Baowolf's New Years Resolution Group-Closed (if are stuck with no group PM me) (Page 14)

Samantha looks good. It would be better to hit more than 1 13 mile run, but that is certainly decent enough to get you across the finish line in good shape. If you were doing one later in a year you might want to hit a top end of 13, 8, 13, 14, 15, 9, 13, 6 race for your last weeks. Then you would avoid that drop off in uphta in the last 3 miles.


800 repeats today: 6:56, 7:09, 7:06, 7:18, 7:13 mpm pace.

Okay Steve - now do you think I could go with a slightly more agressive plan to reach those higher distances? I was trying to be conservative, but I'm willing to push a bit more. Or I'm thinking of doing a HM a little later in hopes that I'll have a solid race. Thoughts?

Samantha, your plan is all you can reasonably build to by May. It would take another month or two to get in those higher distances. What you could do is this HM which you will be able to finish fine with that plan and then do a second one in 2 months or just build your run to that level for your HIM and have a solid run there. Sometimes you just can't get to a peak build for every race. So you are fine either way. You will recover quickly from a HM so it is fine to just do the race, then you can compare how you feel in both races.

You can do some strides and tempo runs, moderate hills fairly early on. After you have like 25 miles per week in for 3 months you can start doing the half mile repeats at 5k pace. You may have to work from where you are now down to 5k pace over the next 3 months.....

Edited by Baowolf 2014-02-06 5:03 PM

Managed to get out for a short run this AM. Was surprised o see an extra 1.5" of snow had fallen over night, so the roads were more a slip & slide than useful road, but it worked out. Only did 2.5 miles, but I was out there. Hoping to get a bike in tonight, and maybe even the pool tomorrow, assuming my car is all fixed (flat tire may have broken the rim as well, so we'll see....).

Starting to feel like this February is like last years where the weather just toyed with any plans for getting in consistent workouts. Biking is no issue, since I can do it at home, but the run & pool are pretty much at the mercy of whats going on outside.

Very quick post. My training has been rubbish this week because of RL Soon leaving for a mini-vaca so I'll probably keep this dry streak going a little longer. Sigh.

Isabella, what a beautiful picture your words painted regarding your weekend! Sounds like a good time was had by all.

I didn't do a great job of capturing all my work outs in January. Really just hoping to get going with swimming and some stationary biking.

4 hr, 15 min swim
3 hrs 30 mins run
1 hr biking (that's all I logged although I know I did more than that)
1 hr 30 mins in line hockey (man how I have missed that)

I turn 52 on the 11th, which for some reason sounds old to me today. Oh well, in the last year been in better shape than I have been in many, many years so who cares.

Sick as a dog right now, which stinks. Really want to work out, but not feeling up to it at all right now.

Had another good swim experience on Monday. Swam 21 or 22 laps (got confused on count somewhere along the way), several of those done without resting after a pool length. This is the first time doing that, so I feel like i am improving. I am now breathing bilaterally every 3 breaths which is new for me. Experimented more with my breathing and had goggles leaking for some reason, both of which distracted me. (BTW, what do people use to keep goggles from fogging up?).

Also figured out that I needed to tuck the top of my head more down in the water, which seemed to allow for much faster movement through the water. Anyway, still a struggle, but I am making progress.

Hoping to shake this cough, sore throat, congestion, etc quickly. I am rarely sick and usually can just power through it but this is taking me down a bit.

Good training to you all.

Randy

Some goggles are kind of fog resistant, sometimes those goggles need to have water on them and then drained to work well. That wears off eventually then most folks use a bit o spit, but you can use exotics like spray on anti fog, allow baby shampoo dried on sheen from the night before, tooth paste, etc.

4.5 mile easy run today, 2500 yards in the pool 16x100 at 1:50 ish, and pull cords after the swim.... tired. At least the snow was before and after my run. Still ran in shorts though. It was 35, but windy and cloudy.

Back from the pool, 1st time swimming in over 4 months. Was afraid...

I must say I am pleased, did in all 10 sets of 100m, including WU and Cool down rather slowly, and a few sets of just kicking with a board.
Average 2:51/100m with all this. Not too shabby (for me!!) Room for improvement but feeling rather satisfied.

As an added bonus, I've decided to return to the pool that is closer from home, and learned after chatting with the lifeguards that the crowd averages 4-7 people / night, there were 2 people on Monday. Whaaaa? I used to swim with 7 people IN MY LANE at the other place. Sa-weet

@ Randy: 52 y/o is the new 40, didn't you know?? Sorry for the cold - take care and rest!

