MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 154)

Thanks Johanne.    It's a regular sprint - 750 meter swim, 20km bike and 5km run.   The swim is in the harbour, and the bike and run are pretty much flat with the exception of a tiny climb out of transition.   I'm going to try and push myself a bit harder but I really need the winds to stay away if I want to reach my bike speed goal, and looks like that won't happen.    Although we are in the water at 7:30 a.m. so it may not be too windy that early in the day. 

Yes, I am anxious to get the run speed up to where I know I can go with the HR, but will be very careful with that.  

We video taped our swim across the lake yesterday (set it up on the tripod) and it was interesting.   When I did my w/u and swim slowly, I go straight, but when I did my 50" sprints, I really veer to the left?   I think that means my finish with my left arm is weak, and I know I don't complete the finish very well when I speed up the cadence.   What do you think?

We are taping the swim again today. 

At 194 days counting today.  Did my AM swim and it went fine.  Been doing 1000 yards straight about 5 times a week.  It's getting much easier and I have tons of speed when I want to turn it on / really focus on being "long", "rotating" and increasing my turn over.

Highlight of the day was the PM bike ride.  Held 18.9 mph in about 10-15 mph winds for 11.5 miles.  Didn't kill myself, but pushed solid.  The second 5 miles of the ride, actually averaged 20.5 mph!  In the 3-4 weeks I've been outsid, can see some real gains.  Garmin track for the ride is here http://connect.garmin.com/player/189028556

Just over a week until the first event of the season.  While it sounds crazy, I'm really hoping to PR in all three disciplines (PR versus times on individual disciplines outside a tri).  The swim should be a cake walk (since I am still learning to swim the gains have come "easy").  The bike will be the biggest challenge.  Key will be getting calm conditions.  If so, should be able to do it.  The run should be doable if I don't fry the legs.  Confident that I've got the base built that will enable me to have a great run.  Also, I run faster off the bike as my body is loose (have issues with flexibility).

Highlight of this weekend will be a small bass fishing tournament I'm doing with my Dad on Saturday.  Haven't fished a tourney in the last 5 years after 15 years of tourney fishing.  Should be a good time as we've been on the lake a couple of times and the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

CURT -

No, it's not crazy at all to hope/plan to PR in all three disciplines.  You have had very consistent training, for sure, but beyond that you have experienced actual improvements across the board.  And you're doing the smart thing in setting goals that YOU (mostly) have control over.  That is a far wiser way to set goals than to have something out there such as "I will podium".....which has a large part to do with who all shows up.

There are a couple of key aspects to setting the goal of PRing all three.  To wit:

• An extraordinary effort in one can adversely affect another.  So if there are cruddy conditions on the bike and you know you will have to work quite hard, then be aware that might affect your run time.  So, you may have to make a decision on the fly, such as to continue to go all out on the bike and possibly pay the price on the run....or back off some on the bike figuring you might not get the PR there anyhow, and switch your focus to giving your best on the run. 
• Be prepared to leave a sub-par swim or bike right there, and move on without remorse or regret to the next leg of the race.  So, if the swim is choppy, or your googles leak, or you somehow get way off course......don't beat yourself up about that to the detriment of the bike and run!  I think experienced racers can work fairly well out of "anger", but it can be disruptive to one who is relatively new to triathlon.  And one of the glories of tri is that you get three chances to shine, so if the swim or bike "go south" --- move on from there!

When I mention anger being "disruptive", i'm thinking about its potential to put one right of their zone of best technical performance.  In this, the cyclist can start "mashing" the pedals, for example, or the runner can adopt a completely unusual form of running that seems designed for speed, but more than likely will end up with the runner getting tanked after about a mile.  Part of "moving on", then, is keeping your focus clear and not wavering from the mechanics that have served you so well ove the past several months.

On final thought on this is to not be a slave to your watch.  Watch-watching is not the best way to attain PRs, as it does little more than remove one from focusing on their mechanics --- body rotation, or pedaling so there are no perceived "dead spots", or keeping the arms reasonably high on the run.

How's that all sound?

