Funked Up Triathletes - Season 2 - Olympic/Sprint Focus - Closed (Page 15)

So at Threshold 5 there is a huge drop in the yellow (power?) but it doesn't show a drop in either cadence or kjs so what is the yellow drop for? (just trying to understand) This stuff is so cool. So you obviously have a power meter for this for watt readout too?

Yea, that was when I stopped pedaling for a second and reach down to turn on my fan. I have my bike (our bikes) close to sliding glass window in the basement and it's pretty cold down there first thing in the morning, but by that point, I was burning up. I actually did stop pedaling for a short period...probably about 10 seconds total.

Here's today's workout: Blender: http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1542464-sufferfest-blender

As you can see, I was sort of shelled by the time I got to the final 3 intervals. Also, my HRM is goofy, so it's terribly inaccurate most of the time at the beginning.

I do not have a Power Meter. I use TrainerRoad for my training. It is a program that uses an Ant + dongle to communicate with my Ant+ speed+cadence sensor and HRM. It uses my trainer's publish power curve along with my speed/cadence to generate a "virtual power" number. It is a rather simple, but powerful program that I swear by. A subscription to Trainer Road is $10/mo. I've wanted to get a power meter, but haven't cost justified it yet.

People will power meters will tell you that virtual power is not as accurate as a real power meter. That's ride...it's not. My virtual FTP at the moment is 237. On a real power meter it may be 220 or 250. I don't know for sure and I don't really care. The real important thing to me is that the virtual power is pretty consistent. And since it's a training tool, (obviously I can't take my laptop with me on the road and race with it!) it provides what i need.

Not to mention that Trainer Road has a huge library of workouts and training plans. When I ride my bike indoors, it's very productive. None of this idly pedaling away while I read a magazine. That's probably why I've become such a fan. Sure, I'd rather ride outside, but honestly riding outside is actually easier for me although more of a hassle.

I've read others who have had similar issues with the 920. I'll have to go back and find it again though, to see what the resolution was (if there was one). I'd certainly call them right away. It could be something simple or it could be that they send you a new unit.

Awesome- looking at your files and the sufferfest videos makes me want to try it out. I haven't ridden on a trainer before (only spinning classes or gym bikes) so thinking about sitting there that long sounds like a challenge to me. Having that kind of structured workout certainly seems to be the way to do it. I might have a friend I could borrow one from, I'll have to ask.

Workout 7/10- went running on Thursday. Pushing my pace into the 9:XX range kind of aggravated my heel again, so I walked it a bit for the last half. I guess I still need to take some time with it, so I might go back to walking/very slow running for a bit again. Very annoying.

Workout 8/10- took a 22 mile ride yesterday. I felt like some different scenery so went east from my house (usually I go west) which meant a flatter route than normal. Not entirely without hills, but no big ones. I tried to really attack the hills so I made good time on those smaller ones I did ride. It never really warmed up like it was supposed to so it was upper 30s and kind of damp, and there was this nasty headwind from the southwest so some portions of the ride were kind of miserable. But I did hit my goal- that's 104 miles for January! If I didn't make it yesterday I might not have made it, since it's raining/snowing today and the next week looks more like winter. I also hit my 25% of the climbing challenge, but I'm at 31% so I won't hit the 50% stretch goal. Oh well- hopefully Strava does a climbing challenge every month.

That's also about 200 miles on the new bike- still loving it. I'll probably take it in for a tune up since riding opportunities don't look promising. The bike came with a free tune up and they told me to bring it in around 200 miles, once the cables get stretched out by use they'll make the necessary adjustments. Shifting isn't quite as crisp as it first was so some adjustments will be nice.

Off to hit my espresso machine...again....

I'm just going to post these each day, just for fun.
Here's yesterday's "stage 3". http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1555369-Sufferfest-Fight-C...

