THE SLAYER RULES-FULL Up (Page 15)

Gladiator: I think your question is how do i get the best results? i would tell you to prioritize your races. Ask yourself what goal do I truly want to accomplish? kicking arse in a bunch of distances/races is fine, but you need to narrow your focus to find the BIG GOAL.

for me, I know I am an Ironman at heart. Its the only distance I truly want to master, as if I have that chance haha. Therefore, I have a singular focus in my training, where everything else seems less important. even if your goals is 2 years out, thats what I train for. I prepare my body for the rigors of 140.6. There is no way to do that and to prepare for short course too, but I do think there's a good chance you can improve short course by training long course.

The emphasis of training reflects the performance you want on the distance you are shooting for. So thats why in long course, the key workouts are the long workouts.In shorter course, the shorter, faster workouts are more important as they are more race specific.

Tri training is way more complicated than single sport training because of the increase in time demands and accumulated fatigue. You can't just bang out hard workout after hard workout and not recover. So recovery has to be built in to the training schedule and the emphasis of the training week is on being as fresh as possible for the key sessions. I hope this is kind of what you are asking about. if not, ask more and I will clarify.

As to hoale1985, you are at an early stage in tri training where you dont have to worry too much about training. More = better. Just don't go too hard or too long. Gradual progression. Don't stress it yet. Learn your body and extend your endurance. Figure out what equipment works and what doesn't. Ask alot of questions and OBSERVE your body.

A great article of the day is courtesy of Scotty's coach, Matt Rose:

http://www.markallenonline.com/maoArticles.aspx?AID=2

Hope you all have a great training weekend. Fire away at questions. I want Scotty to talk some more next. what are you thinking about as you have more time this go around to prepare? where are your limiters? what makes you worried or confident?

Hopefully, some of the others will keep checking in. We miss ya!

As phat said, I was lucky enough to come across my coach while swimming at a place called Dynamo in the Atlanta area. I am still relatively new to racing. This will be my fourth season racing, but the first two were really just messing around. I didn't start actually training until about June of last year. 

What I am really looking forward to this season is working with an actual base of fitness. My coach's main philosophy is building a strong base of fitness over an extended period of time and building everything else off that base. This will be the first season that I have continued to train though the winter. I think that will make a big impact in my plan for this season as well as my plan right now of an inronman in 2013. 

I do want to have a very good race at Eagleman and I feel that I will be better prepared, but we are looking at this season as a big base build for 2013. With myself getting married in September, there isn't going to be a lot of time to a lot of racing later in the summer. A note about the support system, my fiance races as well. She is much faster than I am. That is the only problem there. We have a great time racing and training together. 

My limiter right now is my run. More specific is my toughness on the run. I have always avoided really pushing myself. Up until Thanksgiving, I have never run a 10K in under 51:00 I have always just sort of checked out will things started hurting. It was something I was working on and improving on. Then, Thanksgiving Turkey Tro 10K, I ran a 48:38. Still not blazing past but I was able to push through the pain and run a good race.

That being said. I am really working on my bike right now. Mainly to become better fit on the bike to be able to run as well as possible.

Right now, I have confidence in my plan. As the race starts to get closer I may start to worry until then, I'm just staying the course.

Wow, sorry long post before dinner. 3hr Z2 ride tomorrow. Actually getting out on the road!

Lets talk about two things from Scotty's post. 1st the long range goal that drives everything.He has his heart set on IM in 2013, presumably IMFL but I may be mistaken. Everything he does now leads to a positive outcome there. Training is designed with this in mind. It gives him and his coach a focus. No need killing himself on upper zone/anaerobic training as the goal is to be able to sustain as efficient a performance in upper zone 2 as possible for as long as possible during an IM.

