddles, do so conservatively.  It is easy to become injured with them, especially when you use them for building strength, and especially if there are some flaws in your form that cause you to use your smaller muscles (e.g., rotator cuff) during the pull instead of your larger muscles (e.g., lats).

The long answer to your question is 'periodization'.  I think I'll try to write up something on that in the next several days.  The 20 second version is that you plan your training so that more generic improvements are covered early in your training plan, while later, you work on more race-specific improvements.  For short course, that often (but this depends somewhat on circumstance) means doing more higher volume, lower intensity, work earlier, and higher intensity work closer to race day.

Here are a few thoughts for now.

There are two ingredients to speed:

1.  The Neuro-muscular capacity to move your limbs in the desired way (i.e., with good form, and quickly enough to produce the desired speed)

2.  The cardio-vascular ability to maintain that pace for the desired distance.

ALL training will help with BOTH of these, but some training is more focused on the first, and some on the second.  Depending on where you are right now in terms of your ability to absorb intense training, the first ingredient can be improved by drills and various types of intervals.  The second is mainly improved by just s/b/r more, at a variety of efforts.

Let's take each individually:

SWIM:  Assuming that you are swimming with good enough form that you aren't going to injure yourself by swimming hard, your body can absorb more hard swimming than most of us have the time to put in.  So warm up (400-800 yds is a good amount to warm up -- remember to keep this part relatively easy).  Then get in a few drills at least on some days.  Then put in some very hard efforts.  These can come in a variety of forms (and should).  Do some sets of 100s or 200s where you are near 'tempo' pace (what you can hold for 1000 yds all-out) with very little rest (5-10s) between sets.  Do some sets of 100s or 200s where you are nearly sprinting, but with more rest (1:00 or so).  Do some longer stuff (like 4x400 or 2x800), some ladders (100,200,400,800,400,200,100), and some descending sets (such as 12x100 descending every 4).  In short, mix it up, but keep the focus on hard efforts in the pool.

BIKE:  Biking hard incurs a slightly higher recovery cost than does swimming hard, but you can still afford to put in a few good efforts per week, and intersperse those with easier efforts if you have the time.  Try to focus on hard intervals at least once per week.  You can mix it up from week to week.  Warm up (15 minutes is a good warm-up -- after 10 minutes of warming up, throw in a few short harder efforts as part of the warm-up) first.  Then you can do any of a number of things, from 2x20 minutes (with 2-5 minutes rest between) at threshold effort (what you could hold for an hour) down to 20x30"/30" sprint/recovery, and many things in between.  Jorge's Winter Bike Plan (see this thread) would give you lots of good ideas.  One other ride should be a normal moderate ride, and one ride should be longer.  Don't let your long ride become 'slow and easy'.  Make sure to put in some real effort there.  For example, for an Oly race, you might consider aiming for 5 miles warm-up, 20 miles at race pace, 5 miles cool down.  You can even increase the length of the main part of the ride.  Unlike running, you can actually get away with doing a decent amount of riding at or near your race effort.

RUN:  What you can do here depends a lot more on your ability to absorb intensity without getting injured.  For starters, I'd say that until you are running around 25 miles per week, preferably a bit more, the best thing you can do for yourself is just to run more.  At less than 25mpw, you can incorporate faster running by doing strides a couple of times per week (run something like 30s at a quick, but not sprinting, pace maybe 8-10 times throughout a normal run).  On days when you feel especially good, throw some 'fartleks' (roughly 2-5 minutes of somewhat harder running -- 5k or 10k race pace) into your run.  But mostly just run more.  And don't make your long runs too easy!  Save your easiest running for your shorter runs,and be prepared to put in a slightly harder effort into at least some of your long runs.