I can't say I'm proud of this one....I really struggled and you can see that I was not hitting my power number. It was sort of humiliating as my wife is doing this as well and she was rock solid. We worked the schedule so that we actually have today off and stage 4 will be tomorrow. The ToS provides a 50-hour window for each stage (basically, it has to be the correct "date" somewhere in the world for the workout to "count"). She worked a night shift this weekend so we started early and by tomorrow will be right on track.

I had a minor issue with my heel a couple of years ago and I seem to remember it taking a long time of "easy" running before it heeled up and that anything that quickened the pace would end up causing a setback. Maybe this would be a good time to get some extra swimming in?

Thanks for posting these- it's fun to see how it's going and will be interesting to see how you are by the end.

Yeah, I think I'm learning that taking it easy for a while will be wise. Time to build a base I guess. But, as you suggested, a good opportunity for swimming. It's hard to fit a time to make it to the pool into my schedule at the moment, but I did mange it Sunday. So that's workout 9/10 for me- just 650 yards over about 20 minutes. A couple of warmup laps and then 100 yard sets- my sets were coming in at 1:5X kinds of pace, which is good for me, but I definitely had to rest between sets to catch my breath. A good day for not having swam in so long.

Seth and Jen, good luck with the storm, sounds like a pretty crazy one.

Ok, today was a workout called "Nine Hammers". When you look at the workout, you can clearly see what Nine hammers are. ha ha.

One really cool thing about The Sufferfest is that they are very hard workouts, but the whole branding is built around the bad-assery of it all and the pain you are feeling. http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1564731-sufferfest-nine-ha...

I thought I did ok today, but my file is less impressive than I thought. Once again, my wife really killed it. (Her FTP is lower than it should be, and she knows it, but we both decided that with this rigorous schedule, it would be best to re-test her AFTER the tour). That said, I haven't upped my FTP for quite some time.

Yesterday, when I woke up, my legs felt like lead. So the day off we were able to wedge in really did a world of good. The next few days the workouts are only: 1hr, 1hr, and 85min with an IF score of .91, .93, .93 respectively.

On the swim sets, what I would try to do, is keep at it with the 100 yd sets and work on holidng that pace. I would focus on establishing a set rest interval, and then shrinking that over time. A common mistake for triathlete swimmers (myself included) is to take longer breaks than you should between sets which can tear into the productivity of the workout. So, establish a (for example) :30 rest interval and then over time, shrink that to :25, :20 etc. Just an idea.

I hope everyone is not snowed in for too long. It's supposed to be 70 degrees here in the Cancun of the Midwest, Kansas City.

I did bring up one of the sufferfest videos just to check it out- if you have a paid strava membership you can get 3 of them for free (Blender, The Hunted and The Long Scream). They look pretty well done, and the bad-assery does seem like a way to stay motivated and entertained.

I was doing something similar last year with swimming- leaving the wall at intervals of 3 minutes, or 2 1/2 minutes or whatever for 100 yard sets, and it did seem to help. Once I get into more regular swimming I'll do that again.

Wow, 70 in January?! My experience with Kansas City is basically driving through on I-70 but that seems like it should be pretty atypical. Hopefully it doesn't do that just during the time you're doing the Tour indoors. I'm wondering if Vermont is getting similar weather.....

Workout 10/10 yesterday- a little under 3 miles running, kept the pace nice and easy. Managed to not aggravate anything, so I'll call it a victory.

Hi all! Freezing up here and we did not get the snow up where I am. I think I'm 5 or 6/10 and it will stop there. A spin this past Sunday and a swim yesterday of just 1100 yards. I only had about 20-25 minutes in the pool. As I headed into the locker room a girl commented that I was one of the most beautiful swimmers and looks forward to when she can swim like me (clearly doesn't get out much, but I'll take it).
I have the flu now 103.6 last I checked. Sweating profusely. I'll sign off and get back when I can.
Cheers!
Stay well!

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1573522-sufferfest-angels-...

