Tri Mark's Madness Group-Closed (Page 14)

This really depends on the amount of training you do in a week.  If you do an average of an hour a day, you could suffice with just taking a day off here and there or easing off intensity once in a while.  If you're more like 12-14 hours or greater, you MUST take your weeks where you back way the hell off.  You absolutely have to trust that the growth and the progress takes place in those weeks. 

The challenge is that you will generally not feel "great" or just not right in that week.  Your body will feel funny and ironically the slower workouts may feel harder than normal, all sorts of things.  At the very end of that week, or the first part of the next, you need to "pop".  You come out with some higher volume, higher intensity work, and snap your body right back into the groove.  It also gets your head right when you see the gains.

thanks mark!

very imformative and i totally forgot about wind resistance.  I always try to run at a small incline on the treadmill to make up for the lack of propulsion, however there always is wind resistance and the uneven footing of trail running you cant account for.  i simply just need to hone in my zones and lactate threshold. 

thanks!

barrett

Wow, that was a jam-packed weekend!  Congrats on your 5k and great job biking and swimming.  It must be fun to have your mom along for company.

Jacqui

I did my first ever brick workout tonight - boy was that different!  I've heard that your legs are like jello coming off the bike into the run, but I've never experienced it.  I decided to do a quick mile or so after my short bike rides so this was the first.

The first half mile I struggled to hit a 10:30 pace, but finally picked it up on the second half and wound up with a 9:10 mile.

Off to the pool in a bit!

Jacqui

Wow - everyone's been busy racing already.  Congrats to all of you.  Especially those who PR'd and medaled.  And Mark's mom got a PR too since it was her 1st.

Denise

the top 3 finishers finished 13 min, 11 min, and 11 min slower than their typical road half marathon they said.  That gives me some hope for a 1:35 at the end of May.

Maybe the thought of training on the treadmill more is a bad idea . . . rest day today, then back at it tomorrow!

Happy training guys!

Barrett

Good job, Jacqui, with the brick. You picked it up really well! 

Interesting master swim set tonight--a kind of tri swim simulation in a 25 yard pool.  20 or so swimmers start at the same time in the same corner of the pool and swim 125 yards in a zigzag to the opposite corner. Elbows, feet, swimming on top of each other, just like in a mass start. After we did that once, our coach explained a better way would be to relax as best one could, know your level, and conserve energy. The smart people were the ones who knew they were slower and hung back and let the elites beat each other up. The time difference between the first one to finish and the last was about 40 seconds--which our swim coach said could be made up in the bike or run with less stress.

Then we did a 10 swimmer per lane mass start 25 sprint. The smart folks drafted rather than tried to beat the ones in front to the wall.

We have not talked about drafting at all, but you raise a really good point.  If you are able to find someone and hang on to their feet (figuratively not literally, they get annoyed if you really do), you can really make your life easier in a couple of ways.  First, swimming in a draft reduces your output.  I've heard anywhere from 10-30% less effort.  All I know is, I can hang with swimmers that are much faster than me at Masters if I stay in the draft, but if I fall out, they dust me.  It's a lot different leading a lap than staying on someone's tail.  The other thing it saves you is a lot of sighting.  If they are a straight swimmer, you can sight less.  I sight every 8th stroke.  If the bouys are hard to see or on my left, it totally kills momentum.  By looking up you slow your glide way down.  Over 1.2 or 2.4 miles, every 8th stroke is a lot of sighting.  If there's a big crowd all moving the same direction, hang with them and look every once in a while. 

Finally, remember this.  If you can hang with the lead of a pack in your heat, just relax.  You'll get bumped and jostled and stuff, but for the most part, it's just annoying.  It's not going to hurt you or drown you if you are swimming that strong.  Also no that you cannot win your race in the swim.  You can lose it if you competiive, but you can't win.  They are won in the run, every time.  The longer the race, the more important the run is.  If you go too hard in the swim or bike, you'll walk the run.  Think about this.  If you run 8:30 miles, but you cooked the bike and you're now walking some.  You turn 13-14 minute miles with that walking in there.  You made 4 minutes on the bike by flying, and 40 seconds on the swim by going all out, but you've lost that in the first mile you did some walking, and you'll double your time loss in the next mile.

