MJEWEN Summer 2013 Mentor Group - OPEN (Page 14)

Melissa in 2 of my bottles I dropped in a GU Brew tablet and also had 3 gels on the ride. I'm trying to figure out nutrition plan because last year I started having some stomach cramping on the bike leg of my race.

Talk about tough 800 repeats are butt kickers! Good luck with your workout tonight.

Today is a scheduled day off. All I have planned today is a 20min strength workout.

Did a 45 minute ride in mostly the aero position last night. I felt a bit wobbly, but it got better as the miles went by. So I will continue with some short rides using the bars. I would ride on the hoods note my speed and drop to the bars. I averaged 1/2 mph faster in the drops. As I get more confident I will probably get a bit faster in the drops (I hope).

Terry I get this message when I try to look at your photos " This member has chosen to not display their data". I think I have been able to see everyone else's photos, just not yours. Glitch in the sytem maybe?

We finally got some rain this morning. We were getting really dry here. Happy to see some water!

Got a new retainer installed this morning . The Dentist got a kick out of my story on how & when it popped off.

sorry crissy_jo, I just went and changed my setting to everyone can view... i just don't know how to add friends .... i did it about a year ago,, i just forgot how to do it.

Emile... I had the same problem with stomach cramping last year.

I started using Hammer products Heed and Perpetuem in my drink bottle.. it seems to have calmed the stomach cramping and kept me with enough "stuff" to keep going. I am also working between Hammer Endurolytes and SaltStic caps (endurolytes...) both keep me from muscle cramping and seem to have done the work....

I don't have the problem with cramping so much as the day-long headache from dehydration after a workout in the heat. It seems that no matter how much I try to drink, I get that headache. Never tried a salt cap, I'm wondering if they are the same thing as the endurolytes? Or am I comparing apples & oranges?

Well, I just ordered some of the Gu products (brew and recovery brew), so hopefully those will help.

endurolytes and SaltStic caps are the same thing... one is a Hammer product, the other Saltstic product. I prefer SaltStic because their dosage is one per 33-45 minutes, whereas Hammer is about 2-3 every hour. they basically have the same ingredients....

The 45 minute thing helps me break up the longer rides...

overheating is defineitely a concern.... cooling your core helps tremendously... put ice under your cap, throw ice down your shirt and pants really helps the heat... the bad part is that the water runs down your leg into your running shoes and it makes a sloshing sound... keep covered as much as you can... long sleeve shirts are great for longer races and longer bike rides.....

I just got a very light white long sleeve summer shirt. I'm afraid to put it on, it's so white! But I will definitely wear it the next time I have to run in the sunshine.

The 45 minutes coincides pretty much with my nutrition on a long run, too. Although I guess it would make sense to alternate the tabs and the nutrition, so it has a chance to get absorbed.

So, yesterday was track. Only 4 repeats of 800 m with 200 m recovery. I had a goal time of 4:25 and only hit it the first time. The heat was brutal, and I feel like I really broke down out there, only finishing the last repeat at 5:00! I could barely put one foot in front of the other, it felt like. It was a combo of the heat and no speed work on my legs since ... April, I think.

I will swim today, and my new plan is to bike on the swim days, at least to bike on the trainer. I really want to get outside more, though, especially with trying to work on my aero position.

Melissa, nice job on the 800 repeats. I know I would really stink at doing those. We have a local running group that meets on Tuesday for track workouts, but I have not been able to attend either because of prior commitments or lack of guts to try it! Maybe next week. You have inspired me.

Last night my hubby and I went on a 22.5 mi. ride. It was a beautiful night. We had our boys who were heading to a school activity (30 min. away) take us out there and we rode home taking a few detours to add a few more miles in. This route has road miles and trail miles, hills and flats, so it is a nice ride. My hubby is doing well on the bike. Funny story though: When he first started riding he complained of tailbone pain quite a bit. I suggested he try bike shorts, like the loose fitting kind with the padded shorts underneath. He said, no way. We went on that overnight weekend ride and he still didn't want to try bike shorts, despite some serious chaffing and the next week full of working outside in the heat in black polyester pants for work. Well, the day before my last tri he asked if we could stop by Sports Authority on our way to meet up with Crissy and Ken and do the packet pickup thing. When I asked why, he said, "well, they have some bike shorts there." I chuckled to myself, but just smiled and said, "sure, no problem." SA didn't have what he wanted, so we left, but on our way home we stopped at a LBS to check out their sidewalk sale and I desperately needed new tires before the tri. He found some bike short liners 50% off and I told him he better get them for himself, or I would get them for him. He went out for a ride Monday night and came home in a rather good mood. He was happy to have increased his usual mileage and then said, "You know, I learned something on tonight's ride." I said, "what did you learn." He replied, "I learned I will never again go on a bike ride without bike shorts!" His tailbone issue has improved as well as his increase in milage. I am just so darn proud of him. I think he likes to go out and ride b/c everytime he goes out he sees someone he knows along the trail or somewhere.

