Eli's Getting Ready for the Season Group-CLOSED (Page 15)

That's a lot of weight to lose for a 6 miler Grant.  But with the heat we've all had, I guess we can expect to have more fluid loss.  Keep hydrating through out the day everyone.

We're getting a huge reprieve from the heat, but I have no tubes for my bike after three flats over the weekend!  We're away on a long weekend family reunion for my wife's side.  I'm dying not being able to ride, but we're having a blast with disc golf and hiking.

Ahh, heat.

I got a reprieve. I was in Boston this weekend. My wife and I ran 14 along the Charles river, which was really nice.

14 is the longest I have done in a while, but felt OK. I am a little sore today.

Looking forward to a busy week, both in training and working. I teach mornings and night this week, so it will be afternoon workouts for me.

Good training for the heat! May even do a mock half-iron this weekend!

You came up to Boston and didn't stop by?  We're only about an hour and a half north on the weekends - 45 minutes during the week!

Ah, crap! I had no idea you were so close. I was teaching in Wakefield and then went to stay in the city with my wife and daughter on the weekend!

I will make sure to contact you next time we come up!

I had a (sort of) tough training weekend.  My wife's family had a reunion at a really cool "castle".  Tried to get out for ride on Sat. and got three flats on one ride, one front two rear.  Ran out of tubes and had to call for a ride.  So no rides Sunday or Monday even though I planned a few long ones while everyone else was asleep.

I did get a few swims and a few short runs in to test my Achilles.  It felt ok, better than it has in a while, so that's a plus.  And we had some great frisbee golf and wiffle ball matches.  Lots of fun but back to work tomorrow!

Hey All,

How is the week treating you?

Getting into my plan for real now. Last week was something of a wash due to travel, and this week may be a little crazy due to work, and the fact that we are doing a mock half iron this weekend.

On the other hand, I am having lots of fun with my training, and for me, that is a huge part of the appeal.

How goes your training, and almost as important, your mental perspective?

Training is going ok, mental attitude is fair.  This Achilles thing is really dragging me.  I just want to be pain free but I know I need to be patient and not run if it hurts while I’m running.

I’m also getting a little bummed (jealous?) hanging out with some friends who are silly fast and seem genetically gifted – the type who take two years off and then decide they want to run a 10k for fun and lay down a 35 minute race after two weeks of running - that’s a true story from last weekend!

Ok, mini pity party over.  I know, compare yourself only to yourself.  In general I’m feeling pretty motivated and ready to do my workouts.  I'm happy to be swimming a little as well.

Warren, I know it sucks to hear it, but the achilles will take time. I know for me, taping with KT tape before I run seems to help a LOT.

As for fast people.....meh.

You can always tie their shoelaces together in transition.

Now that's a great idea!  And they'd actually get a kick out of that.  I'm gonna try it at Timberman!

Hey Everybody,

I am slowly getting back to training again, just in time to be interrupted by a week in the Outer-banks.  I won't complain though!  I am trying to decide if I want to do the Syracuse 70.3 HIM.  It seems silly not to as the starting line is less than 15 minutes from where I live.  I need to decide soon as it may sell out this year.  It is a WTC race and that make it pretty expensive, but I won't have to pay for lodging making it about the same as my last one.

Well I will be running and hopefully a couple of OWS while on vacation but not bringing the bike.  I will watch out for sharks as the little girl who was attacked a week ago or so was only 30 miles south of where we are going.

Have a great weekend and good luck to any who are racing.

Doing a mock half tomorrow.

We call it the Boca Death March. Did it last year as part of a friends training.

By the time the run starts, the temp is in the 90's. Real Feel temp last year was 110.

Not for the faint of heart.

Rode 2 hours today with a friend. First time on the bike in almost 2 weeks. Felt great to ride again

Hey All,

Hope you all had a great weekend! Did a slightly too fast ride on Saturday (Damn you Nick) and then a mock half on Sunday.

I was an assistant organizer for the Mock half, so I did some setup.

The plan was to start swimming at 7, but we didn't really start till about 7:30. Out 1900 meter swim turned into a 2400 meter swim due to some bad GPS data (oops!).

I had a great swim. 1.5 miles in 40 minutes wasn't too bad. I was second out of the water and showered at the beach then ran across to the parking lot we were using as a transition area.

I then learned that one of our swimmers was stung by a jellyfish. She was OK, but a little wobbly.

Got on my bike, and started after Nick. He was planning on riding hard, and my legs really didn't have that kind of pace in them, so I told him to go on without me. 

I rode alone the first 35 miles or so. I was about 5 minutes behind nick at the 35 miles point. A friend of mine happened to show, and I drafted behind him for almost 20 miles to get back.

The run....was HOT. It was over 90 degrees and the real feel was over 100. We had set up two water stations on the 4 mile stretch that we ran, but it was brutal. I made it about 6 mile without too much difficulty, but then I was cooked. At 8 miles, I decided that I would rather rest and train this week than push it and walk/shuffle the last 5 miles. 

Since the goal of the day was too our fitness, it was a very succseful day for me. I hadn't tapered at all for it, and my performance wasn't quite as good as the year before, but it was a great day overall.

Lots of training partners joined in, no one got hurt (although I managed some spectacular chaffing), and there was plenty of water on the run.

Here are the things I learned/relearned:

1. You need to lubricate your neck. Having a hickey from your tri top at age 39 isn't cool.

2. I need to work on my nutrition/hydration. I drank WAY too much liquid on the first hours of the bike. I also sweated out a ton, but I need to find a better balance.