Randy - "I turn 52 on the 11th, which for some reason sounds old to me today. Oh well, in the last year been in better shape than I have been in many, many years so who cares." - I loved this perspective on age. It is so very true and I hope you have a wonderful birthday! Great job on the swimming. Bilateral breathing is a great habit to build from the beginning, so great job there too!

Steve - I like your idea for sticking with the HM plan and building up for a strong HIM. After I get things under control we can start talking about adding in the repeats and such. Sometimes when I think about adding things in I can easily get stressed out, but I hope to push through that a bit more this year. Great job on all your training so far this year! I volunteered for part of the day at IMCDA. It's getting closer!

Pam - mini-vaca! where are you heading?

Isabella - Glad you made it back to the pool. I'm looking forward to that day.

Today was my first official long run - 5 miles! I find that most runs require me to stay committed for the first 3 miles no matter how bad I feel because after 3 I find my groove and start to really enjoy myself. Afterward I did squats, lunges and some simple are work. Still working out issues with my surgery recovery. I develeped a couple trigger fingers so we are working to make them go away without needing to take more invasive measures. Good thing my swim is my strongest sport.

I'm very excited about the Winter Olympics starting.

Randy - great job on getting into the pool and increasing your fitness!

Pam - enjoy the mini-vacation. As we freeze here in the northeast, please let us live vicariously through you.

Samantha - I like the idea of training for the HM as part of your preparation for the HIM. Sounds like an excellent plan!

Mike_D - I hope the rest of the week got better and that you are feeling better as well.

Steve - thanks for the feedback on the marathon training. I've decided to take the month of February to see if I can hit your suggested mileage goals...if I can, I'll pull the trigger. If I can't - I'll scale back my original plan and focus on the HIM training.

I am really pleased to say that I made it to the pool four times this week - which when the temps are less than 20, my motivation to put on a swimsuit is REALLY low. I have been pulling workouts from MagnoliaMasters.com for three of the days and finally doing a long steady swim (1500y) on the last day. I am very pleased to say that my pace for the 1500y today was much faster than my pace for my HIM swim June 2012.

Big weekend of watching gymnastic meets, ski races, tobbogan races, extreme sport files (the BANFF film festival) all while craming in my workouts. I think I'm using the work week to recover from my weekends right now.

Hope everyone is getting/staying healthy. It's pretty tough this time of year.

Since I'm a bit overwhelmed with RL stuff this week, I'm taking a positive step and putting it aside, adn hitting the reset button startting tomorrow. I am still without a car (broke the rim with the flat tire, so its all being fixed) so my weekday pool schedule is out the window, but roads are better for running, I can always bike at home, and I'll have a car to use starting tomorrow, so pool access is a possibility. Going to get myself moving again this weekend and get back to it starting on Monday as best I can.

Its funny that I can get so down on myself for missing days when in reality, there's no way things were going to happen as I wanted anyway. But after I realize I'm being a bit nuts about it, the motivation to get moving again always comes back. Regardless of how the winter treats me, I'm *really* going to focus on getting back to those long runs. Best I've ever felt running was the 10-11 mile long Sunday AM runs. Just perfectly serene.

Randy, I agree with Steve; I usually use saliva but that solution doesn't seem to work as well as baby shampoo.

Great to hear all of you progressing in training! Congrats Jennifer for your 4 swims, and Sam for the long run! I myself logged 5 straight days of training, with a couple primary motivations: first, make sure my Feb totals are something to be proud of when I post it on this forum, and 2, that HM in March.

Like everyone else I'm pretty excited for the Olympics. Disappointed, however, that Shaun White dropped out of snowboard slopestyle (the slopestyle they aired last night was amazing!). And I'll be missing Apollo Ohno this year too. He was like my Phelps of winter Olys--never missed a race of his.

Decided to get a new workout tracking gadget because my old one is getting long in the tooth. My TomTom GPS Multi-Sport is coming in Saturday. As much as I wanted a Garmin one (I really like the analytics they provide, like Carl's GC profile), the indoor swim tracking was important to me, which the 310XT didn't support, and the 910XT was really expensive. Plus I'm gambling on the future of Bluetooth LE/Smart due to its mobile device penetration (gambling doesn't always work out for me). Plus I like the look of it way better. Orange is my favorite color, but the 310xt is not the best looking gadget.

I am excited for the Olympics too. Missing Michael Phelps & Apollo Ono. But love the new stories and the athletes' they belong to.
Samantha-way to get in the longer runs!
Steve- you are a very fast swimmer!
Have a great training weekend everyone!

I don't really think of myself as a fast swimmer with me struggling for 1:45 to 1:50 per 100s and Mike laying out 100s at 1:25 to 1:30. I keep trying though. On the SwimEx my hard effort was at 61% of max speed and now it is 68-69%, so some improvement. We see how the next 800 yard TT goes.

