Ernesto's group (third season) - CLOSED (Page 13)

Ok, so far in the challenge we have:

- Ernesto

- Jackie

- Chris

- James

- Elizabeth K

- Joe D

- Todd TX

- Samy

- Gabe

-Jennie (Jen)

-Matt

- Barry

Repost with your name on it if you're in.

2nd ride on my new bike this morning, and I think I got it. And by that, I mean this is the first time the ride felt like a workout. So I understand the need to push continuously during a ride. I realize now that I might have been coasting part of previous rides. Might be a dumb concept for most, but for this new rider coming from MTB its was one of those Eureka moments.

I am doing a new route, basically a 3.5 mile loop, requiring 2 u-turns. This way I avoid traffic lights, have minor car traffic, and can concentrate on my riding.

Increase avg. cadence from 68 to 75, speed from 14.5 to 16.1, even though I forgot to record the first 3.5 mile lap (out of 3) due to a snafu with my Garmin buttons. So the actual results might have been even better. Want to get cadence between 80-90 and speed to 18 mph before my February race. Do yo think those are aggressive/passive goals? And my nemesis the water bottle made another appearance.

On a side note, although I didn't actually chaffe, at the end of the ride my inner thighs felt a litttle sensitive. Do you guys/gals use chamois butter for every ride? How do you apply it (i.e. directly to the chamois or to you)? Does it stain?

Samy

 Me too.

Today Im working and its cold and raining... Nothing worse.

About the goals, worry about a high turnover (90+) before you worry about speed. Here's why: your brain needs to learn how to fire at that rate (neuromuscular connection) before your muscles learn to push more "torque" (watts of energy) by adaptation. Strength is relatively easy to get, but the turnover not. All that said, go at a very high cadence on an easy gear (I get it up to 120RPM sometimes) and do it to the point where it feels uncomfortable. Again, it is not about speed now. In a few weeks 90RPM will feel natural to you, then we worry about speed but that is a whole different chapter.

I finally got a run in today.  Hoping to start getting back into my training, with a real push from the weekend.  I've posted my garmin connect link on my training log.  I'm hoping I've got the right bit there, so let me know if it all works okay.

On the challenge, I'd be happy to take part, but I have to have a rest day every week.  I learned very early on that it's important to have that day, both for my physical and mental health...

I have to admit I'm struggling to keep up with this group.  By the time I've read everyone's posts I've run out of time and haven't managed to post anything myself.  So sorry if I'm a little quiet.  I keep intending to respond to things, and then realise they were 3 pages back and the discussion has moved on!

The one thing I wanted to add to the swimming discussion is that I think it's worth checking out swim smooth.  It has a lovely graphic of a good freestyle stroke, and if you're a visual person I think it can really help get an idea of what you're aiming for.

I also like this one:

Ironman

Scott and I did our trainer session.  It was tough for me given that I have been training aerobic for me and still very new to all of this.  If anyone looks at the log and garmin link there are 2 points where me heart rate really drops.  The first at 43minutes is where I got off the bike and did isometric squats for 2 90second repeats.  Scott stayed on the bike and have to ride standing during those sets.  The other was a phone call that we had been waiting on.  We had 15 minutes left and after the call we had both cooled down significantly.  Tough to get the momentum back at that point.  

Concur on the high cadence on the bike.  My first tri book said that Lance Armstrong rode at a high cadence (at least 90 rpm), and I was a believer at that point.  If it works for Lance then I'll buy into it.    The first few months I was riding I was so obsessed with my cadence I had to remind myself to look where I was going so I wouldn't crash.  It didn't take to long for the high cadence to become natural.

Today's trainer ride was Spinervals 5.0.  It was nice to finally push on a ride harder than just being aerobic after the last few months of nothing but aerobic base building workouts.  22.19 miles in 1:27:34.  HR data is a bit dorked due to 4 minutes of not pedaling but not stopping my watch while I was on the phone.  I've been playing phone tag with the ski resort people for two days trying to set up lessons for Jennie and our two kids, and of course they call with 15 minutes left to go in the workout.  This week marks the beginning of our strength building phase which is 4 weeks long.  Then we'll start on speed work on the track in preparation for our big 10k race at the end of March.  Tomorrow we'll go run hill repeats.

Ok, so far in the challenge we have:

- Ernesto

- Jackie

- Chris

- James

- Elizabeth K

- Joe D

- Todd TX

- Samy

- Gabe

-Jennie (Jen)

-Matt

- Barry

- Scott

Repost with your name on it if you're in.

The workout link worked just fine. About being part of the challenge, nobody says you have to do EVERY workout every day, the winner of the challenge is the one with all the days of the month completed, but ask anybody who did the November challenge and everybody feels like they won (no cheap rhetoric here) in some way from the frequency. Once you're in it though, you'll feel it hard to quit.

Good runs in you Garmin connect, however I noticed that after a quarter mile WU, you picked up the pace quite a bit and then dropped. Is this on purpose? Is it a tempo run?

Jim On the road vs tri bike.  I bought a carbon fiber tri-bike this year because my aluminum road bike was 6 years old and my goal is to do a HIM and IM this year and next.  Now people tell me I should be doing a lot of my endurance training on my road bike.  I have seen some really nice used bikes in my size (which are hard to come by) for 1000-1200.  In fact, I lost out on a Fuji with full Dura-ace components including wheels on Ebay because I was not willing to pay the 1225 that it sold for.  I really like riding my tri-bike and I am actually about 1 1/2 MPH faster on it.  Since I'm assuming you are not a 48cm bike size, you should have no problem finding a nice used bike, tri or otherwise, that someone who has upgraded is selling.  It just takes patience.

On the challenge:

To the new people in the group from the chronologically old member.  I freaked out on the November challenge and giving up my rest days.  It worked out fine.  In fact, I think everyone in the challenge that raced that month set PRs.  Of course, we all took the first 3 days of December off

Don't be afraid to try it and just back off if you need to.  I found that when I didn't feel like a workout, I would go swim or do a really easy spin or run.  I learned it's called "active" recovery.  Remember, you only have to do it for 30 minutes and it doesn't have to be fast or long.  It's all about frequency. It's more of an accountability thing, rather than a competition with one another.  We all came out winners!

Try it, you might like it.

Another one:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1301939770001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAABAI06Hk~,I3WnLiyY6vf9vf3ctdk1MO9PoU1hznrc&bctid=51199087001

Thanks Ernesto.  I might look into the sufferfest videos next month.  This month's budget got hammered thanks to Christmas.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=417835&posts=1&start=1

Jim,

This is a nice bike with nice components.  If it were my size, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.  You might be able to negotiate.  Some of the racing teams use this bike.

This is a nice bike with nice components.  If it were my size, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.  You might be able to negotiate.  Some of the racing teams use this bike.

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Jackie
Hey Jackie, thanks for the link, I will check it out.

Jim