Had another good training day with a 750 meter run off a 32 minute bike.    The bike had two hard five minute sets trying to get up to speed fast from a stand still and and getting feet into shoes.    I managed a 5:43 pace for the run.      Did a lake swim first with 800 meters race pace and video taped again.   I can see why my pace is slow.   HAVE to do something about the zig zag!

Going to rest and recover for the next 2 days.  

Sage advice Steve.  Plan to follow it to a "T" / was my plan to go by feel and trust the result will take care of itself.

Great read "Your 15th Club" by Bob Rotella.  While golf is the topic, mental approach works well on just about everything.  Follow the process, trust yourself, positive self image.  Accept things will go wrong. Be happy with the results if you do the three prior things.

ANNE -

Remember, I'm a veerlefter as well, so I'm not the one to ask.  But seeing as how you asked...

I too have tried to alter my left arm pull and finish, which includes lengthening it, shortening it, adding more oomph to the finish, and varying the pitch of my arm throughout the pull.   havwe also played around with my right arm, most recently deliberately having the right hand enter the water further outside, I guess in effect putting the entering hand further to the right in hopes i will overcompenste in that direction.  Not a smashing success with that, or any of the above, or any of several other, um, "refinements" I have attempted over the years.

One thing that works is the following:

I am a right-side breather, so of course when my left arm is extended in front of me, that's when I breathe.  The navigational improvement comes when my right arm is extended, at which time I raise my head just barely enough so I can see directly in front of me, and at some distance in front -- like, the next buoy, or even just the mass of caps ahead of me.  The downside to doing this is that, theoretically, that slight lifting of the head creates drag, although I'm not sure that I'm lifting it much more than it sits there, anyhow.

I can track quite well doing that, and what i'm describing is when I breathe every other stroke.  But what I have aspired to over the past 18 months or so is being comfortable with breathing every fourth stroke....but that just provides an extra chance between breaths to do the forwards sighting.  It might be well worth trying after Leamington.

One of the best techniques is to find a pair of feet to latch onto, and stay with them just as long as they don;t belong to a "drifter".  I tend it find it tiring to draft for too long off the same person in a swim, however, so this approach hasd never sustained me for an entire race.  But if it could work for you.....

Nice run, like, really nice run!  Was that pace set in the Kinvaras?  Let me guess.....and my guess is that you're smitten with Kinvara-lust.  Right?

Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump!

You will be surprised to hear, that NO, I didn't use the Kinvaras.   I am heeding your advice and working into them, plus I don't want to take them outdoors, till I know they are the ones.    I would like to be ready to use them for Edmonton.   I WAS quite surprised at the run pace.   I was breathing hard, but not dying.   I'm not optimistic about doing 5km breathing hard like that, but Ken seems to feel I could do it.  

I was thinking if I could at least get the first km in that fast, maybe just slow down a tad to get my breathing under control and then pick up the pace again?   Or just keep pushing??? 

In a race I seem better able to site.   Maybe because the buoys are easier to see than a tree than just becomes a big blur of trees on the shoreline.  Plus, as you say, the other swimmers help.   As long as I don't latch on to one that is going off course.    I won't play with my stroke during the race. 

My head comes WAY TOO FAR out of the water when I am sighting.   Maybe not during a race, but boy it sure did the last two days. 

Next Wed and possibly the one after we are going to do an open water swim clinic through Personal Best (Sean Bechtel and Barrie Shepley) in a GTA Caledon Quarry.   A friend did it last week.   It is free for the month of June and not expensive if we choose to keep it up.    The website is www.personalbest.ca.    Click on open water swims and it explains the format.  

The weather is looking sketchy for Leamington now!     SW 20km/hr winds and chance of thunderstorms.   But we are in the water at 7:30 so maybe it will be OK.    South winds only would have been great. 

ANNE -

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I'm back here for just a bit, and quickly want to tell you that how I described the sneak-sighting techique is NOT how I do it.  More later.....but for now it is all done while my LEFT arm is extended, and that when it happens I am breathing every second or fourth stroke.  More details later!!

(And I apologize if you went for a swim and tried it the way I described it.  OOPS!

ANNE -

Yes, I am surprised!  Great restraint....and more good results from the Fasttwitches.  That is NOT to say that you shouldn't try the Kinvaras, but just that you have a really viable option with Fstwch.  Eventually, you should find the kinvaras to be a whole other animal, and in a perfect world you would use the Kins for sprints and maybe olys, and the fstwch for olys and HIMs and other longer things. 