3. Respect the heat-I should have gone even slower on the run, and maybe the bike.

4. Good training partners make a bad day bearable. 

Anyway, hope you all had a good weekend as well. 

I had a pretty good weekend, though I had to change my Sunday ride to shorter version.

Saturday I rode toward the lake and met my family (well, they meet me technically).  It was WINDY though not too hot - only in the 80s eli!  Since it's one way ride, and the prevailing wind is always a headwind, it's a mentally tough ride if the wind kicks up.  You just have to HTFU and deal with it and I love it!

Sunday I was planning to ride the Timberman hlaf course but something came up so I only did the sprint part (the half follows the sprint route but keeps going).  I sort of TT'd it, and came in at 49:30.  I really thought I'd be quicker than that, so hopefully the ride the day before and the heavy winds were a big factor.  I did a 46:05 last year at the race and set an off season goal to hit 44:00 this year - though that is probably overly aggressive.  The 46 last year was a pretty strong ride for me, everything kind of fell into place on race day.

Holy Crap! I apologize everyone. I have not been getting any of the emails saying there were updates on this forum. So sorry!

Looks like everyone is doing pretty good with training. I agree with you on the wind. Headwinds drive me crazy and really play a toll on me mentally. But you get used to it and the only way to make it better is to HTFU and keep pedaling. But also makes you stronger. I really want to get up to the Northeast area for a race next year.  I've never been anywhere north of NY state. Heard it's pretty though.

My training for the full iron distance is coming along well. Although my run volume needs to increase more. Most of my focus can been on the new bike i got a few months ago. Swimming has been good, minus some shoulder twitching Which ahs gone away now. I'll be back in the pool tomorrow morning with a friend @ 6am. Not looking forward to decending sets at 6am. Oh well, I signed up for this!

Hey Nick, welcome back.  Take it easy on Eli on those bikes eh?

Come on up for Timberman half next summer – it’s usually the third weekend in August (Aug 21 this year).  The water is absolutely beautiful and the bike course is really nice.  A few hills the first 10 and last 10 miles but the middle 35 is cruising away.  The roads have a few bumpy sections but overall pretty smooth especially for New England.  Most people who do both races (there’s a sprint the day before) actually average a higher speed on the half than the sprint since the sprint is the same course and therefore hits a lot of the hills without the flats in the middle.  It's an Ironman event and usually Potts and Chrissie come and win it.

I’m still mostly out of running with the Achilles problem and I’m getting worried/concerned about the Timberman sprint.  It’s a pretty short run (about 2.9-3 miles) so I’m debating holding off running and make sure the Achilles is as healed as possible, but I wonder if my running will be really bad by then instead of just sort of bad like it typically is!  What do you all think?  Should I stop running for the next 3 weeks and take my chances, or should I try to get some running in before then if possible?

Warren,

I would say run at least once per week, but make sure you tape first.

Also, you can do elliptical or steep treadmill walking which doesn't put the same kind of strain on the achilles.

Both will help you keep your legs strong and ready for the run.

Thanks Eli.  I just got the tape so I'm going to try that out.  Where did you learn the taping technique?

I hadn't even thought about the elliptical - we have those at work and I could jump on them either at lunch or before work.

Warren, I have used the technique from their website, but also started using a simplified one.

I put on strip from under my heel straight up the calf.

I put a second strip from just above the heel (maybe 1-2 inches) up, but use the split in the tape to run it up and over the two heads of the muscle on my calf.

Put the tape on a few hours before a workout, or even the night before. Once it settles on, it can stay on up to four days. I try to make mine last for at least 3-4 days so I get a couple of workouts from each taping. it will stay on in the shower, and sometimes even in the pool.

Make sure you are clean when you put it on.

It will start to itch if you wear it too long.

For me, it was a huge help in recovery.

Having a couple of good weeks in a row. That plus the brutal DNF in my mock tri has really motivated me to get my training back on.

My biggest challenge right now is finding the time to train, and not desert my family.

Thanks Eli, I also checked out the athletestreatingathletes.com site I'm always plugging and she displayed the same technique you mentioned. 

I went 2 miles today totally pain free!  I am pumped.  My plan is to max at 2 got a little while and stop at the first hint of pain.  I had a full warm up of rolling, stretching and 30 minute easy ride.  Should have started this path of treatment earlier.

I hear you on the family thing.  I'm trying to broach the idea of an IM next year, but I'm not sure how I'll get past the long ride requirements.

Warren, be careful, IM's can be addictive!

I did Cozumel last year, and am doing Great Floridian this year and IM NY next year.

I may be addicted.

As for the long ride, I rarely go longer than 3 hours, but I often do 3 hours on Sat and Sunday. Saturday is usually threshold intervals of 10-20 minutes and then a run, Sunday is usually steady at about 85%  of threshold.

It is tough, but it gets you ready.

I did the Cozumel bike at about 75% of threshold and felt great, aside from the heat and dehyrdation.

Wow, a 3 hour ride I can manage, I did one every week last year training for the 70.3.  I could probably then get a hall pass for a few longer ones - I've actually done a few 4 hour rides this year by mistake and lived to tell about it.

But I just can't fathom running a marathon after getting off the bike after those rides.

Running? I am not sure I would call what I did at the IM running.

Actually, since I rode those 3 hour rides at a higher effort, my experience at Cozumel was that although I was happy to get off the bike (I didn't unclip for 5:50), I felt pretty good, since I had been going easier that I usually did, just longer.

Of course, my heat and liquid management was shot to hell.