Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 14)

that sounds frustrating, good luck!

I used to drink similar amounts of diet pepsi in a day's time and I experienced the same kind of headaches.  I noticed it when Lis and I had our oldest daughter.  I had taken a couple of weeks off work and drank 4-5 cans a day, then at the end of my vacation time I noticed I was getting daily headaches.  I considered what things were different from the normal routine prior to my extended time off and remembered the additional cans of pop.  I immediately cut way down on the pop consumption and I never got headaches like that again.

I am convinced that the saccharine in diet sodas are a culprit.  I think you should slowly remove nearly all of the soda intake and replace it with water, juice or a good sports drink and see what happens.  There is noting wrong with having a can occasionally just try to limit it substantially.  I have, on average, 1 can a day at lunch time but that's normally where it stops.

I doubt the swim had much effect on what you came down with.  By the time you began to really feel the effects of whatever illness you had it had already been working in your system.  Now, if you aren't getting a good form of daily nutrition from the added training amounts you are doing it is likely that could have contributed to the intensity and length of the illness.

And from a personal account of how I handle my training during illness, I try not to change much at all.  If I have a cold I will try to continue to muscle my way through and get as much in as possible.  My theory is:  Your body's response to an illness is to kind of burn it out.  This is what happens when you have a fever.  Your body elevates it's own temperature in an attempt to build the defensive mechanisms to beat the illness.  Part of the process is to raise the body's temperature above the normal temp because the virus/bacteria thrive at our normal temp.

So, if you are still capable of running and riding at any level your are, within reason, driving the illness from your body a little quicker.  This should be done cautiously because you need to know what you are dealing with.  If it's the flu it might not be wise to try to burn out the virus, but a cold, I've found, is an easy work around.

Also pound some vitamin C and E to help provide more anti-oxidants.

Jonathan welcome back and thanks for taking the time out to catch up with the group. I always appreciate it when you, Warren, Jeff and Dirk take the time out to catch up with what's going on when you guys are away. Congrats on the newest addition to your family, she looks like a great dog. I'm sure you'll provide a great home for her. I too think it's hard to believe that people give up great dogs but sometimes I think they just don't realize how big a commitment and responsibility it is to have one.

Speaking of which I have been looking for a dog as well. It looks like it is going to happen. I have been doing my research and homework so I think it'll happen sooner rather than later. We are looking at getting a Lab Retriever pup but we'll see how that goes.

I'm no ironman expert, but this plan looks really light to me.  However, she does preface it with the "Athlete Profile." section.  If you fit that profile, which basically sort of says you could do about a 15 hour IM right now and have been comfortably  training 10 hours a week, I think you could absolutely do this plan and finish, given you really execute on race day.  That means really swimming and biking with great restraint and running with the goal of finishing.

I know there is no way I could do an IM on that amount of training, but I know people who have finished them with great times on that sort of volume.

Jonathan, I LOVE that dog!

Jonathan- Great dog! And Happy Birthday in advance. Let me know how you like the LASIK. I'm also getting it done in the spring. I'm blind as a bat, so I can't wait to be done with glasses

Mambos- Thanks for posting that video.

Will I'm no expert but you might be able to make this work if you have limited training time. I think the plan is a little light on the bike. I would think you'd want to have several of those 5 hour plus training rides built into the plan. The swim seems ok assuming you could swim the IM distance in those 90 minute sessions. The run seems pretty reasonable.

If I were to do this plan I would keep my long run as far away from my long bike as I could, so long run mid-week and a long bike on the weekend. The other thing I might do is try and tack on a few more weeks to this plan to build my base and get some more bike time in if I could that. Do you know if anybody here on BT has used this plan with success?

I took the time to read the entire plan this morning and, just as Warren said, it looks kind of light to me.  Knowing you have been pretty sketchy on your training volume for a while but not certain what you have been doing, I suggest you try to dial that plan up slightly.  The only place I don't think you would really need to add any training time is in the swim, the other 2 disciplines is where I would make the changes.

I recommend that you do the HR tests as well unless you already know your training zones.  I don't recommend the way they suggest you complete the running test.  There is no reason at all to do a 10 mile run to check HR, a 10k sure, NOT a 10 mile run.  You can also abbreviate the run by testing over 30 minutes too.  This is a much easier and safer way to do it because it is an all out effort.