Again, I agree with Ken (no, I'm not on his Agreemant Payroll!) that you could survive a 5km breathing kind of uncomfortably hard.  Now, if you suffer from asthma, seasonal or otherwise, or have other breathing issues, then that might change things, but if not then all you'll do is superficially suffer -- and that's the performance goal of much of this stuff we do!

Like most everything else in endurance sports, breathing hard will develop in stages.  What is somewhat alarming now -- the prospect of going hard enough to breath uncomfortably hard for 5km - will, in time, be supplanted by breathing hard during next June's Binbrook 7.5km....and then that in turn will be overtaken by breathing hard for, say, the oly at Gravenhurst.  In essence, you know full well how this works!

You also know I'm a big fan of "surges", so in reference to your second paragraph -- yes, you could go hard until you feel you need to back off some, and then do so until your breathing gets slightly under control, and then pick it up again.  And repaeat.  And repeat.

That said, doing surges works brilliantly for me on the bike, but less well on the run.  I'm sure it's because even at my hardest riding level, my HR isn't in the Horror Zone....whereas on the run it often is.  Another way to say this is that I find my HR drops to an acceptable level very quickly after a big effort on the bike, whereas on the run it takes far longer.  On flats on the bike I can push really hard for x amount of time, and then back off just slightly for about 7-10 seconds, and then I can push really hard again.  And repeatrepeatrepeat!

I'll also say, in thinking about it, that on the bike it's not so much my HR and brerathing that need controlling, but rather the lactic flow (I think?) in my legs.  But on the run, going really hard, it's lees about lacticity and more about breathing and/or my heart exploding from my chest.

More on sighting, later, but for now I have to get to work on steering thsoe tomatoland winds back more from the south than from the southwest.  Would a 30-degree shift work about right for you, making it SSSSW?  Just checking!

YES, please do keep working on those winds.     SO, nothing like leaving things to the last minute.   I wasn't sure which cassette to use and was leaning towards putting the ZIPPS on the bike.   Didn't use them last weekend.    Decided to go with the 11-23 versus 12-27 since the bike is FLAT, and did go with the ZIPPS.   Went for a ride around the block and the front tire went flat.   

There was a cut on the tire, but I thought that had been there for the last year or so and had been keeping an eye on it.   Anyway, Ken was nice and put in the new tube (and remembered to check the rim for glass or whatever).   Hopefully, it is still full in the morning.  It is the front tire so am going to take my extra front wheel just in case something happens because I don't have any more 650 ZIPP tubes.  

I understand what you are saying about the breathing hard and the surges.   I promise I will give it my best effort to push.  I am getting a bit better at being willing to 'superficially suffer".    

Time to get to bed.   Getting up early to go to the market and then finish packing.   And you know what that entails.  Want  to leave here by 11:00.   They have packet pick up from 2:00 till 5:00. 

I'm starting to dream about triathlons........

ANNE -

No need for 12-27 on flats.  But as for the other flats....better today than tomorrow....or SUNDAY!!!!

Back to 12-27, that's serious hills, or at least semi-serious hills.  But I'd say the former for you, as you have good power on the bike; for semi-serious hills, you could thrive on a mere twenty-five (there's a rhyme for ya!).  In fact, unless you're at something like Placid, you'd be much better off with an 11-25 than a 12-27.  What do you think.

Being a juicer-junkie now, your packing entails all those yecchy green things; it's so much easier when one's diet is empty carbs!

Sleep well, leave early (11 should eb plenty doable, yes?).

Good week of training.

Had some longer, slow runs, some good bike days and today Dave and I went back to our new open water swim canal and we added 5 min to the outbound from last week and landed up swimming 2.12 (3731 yards) miles in 1:29:18. I was so happy with just being consistently swimming. We took less little breaks than last week and just swam. Yippee!

I'm going to sign up for a couple of swim races because I know myself enough to realize that a race situation will slow me down so I have to get more of those kinds of swims in too. 

Afterwards we went on a run. I did a slow hour run. My heart rate keep spiking up so I took some walk breaks to get it back down and it was getting stinking hot! I think it might hit 100 degrees today.