"I've never met someone walking in the Ironman run bragging about how good their bike was."

Wow, this mentor group is great.  I'm having a hard time with motivation this week (I am very proud to say that I still made it to the pool this morning!  It felt like much more of an accomplishment than usual.).  Getting caught up with all of you is just what I needed to get back on track.  Great work on the races! 

To follow up on sighting- how do people practice sighting in a pool?  I've been sighting every 6 strokes, and I typically practice sighting during the 'meat' of my workout- i.e. whatever isn't warmup or cool down.  Two of the three races I have coming up are indoor, however, so I've been including sighting much less often.  Today I did a couple of 200m repeats with sighting, after several workouts without.  Definitely noticed the difference!  I can keep a consistent 3:00 pace for 200m repeats without sighting, but added at least 5 seconds per 200m with it.  Dropping that back to sighting every 8 should help, maybe?

   -Tel

QD- You'll have to let me know how it goes!  I feel like I lucked out with how well these goggles work for me, and hopefully they'll do just as well for you!

  -Tel

Ok, last post.  I just had to add that this ABSOLUTELY happened to me.  I was towards the front end of the pack in the swim, went too hard on the bike, then got a horrific charley horse heading out of T2.  Had to walk (limp) for at least a couple of minutes and then shuffled through the rest of the run.  It's the biggest problem from my first race that I want to fix in my next.  Well, that and having my number on a belt instead of a jersey.  Such contortion to put on a dry jersey while still wet from swimming!  Unwise!  Mark, if only I could have read your post talking through race transitions...

We practiced sighting last night in the pool by swimming 10-14 strokes with our eyes closed (for most us, that meant we opened our eyes in time to see the wall!) and then sight.

Sighting does cost time. Some of it seems to be because in lifting your head, your hips sink. Drafting helps because you can just follow others and let them do the sighting for you. But you can't count on being able to draft the whole time. Mark may have already said this, but practicing bilateral breathing helps you swim straighter because if you just breath to one side, you tend to pull more strongly on one side. Bilateral breathing helps to even it out. It can help reduce sighting in open water because you get a better sense of where you are than if you are only looking to one side.

Denise,

I pointed that out to my mom about the PR.  I told her the hard part is to get a new one every time you do the same race.  Even harder still is taking your all time best on a flat course and beating it in tough conditions.  She was so excited when she read the results to me that I had won my AG.  I'm pretty sure she's now hooked.  I also had to eat some crow as my son kept telling me I was 14th and that he counted 13 people finish ahead of me.  I was sure he was wrong as I told my wife I thought there was a couple dozen ahead of me at least, but I was really focused on mechanics as I approached the turn around as it was into the wind, and then in the last mile I passed a few, so I didn't know for sure.  So when I saw that I was 15th, I had to give him props for only missing by one.  I didn't know he paid that close attention to anything I do...except when I'm swearing, he always seems to pay attention to that.

Now on to PR at 13.1 on 5/1.  My coach forgot I was racing this and need to qualify for an elite corral at Chicago to get ahead of about 35,000 other folks.  She asked on Sunday when my next race is.  So I guess it's a good thing volume is high and my intensity has been up training for my tris, cuz that gives me about a week to train. 

You practice sight breathing in the pool just as you would in open water.  The key to doing it well is to make sure that you don't stop.  You have to adjust your breathing at whatever interval you choose.  If you are not a straight swimmer, you need to do it more frequently.  I don't tend to believe that if you close your eyes you will create the same sensation.  I also don't believe that tells you if you swim straight or not.  If you close your eyes, you will tend to get a little disoriented as there is zero light.  Even in the murkiest of water, the light is present, so if you know nothing else, you know where "up" is. 