The bike:  I would start here by ditching the idea that you need to spend all of your time in Zone 1 and 2 for the entire training cycle.  I would, without question, add some intensity there.  Knowing you haven't spent loads of time on the bike for a while means there will be some low hanging fruit that will provide all sorts of fitness benefits.  I also noticed that there are weeks where you only do 2 bikes in the entire training week.  I would also ditch that notion and make sure you do at least 3 per week.

I would add time on the bike too.  If you can, add 15 minutes per ride in the beginning for the long rides and about half way through add 30-45 minutes in a progressive fashion to get you close to a 6 hour ride.  These long rides are perfectly fine to complete at a zone 1-2 pace.  This would be where you will race and it will help you dial your mind in to what you should feel like over 112 miles.  You could also add some time to some of the mid week rides as well to get you up to about 1:30-1:45.

The run:  This is the place that I would add another WO per week if you have time.  Even if it's a short run of 30 minutes there are benefits to be gained from tired legs from the day before if planned right.  There would be no reason to get crazy with the 4th run by running hard or adding substantial amounts of time and you could use it as a brick every week (which would definitely NOT hurt doing).  I would say here that running in Zone 1-2 is the proper place to be.  In this mentor group you will find that we are all proponents of easy running and the BT mantra "run a lot, run easy, sometimes hard."  Once you have a solid base there is nothing wrong with doing some tempo work or even track WO's but I wouldn't get much into those with what I believe your goals are.

General:  I checked the date for B2B and found Oct 26 would be race day if you chose that race.  And if you chose to use the 13 week plan you have listed that would start the plan on or about July 28.  In the meantime I would really focus on building a rock solid base, and a large one if you can.  If you take the time now to get 2-2.5 hour rides and 2 hour runs now you will be able to carry that directly into the IM focus beginning late July.  If you have the time, I would even get the bike higher, up to 3 hours if time allows.  I know through the summer months some of this may be a struggle with your youth group activities but if you can carve out the time I think you'll see the benefits later.

Something else that will be accomplished would be that with a strong base you could skip a WO without much pressure late in the cycle and not miss or lose anything.  Knowing you will be a new dad in the coming months, this may prove to be of more benefit than you might think now.  I have learned that with the typical base I carry I could probably miss an entire week of training (and I have because of storm restoration) and not miss a beat when coming back to full training volume the following week. (After a week of no training and long storm hours I feel beat up when I begin again but the fatigue goes away soon enough and I don't even notice much after 3-4 days.)

Hi Junkies,

I've been visiting my parents (N. Georgia) so have not been on here.  I can't wait to get back and read people's post.  Ya'll have been BUSY!!!

I got some good runs while and have learned to like running in the cold and hills.  Shoot I may be to spoiled to run in the heat now.  From last year's group, it is all in the clothing.  Again thanks for that info.

I got 1 swim in and I need advice.  I swam in a 25 yard pool and the 1st 25 yards, not tired at all, but on the way back I get tired, to the point to where i can't go back again from fear of not making it.  How can i be feeling so good for 25 yards and then just get totally exhausted the 2nd 25.  What can I do to be able to just swim continuously for long periods of time without stopping.  I am not concerned about speed, i just want to finish the swim portions of the tri that are not wetsuit legal.  I ended up swimming for about 35 minutes but with rest.  It didn't help that the lady next to me could outswim a dolphin.

Got no biking or lifting in while gone...but I did get lots cakes and cookies in...lol   diet starts today...lol

It sounds to me like you may have been racing the dolphin next to you.  Seriously, how was your pace?  If you have been swimming for as long as you have been I would expect you to be able to get swims of much greater distances without any real issues. 

Another question,what is the length of pool you are used to?  If I recall correctly you swim in your own pool in your back yard.  If this is correct I think it is the overall length of the pool that is hurting you.  The 20-25 foot length of pool you use at home is not providing a suitable distance for you to become fatigued before pushing off the wall for another length.  The push off is going to allow you a bit of a coast from each side of the pool and minimize your strokes before another push off.  If my memory is correct, I suggest you get to a 25 yard/meter pool and get your swims there.