Eagleman 70.3 will be a nice test though, so he needs to do some tempo work as well. In perceived effort terms, tempo or z3 is 76-90% of max effort and your can race a HIM at mid 80% of max for the bike. In contrast, endurance is 55-75% and you can race 70-75% of max as a guideline. For me its a bit lower on the longer course IM than the HIM. Essentially, he will be training his body to get used to/get more efficient at those levels, so that race day will go smoother and he won't hit a wall or bonk if he hydrates and fuels well. I think heat may be a factor too at Eagleman so thats something else he will need to acclimate to.

another interesting note is that he is training his bike to help him with his run. The more he has left for the run, the better. Similarly, this is why my coach wants me in the pool 3-4x a week.

on the run limiter, i would ask how many miles you are running a week, how frequent you run, and what pace?

everything sounds well thought out Scotty. have a great ride! Whats up in Scotland, California, SC, etc everyone? Long weekend for the Americans. Hope you all are getting some quality in.

Bump up to the top of the page for the morning crowd. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend. 

Phat. As far as my run. I run in general 4x a week. Most of the time two of those are shorter transition runs, one is normally an hour run with some sort of hill work built in and one is a weekend long run. In the past, I was prone to getting hurt running, until I really learned what Z2 was. Most of my runs now are just under 10:00/mile. Really took an ego check to get out there and do that. However, I have gotten faster and more importantly, I am not injured. 

Here is a quote from that article that Phat posted up the other day. Really hits home for me:

"To keep my heart rate below 155 beats/minute, I had to slow my pace down to an 8:15 mile. That’s three minutes/mile SLOWER than I had been trying to hit in every single workout I did! My body just couldn’t utilize fat for fuel.

So, for the next four months, I did exclusively aerobic training keeping my heart rate at or below my maximum aerobic heart rate, using the monitor every single workout. And at the end of that period, my pace at the same heart rate of 155 beats/minute had improved by over a minute. And after nearly a year of doing mostly aerobic training, which by the way was much more comfortable and less taxing than the anaerobic style that I was used to, my pace at 155 beats/minute had improved to a blistering 5:20 mile."

Checking in:

Did an okay weekend ride.  Plan was to do about 60 hilly miles with my group.  Didn't work out so well.  First off, part of the group wanted to ride 90 miles, so they were supposed to start earlier and meet up with the middle group at 7:45.  They didn't show up until 8:30.  Then, someone got a flat and instead of changing it, filled the tire with air and rode/walked to the bike shop to have it repaired.  Didn't tell anyone so we were waiting ahead forever.  Then another person wanted to stop to take pictures.  By 10:30 am, we had only gone 17 miles.  I turned around and went home.  Waste of time.  Still got a 34 mile ride in, though, so better than nothing.  In general, I like riding with this group, but Saturday was very trying.

Ran 5 miles this morning with the pig ninjas.  Still definitely getting back into the swing of running.  Feel really slow, but it's enjoyable and I know it will pick up.

Plan on sneaking out of here at lunch to swim.  Got all of my experiments lined up to do so.

I like the nutrition plan phat and jbyce were on!  When I'm trail running I eat anything and everything that sounds good!  Do it sometimes on long rides, too.

So what is it about swimming that makes me so hungry?  I can ride or run for hours and not feel especially hungry but when after I swim, I'm ready to kill my own food.  

Well, 3rd day in a row did 2 sessions in a row (swim and run). First 2 days did swimming first, and had plenty of strength for decent and respectful run pace. Today, however, ran first, and had no strength whatsoever in swim. Couldn't swim properly more than 200m.

Isn't it a shame when your club members don't have planned races, but just do the sessions themselves...?

p.s. Just to add, I am a morning person. Today s workouts were in the late evening, while yesterday and the day before in the morning.

scotty, you reckon youre sorting your running out on 4 days a week the way you have it generally structured? frankly i am a bit worried looking at those numbers. maybe not now but as the big days approach. admittedly, im a volume slut but thats how i think i get results.

ashley: barryP on slowtwitch.com. lot of discussion on it on ga forum: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... sorry about the work intrusions. hopefully you get some relief soon!

gotta go read what gladiator posted. i want to hear from kate! are you gonna do cowman?