A couple of tips that I've learned on sight breathing that might be helpful.  The best is that you really should look at the course from a few different angles prior to getting in the water.  If you can swim it the day before, you should.  When you're looking at it or swimming it, you should look really hard for landmarks that line you up with the bouys that are tall, or high on a bank, or really bright and big.  The reason for this is that sometimes you'll find, you can use those INSTEAD of the course bouys.  For instance, one lake I raced at had a huge blue sailboat on a lift no more than 100 yards from the end of the course, and it was right in line with the longest leg of the course.  I was able to see it as much by rolling my eyes forward as lifting my head.  This left me only having to glance up once in a while.  A common thing you can do too, is a lot of the races, particularly sprints, you run out, swim a short distance away from shore, then turn right or left, swim most of the distance, then back to shore.  If this is the case, the vast majority of your distance, the shoreline is on your right or left.  Breathe to that side if you can, and just keep watching your distance from the shoreline.  The bouys will come into view every so often as well, and you adjust there. 

There are lots of ways to cheat.  If you see a pack, you're probably in line.  If you look up and you're following a lone swimmer, congrats, your'e like me and picked the one clown who cannot sight or swim straight, but swims fast and you're now drafting fast off course!  Happened to me in Wisconsin on the second 1.2 miles.  Nothing makes you feel better than knowing you made a tough task even tougher!

x2 on the link.  I swam AAU as a kid (and then masters) and we were always taught to "s" under your body.  I tried this method my last workout and after decades upon decades of swimming one way it is going to take a while to teach this old dog new tricks, but I'm up for it.  Thanks again, Mark for the link!

Mark,

This is recovery week for me and next week I start BUILD phase (for 1/2 in July).  Saturday is my Off day.  However, on Saturday at the end of my 1st week, I have a duathlon (2,14,3) and the next Saturday I have a triathlon (600,13,2.8).  These are C races for me.  I'm thinking I'll just keep things simple, take Fridays off and leave everything else the same. 

What do you think?

Denise

boston marathon anyone? IT WAS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here are the run splits for Ryan Hall (4th place overall, first american)

http://www.xtri.com/features/detail/284-itemId.511712033.html

To think 2:05 is a respectable half marathon time! And to do a full in that amount?!?!?! AMAZING!

Wow!  How cool to actually see his Garmin data.  I am just amazed at how quickly he (and others) ran that marathon.  They barely looked like they were exerting themselves.

I was watching some of the live feed from my computer at work.  It was so funny to see Ryan constantly checking his Garmin.  Now I feel like a pro because I check it lots when racing.  If only that habit would make me faster, lol.

Jacqui

OK, am I the only one who has some "off season pounds" to get rid of??  I am about 8 pounds over my usual weight, and I probably could even go a few pounds lower than that.  I have TRIED to watch my food for several weeks, but unfortunately I am just watching myself shove more food in my mouth.  (I confess to being an emotional eater and I really struggle with dieting.)

Anyone up for a "get down to racing weight" challenge?  Or maybe we could support each other as we concentrate on good nutrition as well as our physical training??  I am open to any tips and suggestions!

~Jacqui

I have had a great couple day's of training. Tuesday I went for a 6 mile run, I wanted to beat my time from the weak before "52 minutes". I started out at a very comfortable pace, and at the half way point I was already 2 minutes ahead of my pace. Heading back home I was feeling like I was running slower"I don't have a garmin" so I picked up the pace and pushed it for the last mile. I ended up with 49 minutes!!! That is the first time I have been under 50 minutes for 6 miles. It felt great!! Today I went for a 30 mile bike ride averaging a 19 mile pace. It was a little slower then normal but the wind and RAIN had something to do with that. Like they say if it's not raining your not training

Something tells me you like your chocolate I told my wife what your had for your name and she loved it. During the off season I decided to try lifting heavy with a body builder. He new what he was doing and put 15 lbs on me in 4 months. That was a big mistake so I was where you were Now I am only 2 lbs off from were I raced my marathon last year. I have 4 weeks and I should be able to lose that, I hope.