In limbo right now on what to train for next. I might train for a 10K run this fall and then decide about next spring's races and triathlons. Once school starts again, I won't have as much time and energy for evening and early morning workouts. I am doing an organized ride with friends in Sept. which is a tough ride, but fun if the weather is nice. It tends to be cold and wet at start, then warms us at the finish.

Thinking of getting a trainer for the winter. Would want something that my hubby and I can easily switch out bikes, so we can both use it. Is that even possible? Any suggestions? And you know I don't want to spend a ton of money!

Melissa - 800's in the heat would be torture! Good job sticking with it - even if you felt you couldn't do the right pace you at least put in the effort (probably more effort than if it had been cool), right?!

Denise - I too want to look at some kind of trainer for winter months. What about rollers? Anyone have rollers? What do you think of them? I heard they are great for balance work.

Terry - I'm going to try to look at your photos again. :-)

I added a couple photos from the Papillion tri to my profile, one from each leg of the race.

-Crissy

Great action shots! And I love that tri suit - it's very flattering.

hey crissy... if you would click my photo and add me as a friend, I might be able to see yoru photos... i can't seem to view them now....

Funny you say that - when I saw the suit on the model I thought the same thing. Then I saw my photos, I don't look near as good as the model. lol. It's a Sugoi RS. I got it new off eBay for $59 - what a deal!

Terry - I added you as a friend, see if that helps. I don't have an album, just photos on my profile.

Edited by crissy_jo 2013-07-24 10:47 PM

thanks crissy.... nice tri suit......
all the photo really good.... I like the photo that looks like an aerial view of you running along the trail....

Melissa great job on the 800 repeats! They are tough in ideal running weather but in the summer heat they are doubly tough.

Crissy thanks for sharing the pics.

Yesterday I woke up and swam about 1.2mi in the lake and then and ran 6mi. For what ever reason yesterdays run my legs felt better than they have in a long time. Although today I went out for a short 3mi run and my legs felt completely trashed.

http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/outdoor-activities/triathlons/tr...

Found this article a good read about rollers. That's as far as I have gotten in my research on rollers and trainers.

Denise I could remember thinking exactly the way your husband did when I first started riding bikes. I quickly learned who cares what I look like as long as my it can make my butt stop hurting.

I own a trainer made by Giant. It is a fairly inexpensive trainer($150 new) compared to what some trainers cost but the way I look at it is resistance is resistance. I've had people tell me that the expensive ones feel more realistic like your riding on the road but I've rode on the expensive ones for several hours during different fitting sessions and I can't tell the difference. I've been riding on this Giant one for 3 years and it is still working fine. When it wears out I will first look on Craigslist for a used one and if I can't find a good used one I will buy another cheap new one. On switching out for 2 different bikes it is very easy. My wife and I both use the same trainer and it takes less than 1min to switch bikes.

Emile, thanks for the info on the trainer. I wondered about whether the expensive ones were all that great and worth the money. I will begin looking for a trainer and see what i find. $150 sounds a lot better than some of them I have looked at for aver $300!

I have been taking it easy the last couple days as far as training. I had ankle surgery December of 2011, and the same ankle has been bothering me a bit. Not sure if it is all the training or if it summer footwear, although I try very hard to wear tennis shoes while working around the house instead of going barefoot or flip flops. I had the surgery to remove bone growth than was rubbing on other bone (basically wearing out the cartilage in the ankle between the two bones). I worry that it is beginning to wear away more cartilage.
Doc didn't say there was really anything I could do to keep it from happening again, other than discontinue the activity that is causing it. Probably running! and biking! I will see how it goes for awhile. Maybe I need to find a gym with a pool and start swimming more, since I need more work in that area anyway!

Has been a while since I posted but I have been reading a few times a week. As always I have been keeping my logs up to date and training with bike/run focus. Have not had any swim time since my last tri 2 weeks ago. I am racing this weekend (Sunday at Chisago Lakes Tri Sprint) I will be sure to fill out a race report. I am looking at taking Aug off from racing and maybe one last race in Sept before the season ends in Minnesota.

Glad to hear everyone is doing well and it is fun to hear about the experiences you all have had during training and racing.

Anyone have advice on aero helmets vs road helmets and can actually verify the gains?

Here is an article that talks about gains for an aero helmet.

http://www.examiner.com/article/is-the-aero-helmet-advantage-real

the 2009 article said.... "At 40KM per hour, one can achieve an aero savings of between 55–75 watts versus a normal road bike setup, which equates to as much as 5 seconds/kilometer saved. 5 seconds might not seem like much, but multiply that by the 180K distance of an Ironman cycling leg, and that represents a bike split that is nearly 15 minutes faster."

There are many more articles and even a study from MIT...