EDIT: good work Gladiator! i swam last two days and ran too. in fact today was a 43 day. 4300yds, 43 mi on bike bricked to 4.3 run miles! now time for 4.3 beers haha.

Just checking in with weekend work.

• Friday, 1K swim in the am, followed by 1hr Yoga, then 6K run in the frigid cold
• Saturday, 2Hr bike (last 65K of Kona on the Computrainer), followed by 20minutes run in the even more frigid cold
• Sunday, 21.25K run in 2:22 in frigid cold again

Today and tomorrow resting up for my lactate testing at 5:30pm tomorrow evening to determine my zones.

I've decided to go for the Barry P Run Frequency Plan: 1 long run, 2 medium runs and 3 short runs.  I'm going to start with a long run of 6 miles, 3 3-milers, and 2 4-milers.  This will give me 23 miles per week.  This is going to be a big change from the low frequency, high intensity (FIRST) type training I've done in the past.  This sounds good, though, and the pig ninjas would love more frequent runs.

Do you increase 10% per week?  I know some stay with the same run distances for weeks on end.  I'd like to run 100 miles per month soon and put down some huge months before my IM.

good work Rich! sounds awfully cold. good luck on your test. shanks is supposed to test me friday am.

Ash: i think its organic kind of development. move up when you are more efficient at the current level.

fleck has another plan like it. take the total miles per week and divide by 6 and do that distance 6x.

Sorry, buddy.  Funny story: when I was in college, I called my family one day.  My stepdad answered in a weird, fake high voice, "Hello?!  Ash: WTF?  Then he put my then-4 year old sister on the phone and she said, "Daddy had an operation on his wiener and now he talks like a girl."  Turns out my stepdad had a vasectomy.  I laughed over this exchange for days, okay, it was 10 years ago and I still think it's funny.

I did a run/walk this morning with Luke and then did a 3 mile run on my own. The run felt really good.  I'm super excited about increasing the frequency of my running.  Pretty sure my lack of volume contributed to my IM badness last year.  I'm not going to throw down Slayer volume, but I'm def going to be picking it up.  Next up: must swim!  Didn't make it yesterday. Have to go Wednesday and Friday.  Not sure what my deal is.  I enjoy it while I'm there and I feel great afterward.  Guess it's just convincing myself to wear a really ugly, unflattering suit and slip into cold water early in the morning.

Please feel free to harass me if I don't swim.  I need help/grief/nagging.

I've actually been following the Barry P progam. It seems to be working ok for me.  I've increased my long run to 10 miles (from 6.5 miles) while leaving my short & medium runs at the same levels.  I know that is not what is exactly prescribed but I always figured I could cut down that long run if I felt I should.  I need to be careful about the intensity/speed/form of that long run otherwise I'm prone to injury. So far it seems to be that it isn't the distance that hurts, it's the intensity.  I use my shorter 3 mile runs as recovery runs. On my medium 4 to 5 mile runs I may throw in a little bit of speed work, but rarely.  The benefit I see with this program is that it gets me running 5 to 6 days a week - that's got to be a good thing right? I don't plan on increasing my mileage until Spring. 

I spent the long weekend swimming and biking.  After two weeks of no running, my hopes for a pain free run lasted about 0.1 miles.  It doesnt seem like its gotten any better, so Im trying to set up an appointment to see a specialist about it.  If nothing else, Im just looking to get the green light that I havent done any real damage.  In the mean time, Im sticking with the swim and bike workouts, which dont cause any pain, and hoping that following through with some stretching and strengthening exercises will solve the problem.

So, Im living vicariously through everyone elses run workouts.

Got an appointment for this Thursday

IMO, if anything, this is the period to skip the running segment, if needed. There really are awkward and freezing running temperatures out there.

Any thoughts on this one?