Ryan Mac’s HIM Focus Group - CLOSED (Page 14)

When I first started swimming I would always breathe to the right. Had some neck issues so switched to breathing to the left. Now I am much more comfortable breathing left than right....I lift my head too high when breathing right. I need to work on breathing to the right again just so I am equally comfortable.

Kind of in a training funk this week. Not a huge volume week but some pretty good intensity on the bike and swim. Had trouble with both my swim and bike workouts yesterday as both were very demanding. Sometimes I wonder why the hell I am flogging the $h!t out of myself in early Feb. with these workouts. Of course I know that what I do now will make a difference when the season starts in early April but man it is hard to recognize that at this time of year and stay motivated. session over....for now. Easy 30-40 minute run tonight and hopefully some attitude adjustment.

I am going to a swim clinic this Saturday....hoping to find something magical to help me make some progress....seems I have plateaued, or slipped slightly over the last few months.

You guys are quiet!!

Back to the build today.  I have a 1:45 bike with 4x15' Z3 intervals and then a 3 mile EZ run planned and hockey tonight.

I definitely enjoyed and needed the 2 days of easy workouts to reboot the engine.

2 hour run on Friday, 3000y swim & 2.5 ride on the trainer (on Zwift) Saturday. EZ recovery run and spin on Sunday.

Marc-have not got the HRV going yet. Need an updated IOS on my iphone and apparently my older model does not have sufficient memory for the update.....will try to update phone in the next week or 2.

Marginally better swim today and an easy hour run. 

I was supposed to go on my first outdoor ride since September (geez, it's been a long time -- hope it really is "like riding a bike"!), but the car with the bike racks was dead. I tried to jump it, but to no avail. Thankfully I was smart enough to check that out before putting my bike on it! It hasn't been used much since early January, so I guess I'm not surprised.

Bummed to be on the trainer on such a nice day, but I'll get out for a run to enjoy it....probably better running weather than biking weather anyways!

I just created an account.  I will sync future workouts to it.  Tell me about the Training Fitness widget on the dashboard?

Also, could we start having some weekly topics for discussion?  I enjoy looking at your workouts.  But I like to learn from others too.  Right now I'm sucking up everything about training with power.  I haven't had that many opportunities to train outdoors with it.  Last week I did and today I should be able to.  I noticed on the down hills the power drops as it should.  I know we should back off on the uphills.  Do you hammer to keep it in the zone on downhills.  I'm no meas a coaster.  I just drop gears and feather the pedals keeping a little tension.

Hey gang-swim clinic yesterday. Not a ton of swimming but 2 videos and a bunch of drills. Certainly, some things to work on evident from the video.

Today was beautiful. I was able to get outside on the bike for the first time in quite awhile. I had a specific workout but just rode...some easy...some hard but really just enjoyed the great weather and being outside. 5 mile run off the bike. First two miles pretty easy then bumped up pace with each mile. Felt pretty good. High temp was probably close to 70 degrees.  Thought about all you folks in the frozen tundra and realize I was lucky to be on the Gulf Coast today. Now, May through Sept is a different story

Nice Randy.  I have  trip coming up to Florida for 10 days in March and planning to rent a road bike for the majority of that.  We have not got near as much snow as last year but it has been quite cold.  Lots of days with highs in the teens and 20s.

I thought I was in the early stages of a head cold.  Yesterday, my 9 miler I felt terrible.  Just no energy and lethargic.  Same thing at my hockey game that evening.  Although today I woke up feeling ok and had a descent 6 mile tempo run at lunch so maybe I lucked out.

Officially starting my build to my first HIM of the year in June.

I definitely have my sights set on sub 4:30 if the conditions are good.   Excited about the year.

What are your big goals this year?

Hey everyone!

so, i am still not fully over this stupid cold. I sat out for the weekend hoping it would finally give up but I was in pain as it seems I pulled my lat while coughing (?).  Really super sore - with some icy hot rub and a tylenol it seems to be calmed down today.  Still feels mostly like i've been kicked in the ribs - i didn't realize I could pull a muscle when coughing ... erg.  so i do intend to at least try swimming tonight.  I'll pull the plug if it is just too sore. Really frustrated.  

Zwift sounds super fun! I'll have to give it a try! 

Only goal is to get this run under control.  I can push myself on the swim and and bike.  Something about running has me all screwed up.

Zwift is awesome.  I had a 3 hour ride on Saturday.  I rode 2 of it outdoors with a group and I could not wait to get home and finish the last hour on the trainer.  Crazy... I know.  Maybe they should do one for running.

It's mental and physical.  I just need to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Interesting that you mention the mental training as I have gave it some thought.  Ultimately, I don't think I have enough time in the day for all this stuff.  I would like to do some core work and strength work but just do not have all the time and resources to fit it all in.

I definitely think it would do some benefit, however.  I think one of my big letdowns last year was not *really* believing that I could run sub 1:35 off the bike.  For the most part we were working my bike and swim and running took a backseat really not doing much so there was always doubt I could run well for 13.1 miles off the bike.

Another thing about goals is to try to have some process goals along the way.  For instance, the big goal might be to ride a 2:25 at your HIM next year, a process goal might be to gradually build to 500 TSS on the bike during a build or achieve an FTP of 270.  As those process goals will ultimately be what achieves your big goal of 2:25 on the bike leg.

What I found nice with my power meter, was I do not even show Average Speed on my screen at all, ever.  During a race, I am only dialed into my power and RPE.  I know if I ride well within my power ranges and conditions are descent what my time will be.

Another cool tool that picked my HIM bike leg time at Steelhead within a minute is bestbikesplit.com.  Check that out if you have some time.  very useful.

What power screens do you have?  I have avg 3s, avg 10s, power zone and % of FTP.  I'm not locked into any of them.  I'm just seeing what there is and learning.  I even had balance at one point.  I even thought about putting IF on it just see it.

What % low and cap do you put on HIM races?  I've seen 75%-85% and 80-85%