Will...I'm on board with that the plan is just too light.  I understand your goal of just wanting to finish, but there's a difference between just finishing and just finishing and feeling like crud enough to not really take it in.  Check out this plan.  It's 36 weeks, but you can see how detailed it is and if you are comfortable, you can pick it up somewhere in the middle.

Warren, thanks man.  She didn't sleep much last night at all.  She was spayed on December 15th and spent a lot of the night trying to lick her wounds.  She's still a bit timid and doesn't like to be approached quickly at all, but she's opening up.  I started her run training today.  A 1/4 mile jog back and forth around the neighborhood.  She's pretty good on the leash when walking, but tends to zig-zag when running.  She's a real sweetheart though.  She hasn't tried to chew anything and doesn't seem interested in anything but a tennis ball.

Who is on board for New Year's weight loss?  I really need at least someone on board with me to keep me honest.  Who's with me!?  I plan on weighing myself every morning when I get up.  Tomorrow I will weigh myself and post how much weight I plan on losing.  

Everyone interested will have the same goal "end-weight" of 10 lbs, regardless of how much you actually weigh (to maintain a bit of privacy and keep people comfortable).  FOR EXAMPLE:  Let's say I weight 215 and I want to lose 20 lbs and maintain a race weight of 195, my beginning weight will be 30 lbs (10 lb goal weight + 20 lbs to lose = 30 lbs).

This is the way I plan on doing it:  Because I have a hard time quitting cold turkey on anything, I'm going to limit myself to 1 "treat item" for Monday thru Friday.  This could be one piece of candy, one beer, whatever.  No, that does not mean you can eat one pint of ice cream a day, Matt.

Sounds like a great idea Tony.  I would have loved a puppy, seriously....but I have a feeling like we just don't have the expertise or time to train a new puppy right now.  Have you considered a lab rescue?  They still get puppies as well.  It's a great option and I'm so glad we went that way with our dog.  In many cases you are literally saving the animal's life.  AND it's WAY cheaper.  Not that money should be the number one factor...but let's face it....we are triathletes.  We need gear to survive. 

I am ready for this.  I did the Matt thing and weighed myself for the first time since Thanksgiving, and let's just say I didn't have the same experience Matt did.  I am seriously FAT, but I suppose I didn't the scale to tell me that.

When is the end date you have in mind Jonathan?  I'll post my numbers once I know how long we have, but I have to get this eating out of control.  All I can say is thank God I don't drink!

Jonathan I think it's a great idea to weight yourself daily. I have been doing that for the last 4 years and I can tell you it is the best way to keep yourself honest and accountable when it comes to your weight, there is no hiding from the number on the scale. I find that it is the biggest thing that keeps me in check. The other idea about not cutting out all treats is a good one too. I did that even when I was losing weight, works better then totally denying yourself as I found myself less likely to cheat and you can teach yourself to become more disciplined.

That is a pretty comprehensive plan!!  I didn't take time to read all of it because it is quite lengthy.  However, based on scratching the surface look I gave I think this plan should be pretty close being a good one to look at.

I think I had better jump on this bandwagon!  After the reduction in running the past few month, the holiday "blood in the water, shark tank feeding frenzy" I have been on and the general lack of self control I posses I NEED some accountability myself. 

Weighing myself tomorrow morning and posting my "weight" will be a little bit of a false weight however.  Knowing I will likely be on another food bender tonight will provide a higher than normal weight in the AM that will make it look like I have more weight to lose than I should, but I'll play along with the plan.

Since I am escalating my run volume more aggressively than I would normally do I should be at least moderately successful..............I hope! 

Haha...seriously FAT describes me as well. I'm in with a starting weight of 40lbs (30 to lose).

So, since there is a thread in the main forum addressing totals for the year I thought I would bring it up here and post mine first.  This year has been a good training year for me for the most part.  Besides the running related injuries I have had (and still dealing with) this year I have had a pretty decent year in training.  I missed one goal but out performed 2 others by fair amounts.  I still have a 2 hour trainer ride coming in a little bit that will add to my cycling total by about 40-ish miles So I'll end up with about 5100 miles riding, including trainer miles.

Here are my goals for 2012 followed by my totals:

 And compared to last year's totals:

Short run and bike coming, but here are my 2012 totals:

Didn't do any races in 2011, but here's 2011...

...so better comparison might be 2010 so here's 2010!

6 more run miles today, but here it is

2012