I looked at the Garmin 910 and liked that it has upgraded the battery from 6 ish hours to 20 hours, change sport with one button, ditched the bezel for buttons and made it waterproof so you could wear it on the swim (not sure how reliable the swim tracking would be). Timex also seems to have a decent tri watch that is also waterproof with at least a 15 hour battery life. My current 450 is about 5 years old and though I replaced the band after a bike crash it is still going fine. These items are definitely on the Black Friday/day after Christmas kind of purchases to try to get that 33 to 50% off. And for the newer triathletes they are not at all necessary, but I love mine very much for monitoring pace and distance anywhere, especially on vacation.

So my drink substitute is MOI which is a little bottle of concentrate that makes 24 x12 oz glasses of whatever flavor you like with or without caffine. It comes out to like 15 cents per glass. It is 0 calories and doesn't have the bad sugar substitutes in it.

My chore for this weekend is to create my IM plan to start Monday. I am going to analyze the format of the 3 BT IM swim plans and try to break the code to then simplify and apply it for my swims. I did 20 mile trainer ride tonight, 45-50 mile trainer ride tomorrow with a 3 mile brick then 9 mile run and 2500 yard swim on Sunday. Doing 15 minutes at 115+ rpm cadence in aero will point out problems with your bike fit pretty fast.

I was finally able to take advantage of a day off of work and get a run in. Its a balmy 18 degrees here in Mass with main roads covered in ice in certain spots. I got in my 3+ miles today at a poor 10mm. I've been fighting this for too long but this is my comfort pace now....not the 9mm I was doing pre injury. That is a hard thing to type and harder to accept but its where I lay right now. On the positive side, my pace actually improved as I got further into the run. I'm still struggling to find my stride but it got better as I got further into the run. A question for anyone who has run with a headlamp; will it help me see icy spots on the road? That's my biggest fear right now with running predawn....hitting an icy patch and reinjuring my achilles. If a headlamp will alleviate that, I'll use my XMAS gift card and get one soon.

Good news on the work front; the new prison has been great. I'm sure some of this is because I'm new but there isn't any BS and staff treat each other well. The bad news is that I'll be going evenings for the next 2 weeks starting on Sunday 2/16. Good news is they put up a day shift bid for me to win so I'll be going back to days in early March. My body is going to hate me for awhile but evening should be fantastic for training....as long as Mother Nature stops dumping snow on us.

I'm with Jay in that we've had enough cold/snow here to derail outdoor activities.

Went for a run today and as an experiment I used HR as a guide for effort. Figured my zones based on my bike FTP test last week (adjusted up a bit (5%) based on some research,etc) and figured Z2 running was 130-148 bpm. Still doing some run/walk, this time at 4/1, and with the HR as a guide, it was interesting. Certainly slower than my usual pace, but even with my crap fitness level, I felt I could have kept going all day. I only did 3 miles, but I could have done far more, at least it felt that way.

Steve - I have a 910 which is fantastic for me for all 3 sports. I have it paired with the Garmin bike cadence/speed sensor so I get all that data on my watch, it handles all the running things you could think of, etc. I really like it. Have used the 'multi sport' mode for races, and that is pretty cool, too. even includes transition times!

Cool input on the 910 Steve and MikeD. Man if I could get 33-50 off on BF that might be my next upgrade in November. I'll let you know how I lik the TomTom.

Wow 1:30 per 100m is blazing. Last sprint I did had a 1:39 pace and last Oly was at 1:43, and that's not enough to get me into the fast lane in my masters club. Granted there's one guy in the club that's won marathon swims in the past. Still got a lot to learn from that guy.

My fav thing on the 910 is that it tracks distance in the pool and has all kinds of other tracking for swimming.

I've found my actual race times on the swim are a btt slower than my pool times, which I thnk makes sense. My HIM last August was a 35 min swim which works out to about 1:38 or so per 100. My masters 'fast' lane is doing 1:15 or less per 100. I'm not even close.

Hello Everyone!!

50/50 good day today finished my long run, but i thought my 3rd swim will be ok , apparently the thing about City pools they can have events. I did not get a chance the whole day because of the Swim Reg. Finals, which means i have to squeeze a swim on top of my long ride. I get to break in my running shoes today most of my pains are gone. They told me at the store a nice rule of thumb of recovery 1 day/mile.