Today's workout, Angels. Not too bad. It was rough, but I held on pretty good. Lots of people are lowering the FTP on these, but I've kept it at 100% thus far.

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1581278-sufferfest-local-h...

At some point in today's workout, we passed the halfway point, as far as total time in the saddle for the tour. My wife now has a head cold, and also had a root canal yesterday....and she still killed it today. She's the toughest woman I know.

Stage 8....this was our last day of getting up very early. I held it together pretty well. This weekend are the final two stages...and the two roughest. OMG I don't know how we're going to get through it...but we'll just bear down.

http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/1588919-sufferfest-the-roo...

Hopefully the rest of the Tour is treating you well.

Managed to get in a longer run, 5.8 miles, without hurting myself. Pace was still on the slower side, but that beats hurting myself. And then I was free to enjoy burgers, beer, chips and guac without any guilt!

Now let's all hope that darn groundhog is wrong.

Wow! Well done you guys!! Yesterday was my first fever-free day but after losing 5 pounds I have zero energy and it was all I could do to get through teaching a class today (though my kids had a snow-day!). I am down to 119 which for some might be appealing, but I'm almost 5'8" and 120 is my personal minimum. Time to get some muscle back. Tomorrow I think I'll jump on the trainer for an easy 30 minutes to see how it feels and go from there. I haven't been that sick for that long since I don't know when and I still have little interest in eating so i'm clearly not quite right. LOL
It's a new month though and I'm hoping to test my knee out with a little walk/running soon. I have PT on Thursday, we'll see what he says.

The other day someone said you have to come up with a brag moment (keeps up motivation) and one happened! Last week - the day I started to get sick I had gone swimming. I only had about 20 minutes to get a swim in and I'm still using the leg buoy for entire swims so I got 1100 yards in. When I got out and headed for the locker room a woman stopped me and said "you're one of the most beautiful swimmers I've ever seen. I can't wait until I can swim like you." Bwahahaha. Clearly she doesn't get out much or see to many swimmers but what the heck, I'll take it! LOL
Ah, hopefully I can back at it full strength soon. can't wait.

Keep up the great work, guys! What should be the new challenge for the month? May shoot for 20 or 25 workouts this month....of course there are only 28 days and we're on day 2, so maybe 20 for me.

Hopefully you're feeling back to normal now. Has being forced to not do anything at least helped with the knee?

Getting kind comments at the pool is probably an indication of good form, it seems like really fast long distance swimmers I've seen look like they just glide through the water.

I'm having a slack week here- I got in a very short run earlier in the week and tried to keep the tempo up, and that went ok. Yesterday I only had about half an hour and wanted to get some riding in, so I treated the neighborhood across the street from mine as hill intervals- that hurt! Probably didn't help that I went out to dinner the night before and the restaurant was having an anniversary party and passing out tequila shots. I can't remember the last time I had a shot and there's a good reason I don't do that anymore, it just makes me feel polluted.

It's pretty warm here today. My wife runs with a running club a couple of times a week, and through that managed to win a 5k entry fee at the Cincinnati Flying Pig, which is the big running series of the year here (they have a 5k, 10k, 1/2 and full marathons). I might do the 10k that morning too, and they have a kids "last mile" marathon, where they keep a running log of the first 25 miles leading up to the day then run the last mile on the marathon course. I'll take my kids out for a mile or so run this morning to start it out, it should be fun and they're excited. Then I'll probably do something myself after.

Hope everyone is well.

The flying pig! That's so cool! I've seen the advertisements in Runner's World magazine! Nice!

Today is the first day I woke up in a great mood ready to go! I had to teach but I swam after - still with the leg buoy. I got 1500 yards in but had planned to do more. I was trying to use the drill function on my watch for my 50's at the end and apparently I did something wrong - even though I hit save, the whole workout deleted or something. It didn't download here, on Strava or on Garmin Connect. I was a little bummed but must be operator error.
Anyway workout looked like this: (and all with a leg buoy)
300 warm-up
1000 continuous
4x50

I had planned to swim the full hour but ended up only swimming for a half an hour. I'll hit it again tomorrow.

