Ernesto's group (4th season) - Closed (Page 14)

No Workout yesterday. Went to a seminar in preparation for the Busso 70.3. Was very helpful as they had a couple local pro's there talking about planning, message, and preparation & nutrition. Long run planned for today and tomorrow a group ride.

Best wish to everyone racing on the week end.

Thanks for the heads up Ernesto , I will try to prepare as well as I can for the heat (especially after my tough experience with extreme heat during my 1st  HIM tri last year!)  I'm actually doing a bike race rehearsal this weekend of 5:30 hrs + 45 min brick to test my pacing and nutrition and will do it near the beach (conditions as hot as possible).

Today, I had a nice 2:30 / 16.3 Mi long run.  Following Ernesto's advice, for future runs I will shoot for maintaining that time cap and only increasing my pace to add a little more mileage in that time frame.

Brent, I enjoyed reading your IMTX race report and congrats on a job well done!  I hope I can come out next month also with a great experience and a positive report like yours!  I also checked the changes to the courses and they seem to be very minor from last year.

Mark Z, sorry to hear that work is not letting you "play" much, but I hope you get to have fun on the gold coast again soon and also post some of your cool pics!

I should be there around 6:30 or so.  Will try to spot you.  I will be wearing a blue brooks running shirt and black arm warmers.  If Idson't run into you - have a great race!

Today, following Brent's advice I went to Memorial Park in Houston and did a few loops around the one mile+ closed course. I saw a bunch of roadies right before six so I went and asked if they were about to ride away and they were. They didn't have a problem letting me tag along, after warning me that the pace was "brisk". Well, brisk turned out to be brutal, at some points going 30mph into a headwind! Freaking crazy roadies! That pace was straight from hell.

At times they slowed down (in neighborhoods and such) and also while going through the middle of downtown Houston, yes, you read that right. Even with stops and plenty of red lights the average pace was over 20mph. It was a fun adventure, thrilling at points being two inches behind the next wheel at 30+.

At the end of the ride there was only six people out of thirty, no wonder they call it the "Death Ride"...

I wish we had rides like this in Dallas though.

I can't upload the files because I forgot my USB-ANT+ stick but I will as soon as I get back, I want to see those HR spikes.

There are quite a few people on this site that are training for ultra marathons and run 6 days a week and often 2x per day.  I think it's pretty incredible.  BigDH and Yeats are two.

Chris:

Here is my run from Sunday:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/165880273

No dropouts - and haven't experienced anything like that (the big downspike was a stoplight).  Are you using the newer footpod (size of a quarter)?  Does your wife have the same issue?

Chris, here is my run from yesterday and like Mitch's run, I only have a few downward spikes which were from stopping at lights.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/167341123

You might want to check a new battery which is very easy to change (CR2032, I actually changed mine yesterday due to a low battery notification) and also try to calibrate it once (either via a set distance like on a track or via the GPS)

Jim, congrats on your ride, is nice to see the hard work paying off! 

Mitch and Scott, best of luck on your races this weekend and have fun!

Ernesto, just curious, how far from MAF were you  during that ride?

Chris:

Re: the footpod and pace.  I find that the footpod is sensitive enough that I have trouble calibrating it in a consistent fashion.  I would be interested in Gabe's experience here.  I've calibrated it at the track, but not sure if my stride is changing from run to run or even intra run.  Or if the different surface - concrete vs. softer track - is the culprit.  I also find that if I am running easy it might be more accurate than if running fast or vice versa.  I use the "instant pace" from the footpod as a directional indicator and the "averagepace" that gets calculated via GPS as my main point of measurement.  So in essence I quickly figure out the delta between my "instant pace" reading and my "average pace" and then monitor changes in my effort by checking both fields.  Pretty geeky on my part, i know.

-Mitch

^^^THIS!!!!

Hey Ernesto, sound like an awesome ride and look forward to seeing your Garmin link.  Did you get to play with your new toy?

Mitch,

Really geeky on your part .  

I originally had calibrated my footpod via GPS by running aprox. a 1/2 mile and I would usually get a foot cadence of 83 spm for an average run.  I then proceeded to calibrate it at the the track running 800 mts (the other calibration option), which is probably more accurate, and I now get a foot cadence of 87 spm on an average run.  I use mostly the "Avg Pace" option to gage my foot cadence (and not the "instant pace"). On faster interval/tempo runs my foot cadence goes up to 91-93 spm and on slower runs (like those Maff. based) I'm always at 87 spm.  With that said, I take the foot cadence more as an interesting check point and with the thought that a higher cadence probably helps reduce the risk of injury due to reduced impact on my body.

Good luck on your HM!  

You as well...

I'll be wearing my Team SandBag kit

Thanks, I intend to.  The weather forecast is calling for rain and possible thunderstorms now. It could get real interesting out there on the course if that happens.

Went for a 32k run this morning.
In spite of feeling sick, rain that turned into a downpour - it went surprisingly well. I'd like to think that my method of running 32kms every other week is showing some results,  but maybe it's something else.  At turning point ran into my friend Hans, who is 72 and still running regularly!
I wonder how this MAF would work for him at his age...

Hope you're all having a great weekend!