Slornow and Wannabefaster's Summer Group-CLOSED (Page 14)

Jamie-nice race report. Good job in Raleigh.

Been on the road today. Easy hour on the bike tonight.

Son is having his left knee scoped tomorrow. He has been dealing with some residual pain for the last 5-6 months despite PT, cortisone injections etc. He is ready to find out what is going on. Nothing is showing up on the MRIs so ortho is not sure what is causing the issue. Hopefully, it will be something really minor.

Got my RR up:

Rock Hall International Triathlon

Just for the record - OLYs are a blast.

Got in a short run yesterday and went to spin class this morning with The Wife.  I feel just about recovered, though I know I need a little more Transition Phase before I started hitting it again.

I'm about the pull the trigger on my first HIM, Waterman's Half, which is at the exact same location as the one I did over the weekend.  Protected harbor wetsuit swim, flat bike, flat run, weather should be in the low 70s, late-ish start.  I think that sets up pretty well.  I wouldn't even have to change my training much; just stretch out my long run to maybe 11 miles and get some long bikes in later in the summer.

Randee-good for you! You got alot of good experience last year doing that series. 

Thanks Jason-surgery went well. Seems that he had a rather rare problem involving the plica in his knee. It was rubbing and causing iritation on the outside of the knee. According to the ortho this was kind of a "best case scenario" in terms of what they were hoping to find. Apparently only about 50% of people have a plica and it is very rare that it causes a problem....when it does it is typically in distance runners. He seems to be doing well and should be back to easy running within a couple of weeks. Fortunately, the ortho is on my tri team and he has been checking on Gil weekly since he got home from school. He has really been great and knows how important it is to Gil to get back to running and hopefully be ready for XC season. Everything else in the knee looked great so this looks like the clear culprit.     

Nancy had mentioned the problems she has had with HRM straps. I've had similar problems in addition to just getting the dang things to work consistently. So, I went old school and ordered the "old style" Garmin strap that is mostly plastic across the front. This was the first HRM strap I ever used several years ago and despite all the "improvements" I'm back to it. Paired right away tonight with my Garmin 500 and was pretty comfortable...no rubbing or abrasions. Maybe newer is not always better. 

 http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-010-10997-00-Heart-Rate-Monitor/dp/B000UOD5QM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1401928585&sr=8-2&keywords=garmin+heartrate+strap

I've got the new strap that comes with the 910 and the old style strap that came with my 305.   Generally speaking, at least initially, I've preferred the old style strap as well.   Had it for about 4 years, and never had a problem until recently when the battery died.   3 dollar battery later works great again.   I'm using the new 910 strap currently, It took a little getting used to but it has become a bit more comfortable.  Still tend to prefer the old one though.

 Got my swim on tonight.  I'm feeling really good about it.   Did 1000 yards.  About ready to kick it up to 1500.   Maybe Friday's swim.

I agree with the earlier post about swim training vs. improvement in swim pace.   A few years back (2006) when I was in my racing prime and before life and injury got in the way, I was placing consistently in the top 20% of AG and 30% overall.   So I was doing well.  My swim pace stunk at about 1:55/100 or so.   But, I'm convinced the 6-9 thousand yards a week, over three swim workouts SIGNIFICANTLY improved my oxygen efficiency and endurance.   My bike times climbed (on a two day a week bike schedule) to an average of about 19 MPH in races, and my run dropped into the low 8's on 2x week runs.   My training buddy at the time holds 2 Mountain West Conference swimming records, so our training tended to focus a lot on the swim.   I know that the things we did in the pool really helped my overall run and bike performance as well.  ENDURANCE is key.    We usually did at least 1 swim of 3500 - 4000 yards.   That was always a tough one, but we used it to build endurance.  At the time, I was racing mostly Sprint distance, so 4000 yard or more training swims was A LOT.   But I'm grateful for them.   I've been thinking of restructuring my training a bit to better mirror what I did then, but I'm not quite sure I've got enough foundation yet.  Particularly given my challenges with my running that we've been talking about.

Again gang, thanks for all advice.   While most of you are playing around with the BIG HIM/IM events, I'm learning much from you even though I've been actively training for marathons, half marathons, Sprint/Olympic tris over the years.   But I'm really if you think about it, starting over given the events of the past couple of years.   I'm working hard to try to stay positive, focused, and productive in the workouts.

Hi Everyone!

I ran this morning, following to best I could the advice to keep my HR low.  For the first mile I was solid under 160.   Big hill comes during mile two, and following the gang's advice, I ran to RPE so I felt consistent with the first mile.  HR did go up - as expected - but I still kept it around 165.   Legs didn't get rubbery and I felt pretty strong.   Biggest challenge of the day though was getting my HR back down.  Once I hit 168 or so in one small section, HR did not want to come down and I felt fatigue starting to kick in.  I did stop for about 30 seconds at 2.6 miles and let it get back under control.   I will confess to pushing the last 1/10 mile as kind of a sprint so the HR topped 170, but only for less than a minute.

Bottom line, came in 1 second over goal pace, and felt much stronger the entire run.  Thanks for all the advice.  Now I need to figure out how to get the HR down when it starts to spike without having to stop to let it calm down.  Guess I just run slower... lol.

This group is really helping me -- believe it or not !   Thanks!