GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 158)

STEVE -

You're getting there -- really, you are. Have faith in the process, and also in your own desire and determination. You're doing everything right at the moment, DEFINITELY including the hike with Maggie. I'm sure you've read that that sort of thing is very beneficial - soemthing seemingly completely different, but nevertheless working the body. You're just in the process now of restoring balance into your life, but finding the perfect place for the fulcrum is a little bit difficult. You'll get there, to be sure!

I'm mostly concerned about you sitting in meetings trying to look interested, or attentive........or even awake? Did you succeed with that lofty goal??

SHAUN -

One-for-two in the Google dep't today. Lauren Hart IS the daughter of the late, great Flyers' announcer Gene Hart, but I could find no references to the little vials of magnesium that I used in maybe '04 or '05. Moreover, I could find none in my armory of triathlon gear........although I still must have one SOMEwhere. (Scary thought, just where it might be! )

SHAUN again -

Go to www.sportquestdirect.com and check out Carbo-Pro. Go ahead - I dare you. I even double-dog dare you!

SHAUN once more -

Also at www.carbopro.ca, although of course that will be for CDN distribution.

Um...no, not really.  LOL.  I did, however, map out my game plan for training, with detailed workouts for the next 4 weeks. 

I think I have my plan in place.  Goal is to essentially go back to Week 10 of my IMSG training program and "rebuild" heading into Vineman, and treat Vineman as a training race for Silverman.  Training starts this week with 9 hours of work, and I "peak" 4 weeks out from the race at 12 hours per week (4 hour long ride, 2 hour long run).  As you can see, aside from swim days, each day has some sort of brick, even if they are short bricks.  And, the short bricks mid-week are really focused on running with some intensity off the bike, and then dialing back to a Z2 type pace.  I'm going to try to attach the file...hopefully that works. 

My only real concern with the schedule is that the vacation forces a 3-week taper, where I'll be limited to swim and run - but that should be OK, as I'll have plenty of brick work leading into that, and the course is relatively flat. 

The other goal was to come out of Vineman somewhat fresh, treating it as a long brick day, and leaving myself with 13 more build/peak weeks before a 3-week Silverman taper.  The vacation should let me get in good swims and runs, so I'm not shocking the system too much on the half.

Thoughts?



Attachments
----------------
Vineman Training Plan.xlsx (14KB - 40 downloads)

Love it. Great story Mandy.

Steve:

This post reminds me of how I often wonder why sprint distance races are not standardized. I mean, I guess some races are meant to be more "beginner" than others, hence the shorter swim and bike segments. But if you're like me and just starting out, it would be nice to get some kind of baseline to work from to see how you progress as you do more and more sprints.

So I was just looking at the reviews on Active.com of the 5k I did on Sunday, and there were quite a few complaints that the course was actually between 3.3 and 3.4 miles long, instead of the standard 3.1m of a 5k. So... I guess this really was not the best race for me to choose to make a 5k PR!

I wonder what my time would have been if it was 3.1m. I'm too tired to do the math right now...


Tracey

TRACEY!
TRACEY!
TRACEY!

Okay, I have just spent about 20 minutes going over the results for the race and crunching some numbers.
Here's what I know:
1) The results now list the mileage at 3.3 miles.
2) I don't agree with that (see below).
3) At any given 5km in the universe, there will be MANT more runners who go sub-20 than just the EIGHT at Manomartian!!!!
4) We know your finish time was 40:52 -- that's a given.
5) Your pace is listed as 12:24.
6) A pace of 12:24 does NOT jive with 3.1 miles.....or even 3.3 miles.
7) Someone finishing a race in 40:52 would be at a 12:38 pace for 3.3 miles.
8) Someone finishing a race in 40:52 would be at a 12:01 pace for 3.4 miles.
9) IF it was 3.3 miles, then that is an extra .2 miles.....and a 12:38 pace is worth 758 seconds/mile.....and 2/10 of 758 is 152 seconds.....which is 2:32....which would bring your true 5km (3.1 miles) time down to 38:20.
10) IF it was 3.4 miles, then that is an extra .3 miles....and a 12:01 pace is worth 721 seconds/mile.....and 3/10 of 721 is 216 seconds....which is 3:36.....which would bring your true 5km time down to 37:16.

11) My mind has kind of turned to mush now, so I will leave this and return later. HOWEVER, my guess is that the race was really about 3.33 miles ---- and even though about 30 minutes ago I thought I had a sound reason for figuring this, right now I can't remember it!!
12) NO DOUBT -- you ran an overlong race! Very large congratulations of doing it so well, and toughing through that extra distance with a twangy, twictchy neuroma. You're a tough cookie, Tracey!

TRACEY -

Moving on to standardized sprint distances.....

"True" distances:
Sprint ----- 750meter/20km/5km or .45 mile/12 miles/ 3.1 miles
Olympic --- 1500meter/40km/10km or .9 mile/ 24 miles/ 6.2 miles
Half-Iron -- 2000meter/90km/21.1km or 1.2 miles/ 56 miles/ 13.1 miles
Iron ------- 4000meter/180km/42.2km or 2.4 miles/112 miles/ 26.2 miles

Virtually every iron is at those distances.
Most half-irons comply with the above, but there are about 5-8% that don't (that's a rough guess).
If an olympic race does NOT meet the above distances, it is considered "intermediate" of "international". (My Columbia, this Sunday, ghas a 25-mile bike, so isn't a true "olympic". And the Mass. State Tri, put on by Max Performance [Escape...], has a 19-mile bike, so it too is either intermediate or international.) If the races that roughly hover around the olympic distance, probably less half of them are true olympic distance.
At the roughly-sprint level, races can be all over the place -- as you have discovered! Here are some "sprints" I am looking at for this year:
Escape --- .3/10/3.1
Pirate ---- .3/14/3
Tupper Lake --- .5/18.7/6.2
Mini-Mussel --- .5/16/3.1
Crystal Lake --- .5/18/3

Yes, it does make it hard to compare one to another, doesn't it?! The only things you can do are (a) keep doing at least one race year after year after year, and/or (b) compare your paces from one race to the next.