But realize that 40km per hour is almost 25 mph.... 15 minutes for a full Ironman distance is pretty good time savings, but most people don't participate in that distance. I don't use an aero helmet.... not yet... I'm still working on my bike speed and the aero helmet will be a reward should I continue to do full distance triathlons..... and whether I can maintain a 20 mph for 112 miles..... In my estimation, it is unlikely in the near future for me.

they look pretty cool though...

I haven't trained for about two weeks, since the NY race. I caught a cold/fever and have been resting alot. I had planned to take some time off from training in August, but my body told me otherwise. So.... I've been planning on my second season and the first half next years races already and getting my training plans ready during this time. I've learned alot through this year's experiences so far and am excited to begin the program in the very near future (Monday...). I'll update in a few days once have a little more time......

have a great weekend everybody.....

I had a great swim workout today! I woke up this morning to get my swimming out of the way and it was lightning so I decided to do my bike and run workout first. I rode 90min on the trainer and a little later ran 3miles. Later in the day in looked like it was clearing up so I headed out to the lake and as soon as I pulled in it started raining. I looked up in the sky for a while no lightning just rain so I might as well swim. I was planning on swimming about 2000 yards but decided I would only swim half of that but pick up my normal pace. As I was finishing my swim I was pretty tired so I know I was pushing it more than normal. I hit the stop button on my watch and I about fell over I averaged a 1:46 pace! For me that is absolutely smoking! I usually do my 2000 yard ows between 2:10-2:20 pace. I have done all of my swimming for the last 7 weeks in the lake I guess it is starting to payoff.

Hi everyone. I'm back from my working vacation in the mountains. We build a 1000 square foot pole barn. Climbing up and down that ladder is quite a workout.

Tonight i have a 5K trail run tonight. I've never run an evening race. I have been obsessing over food all day. I normally run races in the morning on an empty stomach.

I hope everyone is well.

Emile, congrats on the great swim workout. Its always great to have a "breakthrough" type workout where you realize your training is paying off!

On a whim, I decided to volunteer at a pancake feed this Sunday morning put on by http://teamnebraska.org. The triathlon is ran by www.cornhuskerstategames.com. My daughter is going to help out too, and then we'll take in the event as spectators.

My training for Chicago is going well. I was worried about the fast ramp-up in mileage by just jumping into the pfitz 12/70 plan, but I feel fine and it seems to get easier every day. Its going so well, I'm toying with the idea of bumping up to the 85 plan - mainly because I've never ran 100 miles in a week and the plan has several weeks like that which I think would be a "fun" challenge. I'll probably take it on a day-by-day basis and do the 70 plan's workout on any days my body says to. On the other hand... I really want to get back to the pool more because I really want to do a half-IM next year and have lots of work to do there.

Don, how did your trail run go? I'm like you.... an evening race would be tricky from a nutritional perspective. I like to run on a mostly empty stomach and I like to eat alot so morning works best for me

Emile - wow!! Congrats on a fantastic swim workout! I wonder whether having already had your HR up earlier in the day helped you on that swim? Awesome.

Don - I've never raced that late. How was that race? Was it after dark?

KenL - man, that 85 plan sounds crazy - but it would be interesting to see what would happen to run a plan with that kind of mileage. Your plan of running some days at the 70 level sounds like a good compromise. Like a 77.5 plan ;-)

Terry - Glad that you are feeling better! Maybe all the training and racing wore you down a bit - so it's good you took some time off. Now you've got me curious about your plans for the fall!

I ran 12 miles with my training group today. It was a fabulous run! Humid, but I felt really great.

The race went well. My time improved by a little more than a minute from my last 5K. I think they expected it to be dark for the race. They had candles in paper bags lining the trail. It really had no affect. Every once in a while the kids from the cross country team the race was raising money for would jump out and chase you. I guess that's why they call it the chase. A couple of guys from work ran in the race too. We have a small running club at work. We are the Ninja Ferrets. LOL The three of us were all wearing our team shirts. We had the race covered form front to back. One of our members won the race. Another finished in the middle and I came in at the end. All in all it was a good time.

This morning I went for a bike ride at Presque Isle. That is where i get most of my exercise. This weekend is Discover Presque Isle Days. I rode around and watched the obstacle challenge. It covers some of the same ground as the beast on the bay. I have never seen a obstacle challenge before so it was interesting. What I learned is that everyone runs from obstacle to obstacle and waits in line. The people really seem to take their time navigating the obstacles. I expected it to be a little bit more like the obstacle course we ran when I was in the Army. There was no going slow. After I watched the obstacle challenge I checked out some of the other events going on. The wind riders were out in force. They had their kites and their flags everywhere. I think they were trying to block out the sun. They are always cool to watch with all of their vibrant colors. I went to the site where the sand sculptures were supposed to be but there was nothing there yet. It was starting to rain, so I wonder if they are going to start them tomorrow morning.