So my sister-in-law texted me last night asking if I would be interested in doing the Tupper Lake Tinman (HIM) at the end of June - totally not on my radar as I have the HIM at the end of August in my sights. I thought about the sprint they do but the run at the end of the sprint is basically a 10k so why not just do the HIM.... She has never done a tri of any kind. I don't believe she's competed in a HM either. I decided she has a serious set of kohonas and I may need to ante up and suck it up. Granted the biggest two reasons I'm poo-pooing the idea is my knee (want it to be good for my A race) and my husband wants us to camp that weekend...but I figure we could camp at the race... We do a lot of remote camping to sites we need watercraft to access it - i use my kayak and we have an Adirondack Guide boat for hubby and boys and gear. I'm hoping maybe he'll be okay with this...
I have 4 1/2 months to prepare...do you think I'm crazy? I'm feeling very motivated suddenly by this, it's the kick in the pants I need to get going. (outside of the knee thing - my PT thinks it's bursitis by the way and that's just time to heal).
Am I nuts to consider it?

Not nuts.
It's tight but with a disciplined structured training plan 4 months would give you a full cycle. I've done this twice.

Got an hour long trainer ride in today. i had hoped to get a swim in too but no more time available.

Right now i have the BT free version of the HIM training plan for beginners. As you're a gold member, is it worth it for me to step up a level to see what plans are offered? This isn't going to be my A race - it's more to see how things go and get the experience for the Lake George "Big George" race at the end of August.
I have ever so slowly started reading the Triathlete's Bible and hope to work out a plan from that, but I'm certainly not going to even get a quarter of the way through the book in time for this particular race.

I can give you a basic training plan. For me, I benefit from mapping out my planned workouts and being able to adjust my calendar/workout days. Basically, for each week,I have a set number of workouts and I work them into my schedule as that come. I used to do this all myself and build it all myself, but a few years ago broke down and bought it because I felt i needed more structure and the ability to have it all on a calendar and to be able to see a chart of "planned vs completed". This is a powerful visual for me.

I make up training plans for my wife and she does it all on paper and it works for her.

AS far as "is it worth it"....tough to say. I'm gold because I like the custom plan creator and like the planned workouts (even though I don't have any planned right now...I'm getting ready to move into that phase again, LOL). I finally got to the point where for me personally, this tool was a small cost in the total triathlon budget so I think it's worth it. But again, many people are able to accomplish the same thing with other tools, like a spreadsheet or whatever.

I am game to look at anything! I usually end up looking at a few different options and combining aspects of all of them to fit in with my schedule; so I am happy to see anything! Thanks!

So I worked out M, T, W this week - swim/bike/swim. Yesterday I got in 1500 yards - all I could do in the time i had (33 min). As it was, I was only "on time" for the class I teach. Maybe i can squirrel in a ride on the trainer tonight.
My PT has given me permission to try a walk/run to test out the knee for running. I'm a little nervous about it - don't want to undo any healing I've accomplished. LOL It will have to be on a treadmill also as it is snowing again. we shall see how it goes!!

Hope your knee is still ok.

I'm really slacking this week- between a turn to really cold weather and some chest congestion, I have all the excuses I need not to do much outside. And with company in town this weekend I have no time for the gym. Lazy time!

I'm a bit disappointed, as I looked into registering for the race I ran last year (Cincinnati Triathlon) and don't see anything out there yet for a 2015 version. I guess I need to look around for something else, I think there are quite a few races starting in April or May through the summer around here, but I did really like the course of the Cinci Tri, and it was nice and close. I guess I'll have to drive a bit further, but some of the other races are in lakes so that might make them more reliable for the swim. I might try to do an early season pool swim tri in early May too, that sounds like a good first race.

Time to make plans I guess.

See if there is contact number on last year's website - maybe you can give someone a call to see what's up?