BUT, clearly from the above examples, comparative paces don't work becasue the effort to do an 18-mile bike (and a hilly one at both Tupper and Crystal) is much different than a falt 10 miles, such as at Escape. And that Tupper run -- that's an olympic run, a full 10km, and yet they have always referred to that race as a sprint!! Anyhow, for me and everyone else, the pace for a 10km will be hugely different than my pace for a 5km, so......

Having soiad all that, it doesn't really answer your question, and all I can really say is that race directors end up with distnaces into which they can effectively squeeze a course. People training for an iron rightfully expect (and deserve!) exactitude....but after that it becomes as I just said -- find a swim and a bike and a run route, and measure them, and see what comes up!

Frustrating, yes, but in time you'll just shrug and think "So it goes...."

MANDY........TRACEY........

Another crushing loss for the Sox. I left when they were down 6-2, came back in the top of the 9th with them AHEAD, 9-7, and Youk up with two outs and men on the corners....and he struck out.

Then the Yanks come up against Paplebon, and proceed to hit TWO two-run homers, and win 11-9.

I feel sick.......

ANNE -

Lynn's at a conference in Montreal....and it's 12:13am....and I'm at loose ends.....so below I have assembled a list of my first LOCAL open water swims since I started this silliness back in '00. (The list excludes the ones that were associated with early-in-the-season races in more southerly locales!)
'00 -- ? (maybe about June 21)
'01 -- 28 May
'02 -- 6 June
'03 -- 26 June (This reflects my first season with Coach Erik, and if he was setting pool workouts for me, that's where I went!)
'04 -- 4 June
'05 -- 7 June
'06 -- 28 may
'07 -- 6 June
'08 -- 11 June
'09 -- 11 June
'10 -- 17 MAY!!!!!!!!

And that's the truth!

Lisa,

Snow is melted (woo hoo), but everything out here is snow melt since we're essentially at the base of the mountains. Luckily the reservoir for this Sunday's sprint is somewhat small, so it'll warm up pretty quickly, at least that what I keep telling myself. RD sent out the latest info about water temp:
57 on Friday
58 today
expected to be 62-63 by race day

Yikes!

Tracey,

HUGE bummer about the wetsuit. I hope you get your second suit in time!

Kasia

Mandy,

Great job on the marathon and you really are one happy swimmer/biker/runner. You have a huge grin in every single one of those shots from Polar Bear. Awesome pics!

Kasia

Anne,

So sorry to hear about the injury keeping you from running (for now, like Steve and Mark say). And you've been so good about keeping yourself healthy. On the bright side, the swimming and biking is unaffected. Heal up quick!

Kasia

Edited by augeremt 2010-05-18 1:32 AM

Tracey,

Congrats on the hilly 5k finish! And an added bonus is finding a new training partner

Kasia

Mandy,

I'm impressed by your ability to run this marathon without having run for about a month beforehand. Great job!

Kasia

Edited by augeremt 2010-05-18 1:49 AM

SteveB,

Since you are daring me, I'll throw this one out at you. Have you checked your car lately?

You can be certain I'll be checking out Carbopro...With 2 jugs of Gu set to arrive tomorrow though I think I'll be set for this year. Next spring the fun will start again!

Thanks Steve for looking at these numbers!

I exchanged some emails with my new training partner I met at the race, and she told me that she thought there was something screwy with the race timing for sure. I also saw a similar comment on Active.com. So that, combined with the extra distance, means that I didn't do as poorly as I thought I did for a 5k.

I'm going to try to vindicate myself today and run a 5k course here around my house. If I can finish in under 37:00, then I'll consider that having set my PR! I'm scrubbing the Manomartian race from the records!

Tracey

Would it be terrible to admit that I've stopped watching the games, because I'm tired of the disappointment??

You got me wondering...................      Last thing I should be doing this morning is playing on the computer. 

Learned to swim in '05 so spent my time in pool, and I think I got into Lake Ontario the 1st week of Aug w/o wetsuit and it was fine.  

June 3rd - '06 (Balsam Lake) rented a wetsuit for the weekend to try out
May 13th - '07
May 26th - '08
May 23rd - '09 (Lake Whittaker)
May 18th - this week.   

Looks like you took the plunge earlier than me in '06 and this year.   

My first swim of the year is usually in Guelph Lake, (large man made reservoir).   It can be bitter cold taking like 10minutes for the face to get used to the water, but I have a feeling Thursday should be good.   At least the air temp will be warm.   Supposed to feel like 29*.  

Woo hoo! Vindication!

I just ran 5k in 36:28, beating my best of 37:00. Race or not, this is now my PR. I have now washed off the stink of Manomartian!

Now, let's see if I can duplicate that in a tri...

Tracey

WAHOO! Congrats Tracey! That is awesome.