Once you are consistently running around 25mpw or more, you could start thinking about adding in some more structured speedwork.  (Why not before?  Because, for most of us -- yes, there are exceptions -- we need that base of 25+mpw to build and maintain resilience to the battering that we will take during speedwork.)  Do it in small doses!  It doesn't take much, and it is very very hard on your body.  (I'm currently running 40-50mpw and only around 2 of that is formal speedwork.  And even in that amount it is taking its toll on me...)  Neuro-muscular adaptations are generally thought to be triggered by shorter faster stuff (200s, 400s).  When you start doing 800s and mile repeats, you are building the ability to maintain speed over time.  If you want to get in to this sort of run training, I highly recommend the book Daniels' Running Formula, or read the articles at (and use the calculator at) http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/(careful! -- it plays some loud music when you open the site).

Dave -- I'm not 100% confident that I've spoken to your question, so ask again if I'm not being helpful!




Edited by Experior 2011-01-31 8:28 PM

Great info Michael,thanks
yes it does make sense. I used the perodization theory for IM training and it worked.Was not so sure if the same theory was used for short races. I like the Mcmillan stuff as well, I have read some of it and will read more for sure. I like the pace training idea and a great article on the site regarding training your inner GPS, training on effort and getting comfortable with the way your body reacts and feels as opposed to being focused on strictly using  HR monitors and electronic other gadgets to find fitness levels.Great stuff thanks again

OK, everyone, February is upon us.  It is not too late to commit to a goal or two if you wish!  I'll collect together the goals that people have mentioned so far, and post it all together.  Then we'll do weekly updates.

I hope everyone is doing well.  I'm having a 'down' week, so everything is nice and easy this week.

I just got back from a session of filming at the pool with a fellow triathlete.  Wow, is that ever an eye-opening experience!  Every time I see myself swim I wince in pain, but it does help a lot.  The camera doesn't lie.  I highly recommend it.

Hope everyone is doing well, sorry I have been a bit MIA.  Work and home stuff is wearing me out.  I wanted to throw out my February goal.  I'd like to hit 50 miles running for the month.  Certainly nothing to brag about for most but it would be a personal best for me and would let me know I'm making progress. 

hi everyone,  I hope you all are doing well.  I wanted to check in about my feburary goals.  Being so new at everything I think my goal is to continue to run 3 days a week, swim 3 days a week and ad 2 bikes/spin to the work as well as core strength workouts after my runs. 

Feb. isn't getting off to a great start.  Two nights ago I must have fallen asleep in a really bad position because as I was putting my shoes on to go to 6 am swim, the whole right side of my back from my hip to my shoulder siezed up.  So now siwm yesterday and though i'm feeling 50% better, i'm going to refrain from running today to.  It's so hard to tell myself no, but with an old injury flaring up, i don't want to put myself out for weeks by not resting for a few days.

Hi, everyone. 

Still no swimming for me this week. The thought of a cold pool after nursing a head cold and coughing for the last week is not appealing ... although that ends tomorrow!!. I'm feeling almost back to normal and I am starting to get anxious about not being able to swim for almost 2 weeks.

Anyway, I will base my Feb. goals on my January training totals:

Bike:	5h 32m  - 95 Mi
Run:	5h 57m 10s  - 38.6 Mi
Swim:	3h 10m  - 6450 Yd

 
So goals for Feb (trying to complete these with 3 sessions per week of s/b/r):
Bike: 120 miles
Run: 50 miles
Swim: 12000 m

 The training logs are great. I really hits you when you see your numbers for the month. Good motivation. 

Take care
- Manuel

Since my training is dependent upon my knee, I will make my February goal weight-oriented.  I will lose 6+ lbs. in February.  I will re-weigh myself tomorrow and start from that point, since I haven't recorded any weights for Feb. yet.

Michael, thank you so much. Great information. I really like the video on the dry land drills with the resistance cord. I am snowed in today so I am going to try those since I was planning on swimming on this day according to my plan to get my goal of 3 swims, 3 runs and 3 bikes in this week.
I really appreciate the information.
Jan

Great goals everyone.  My day today was hellaciously busy, so I'm taking it easy tonight, and I'll collect goals and post tomorrow.

Neil, I did my first Feb core workout.  That's going to be one tough goal to meet.  I can't tell you how much I dislike core training!