I have a 2 hour bike tomorrow which will probably be closer to 2:30-3:00 so I can ride with Dave.

Monday is supposed to be my rest day but I have to take my daughter down to L.A. on Tuesday/Wednesday and I think it'll be easier to take Wednesday off. I'm going to move a couple of shorter workouts to Monday/Tuesday to get them in and Wednesday I'll rest in the car driving home

Happy Father's Day to all our Mojo Dads! Hope you all get pampered tomorrow

Johanne

Nice week Johanne.   I like the sounds of the swim races you are thinking of.   

Have a great ride tomorrow! 

Ach!!!!  80% chance of thunderstorms with 30km/hr S winds starting about our swim time.       Also see that they include T1 and T2 in the bike times.   Wasn't going to wear a watch but I think I might.   Hope they don't cancel the race, and don't really want a DU either.    

What will be will be..............

On vacation at the beach!

Ran yesterday at our midway point. Training plan had my first Lactate Threshold run. I found it really hard to get my heartrate into zone 4-5a on the flats and downhills. Could have had something to do with weak legs due to the previous two days' bike workouts and driving for 5 hours. Or maybe I was too lazy to push hard enough?!

I think I found a huge flaw in my training to date: whenever my plan has said HR Zone1-2, I've stayed right at the lower end of zone 2. Which is a huge diffference from the upper end of zone 2. Not sure I've gotten as much benefit from all of those Z1-2 endurance sessions as I could have. Wonder if that's part of why I'm finding the Z4-5a so difficult.

Today, another 5 hours in the car and we arrived at the ocean. The beach patrol was warning folks about the rip currents. Snuck in a quick OWS in some pretty rough surf (in my wetsuit!). The ocean claimed my goggles. So I cut it short. Try again tomorrow.

Managed to get the race in despite heavy rains, thunder and lightening.  A few delays but they finally let us in the water at 7:45.   Skies cleared up for us and then a couple of hours later the storms returned.   We were lucky.   

This was a TOUGH field for competition since it was a qualifier for London, England next September.   So I knew this would just be a good training race for me.   However, faired better than I thought.   Only 1min 2 secs out of 3rd and if I get my run to where I know it can be I would easily have had 2nd.     

A really good swim for me with all the waves pushing you around, weeds, dead fish and a mass start in the water.   Steep climb on slippery wooden ramp out of the water.    2:23 /100 meters

Bike still needs to be better.   28.6 km/hr (one minor screw up that cost me 30 sec)

Run - pushed harder but can still push more - 6:18 min/km.    Last weekend my run pace was 6:55/km

RACE DAY - LEAMINGTON - 750m swim; 20km bike, 5km run

RESULTS:

178/210 OVERALL;   164/210 SWIM;    163/210 BIKE;    176/210   RUN

AGE GROUP:    4/7 OVERALL;    3/7  SWIM;    3/7   BIKE;     6/7  RUN

T1:  1/7;      T2:   4/7

Glad you had a good race Alex.   Look forward to reading your report.   

DARN ocean!!!!   

Interested comments on the Z1-Z2 and it does make sense.   However, I'm sure the training was still beneficial.   I agree with you, that there is quite a big difference between the low and high end of Z2.   I've been having a bit of a struggle getting the HR up as well.   

Hope you have a great vacation.   B

A beach vacation sounds great! Has the water settled down?

No races for me until next weekend. If the race was fun it sounds like a success either way

Good middle of the pack day! Sounds like you were able to avoid most of the bad weather. Great number on the run too compared to last week. What's your longest distance tri  this year?

Thanks.   I was happy that we got to race.    I'm doing 3 more for sure - another sprint, one Olympic and one HIM, in that order.   I find the shorter distances harder for sure.   It's not nearly as hard to get the same bike speed for a HIM, and I like the long swims too (probably because I'm not fast).    I don't plan on going for any speed on the HIM run though.  

You have a tri coming up soon, don't you?  

So I knew this would just be a good training race for me.   However, faired better than I thought.   Only 1min 2 secs out of 3rd and if I get my run to where I know it can be I would easily have had 2nd.      

That should have read '3rd'.