@Phil
good choice on the Tom-Tom i really like the aesthetics. If its ok provide us a gear review in SBR. I have used 910XT and Garmin Swim indoor pools,unless you really are smooth stroke swimmer they can be inaccurate a slight change in movement and stroke would tell it that you have hit the wall and i had distances + 25m/yds off. For a while i thought i was improving. OWS the 910XT and 310Xt are about the same they track via GPS the only thing is they can have discrepancy if your wearing on the wrist I lose GPS signal if my wrist is underwater. I wear mine behind my cap and catches the GPS signal as if i am running.

@Jay
Good you finally got out, i wish i can have a comfy pace of 10mm.

@MikeD
Impressive swim pace woot!!

@Samantha
[4Runs & 4 Bike]/Week Woot Woot!! I wish i can be as religious as you in following a plan

@Pam
Well deserved vacation!!


Winter will be over soon!!

Cheers Everyone!!!




Edited by strykergt 2014-02-08 5:21 PM

24 miles on the trainer today and my first build phase of my plan is over I'm looking forward to a recovery week and so are my legs my long run tomorrow is 3.8 miles, might even sleep in.

I am missing a lot of great training on here!!! Im in Mississippi so it is just cold not snow or ice. I was able to get three swims, two runs, and two bike workouts this week. I got some sufferfest videos which is kicking my butt. BY the way sufferfest just came out with a brick workout sufferfest video that has triathlon footage on it! Pretty sweet.

Mike- great job on the trainer.

Phil- I haven't got to read your bio but great to have you on here. I wish I would invested in a 910x this year.

Steve- Faithful coach as always. I am building my base like you told me to back in February.

Samantha- Great runs and training Keep it up. What races you got lined up this year.

Jay- Glad you got to maximize on your day off and get some workouts in.

Everyone else!!!! Keep on working hard. I will try to stay on here more as I am posting my workouts.

Jared

Jan totals:
B- 3 h 12m
walk/run - 2 h 24 m
strength - 4h 11m
boot camp - 3h 30 m


Hi all,
I won't be posting much for a short time. Haven't begun training this year, only been getting by body ready for my sprint training plan I intend to start March 1.

Have a friend that after a lifetime of being fat just lost 52# in two months on a modified high protein diet. Quite a few women I know have been following the program and losing good amounts of weight; high protein, low carb, moderate fats.

I'm embarrassed to say, but I'm going to go on this diet for a few weeks. Embarrassed because even if I do lose weight I can hear people saying that it will just come back on when I go back to old habits. Of course the plan is to train and eat healthy to maintain myself at the new healthy weight.
Just found that at 5'1" and 160 lbs I've had a hard time improving. I think that with 35# less on my body I could run like the wind - OK a bit much but I can dream...

One of the requirements of the plan is weight lifting, walking but no raising of HR. Sounds made for me.

March 1 I'll reevaluate, if losing weight I'll give it a few more weeks, if not I'll just go back to being a fat, slow triathlete.

Enjoying keeping up with you oldies (Pam don't worry about those 2# weights, if you feel the burn that's all that matters and some muscles don't take much weight to work), and am working on getting to know all the new people.

Mitzi

Hey Mitzi
I hope all is well!!!! Set that goal and go for it!!!! We are pulling for you!

Mitzi it is not other people's voices we need to worry about. If you reduce your food intake by 1 granola bar a day and change nothing else you lose 16 pounds over the course of a year.

Just like alcohol, chocolate and certain not good food choices do not actually ever "need" to be consumed. Just a couple changes can tilt your wieght in another direction and working out helps with that. I have burned roughly 2,000,000 calories since I started training for triathlons. Thats a lot of belly fat that isn't there. Basically workout out helps take the edge off of not so good food choices, but it doesn't completely erase bad eating habits.

However.... we control our weight and exercise to meet our own goals, not anyone elses. Centered onto ourselves, other people's opinions about us that are....not helpful.

The gear talk is great considering the weather is still not cooperating:{. I found a nice deal on a bike jacket at Nashbar. It was a return and for $28 it will help keep me warm and dry .
As far as tracking I use my iPhone for most of my tracking needs. Maybe not as convenient as a watch but with some of the new covers and add-ons it can even be used for tracking you swim. Wahoo has some cool bike sensors which I'd like to try when I get a few extra shekels.

Mitzi - It is hard to find what works for you. My wife is 4'11" and having a hard time loosing. Walking sounds like good advise for everyone and fits well with preparing for your run. Good luck!

Jared - Of all you concerns as new parent how high would the bottle warmer been on that list. Ouch! Glad you are on the mend.

Still getting to the gym bright and early although after the last storm they did not clear the walkway and stairs. So people had to navigate few inches of ice crusted snow, talk about hazards. The door would have been ice shut too if the night before someone leaving the gym moved enough snow that when it refroze you could still get in :}.