Man I haven't reported in here in a while! Sorry guys!
Last week I got 3 swims in and 2 spins on my trainer. I got another trainer ride Sunday and yesterday I tried my first run/walk, did PT exercises before it and swam 1500 after it. The run wasn't great - knee still didn't feel right so the PT is sending me to a specialist with lots of machines to see what he's missing if anything. It may be just a cortisone shot - though my hubby is very much against those. He says it never stops at just one - just masks the injury and you continue on making it worse. I don't quite know what I'm going to do. The consult will hopefully answer some questions.

I was hoping to get aerobars this week but my guy who fit my bike hasn't been available - the girl who answered the phone at the store wouldn't patch me through or take a message - weird. I'll pop down there tomorrow maybe.

I hope everyone has been making some strides!! i know my arms are getting bigger with all swimming I've been doing, so that's my silver lining!! LOL
Someday the snow will melt and I can try a run outside! Even the roads are still snow covered.

Very odd about the bike fitter/shop. A pet peeve of mine is small businesses that don't provide *exceptional* service. So places like this are typically, local, a niche market, and premium priced....they *must* be able to provide service that is above and beyond other retailers. That's just my mini rant on bike shops. I've probably stated it here before...but my local Trek deal (3 miles from my house) is run by a bunch of hipster a-holes that treat people (at least me) like undeserving patrons. I hate going there and bought my bike from a Specialized dealers 25 minutes away because that's where the combination of service/fit were. Ugh.

I'm in a bit of a funk.

After the tour of Sufferlandria, I got sick. The whole family has been sick. My youngest (2) had the flu and strep. My 2nd oldest had the flu and an ear infection. Toss in a stomach bug and we've basically rotated all of it among us for about the last 20 days. So, after TOS I really did nothing other than a local 5K and polar bear plunge.

I signed up for another 70.3 in October so my race schedule is taking shape. I built a training plan to start on Sunday. It called for 4.5M run and I ended up doing 7.5 because I just felt dang good. However, I am on-call this week and was subsequently up all night on Sunday night dealing with work issues. This has effectively nuked my morning workouts this week and also ruined my strong start to the training plan.

Hopefully I can get through this week, get over the nagging sickness and build some momentum next week. I also havent' been in the pool for a few months. With snow on the ground, zero degree temps and lack of sleep....getting motivated to go to the pool in the morning has been another obstacle.

Bummer about the Cinci Tri. Hopefully you can find a suitable alternative. I'm sort of bummed about the 5150 series coming to an end (it has been predicted to be dying for years). Last year one of my goals was to qualify for the championship. I did it, by a hair, but opted not to do the championship in Des Moines due to schedule reasons. Too bad...that was my last and only chance. Ha ha!

Wow on the sicknesses going around!! It's been a rough year for it!! Lay low and get healthy, there's too much going around to risk a relapse. Yuk. i had my week long flu so I'm hoping I'm done with it for the season............. Be well.

So I stopped into the LBS and talked with the guy who did my fitting last summer (the guy they wouldn't patch me through to) and he's just so nice. He's recommending Profile Design Jammer GT for me on my road bike. I've read some good reviews. I'm actually going to bring my bike in so he can show me how to set it up so I don't screw it up. (that and the fact that I want him to double check my fit again - we had swapped out my seat in the fall and I have only used it on a trainer so far). So before noon tomorrow I'll have some aerobars!

Knee is still messed up but I've been swimming 3x's a week and on my trainer probably 2x's a week (just getting back into it). Tried a run - not great so I'll roll, ice, and use a homeopathic anti-inflammatory gel on it recommended by my PT and see how it goes. This too shall come to pass (and my arms are definitely getting stronger with all the swimming!!

Never say never on the race you got into but didn't go to....you never know. Hey, at least you have bragging rights that you got in!

Mama's got some new aeros!
But you'll notice in the second picture it will be quite a while before I actually get to use them on a road...







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