Bob Stocks' Group - Full for now! (Page 16)

Brad - I think the benefits of tempo work are pretty well documented. High mileage in running leads to injury and high mileage in biking takes lots of time. Mixing tempo and recovery days in allows you to become faster by pushing harder for shorter periods which makes it easier to schedule workouts.

When I was working 70 miles away I used to commute once in a while by bike to get more volume in. I did that for the first couple years of doing triathlons and my biking did improve but I ended up with a stress fractured femur. When I hired a coach the first thing he did was decrease my volume. I made sure that the hard workouts were hard and intense and the easy workouts were easy (at least easire than I was used to train. ) In the last two years I have trained less and performed better.

If you run or bike at the same pace for a lot of miles you get really good at riding or running at that same pace. Make sense?

Remember that Gordo's group is mostly true beginners training for their first sprint triathlon.  With that group of people, upping mileage (not necessary high mileage like 75 mpw) might be appropriate.  Most of those individuals are probably trying to just develop a base of aerobic activity.

**Now, I might be totally wrong, since I haven't checked out his group since the first day or two.

Boy did I have a crappy run on the dreadmill today.  It was supposed to be a 40 minute easy run and I quit after 35 minutes because I was feeling so lousy, such is life.  The good news is despite feeling like total a$$, my HR stayed in Z1-3 like it was supposed.  In teh past my HR would have spiked to low Z5.

I had the thought of doing 1-leg drills on the trainer tonight but I am blowing it off and eating a large chunk of italian bread instead.  Bad for the weightloss stuff but so good for the soul... maybe i'll introduce the bread to its friend cheese, who knows?

Aimee- I did the D3 LT test.  basically its a 30 minute time trial.  After a good warm up (~10 minutes), do a 30 minute time trial at all out effort.  After 10 minutes his the "lap" button on your HRM.  Plug the average HR as your LT and that will give you your zones.  I did this test at my 5K pace.  BE RESTED.  This is a tough test and you should feel like you just ran a full out race.

About 2-3 years ago, there was this Z1-2 'fever' that swept the endurance sports ranks...all the coaches touted the 'go slow' approach, 80 or 90% of your volume in Z1 or Z2, and only change that once you get close to race time.

Seems as though the winds have changed as of late. Many folks are now advocates of 'training as your race', or in other words (as bob alluded to) when you're going easy, go easy. When you're going hard, go hard. And the more time you can spend going hard (that's an individual threshhold based on fitness, nutrition, propensity to injury, etc), the better off you're going to be for the race.

NOt sure if I agree entirely.  I think I agree as to swim and bike but for run it seems to be go EZ most of the time and hard only sometimes.  I think running is just too high impact to go hard more than 1x week (maybe twice for big time runners).  Here's a question: is a tempo run at say 5K/10K pace + 10-20", seemingly a staple of run plans,  a hard or easy run?

Cool--that's a good but miserable sounding test and I really want to see what hte results tell me as far as HR/LT and update my zones. Not sounding like fun, but doable and necessary.  

Cold run this morning!!! -4 degrees!!! Brrrr!!

SweetK - 2009-01-20 1:49 PM

Lo-Daddy - 2009-01-20 1:30 PM Bob your a BEAST!!!  Great job pushing through the cold!!!!

Ditto... also with some measure of insanity

I think Bob might have passed out yesterday after his LT test, fallen and hit his head!  Crazy!  But showing your mentees about what dedication looks like.

NOt sure if I agree entirely.  I think I agree as to swim and bike but for run it seems to be go EZ most of the time and hard only sometimes.  I think running is just too high impact to go hard more than 1x week (maybe twice for big time runners).  Here's a question: is a tempo run at say 5K/10K pace + 10-20", seemingly a staple of run plans,  a hard or easy run?

Excellent discussion folks. This part of the season is mostly base training and a big percentage of your runs and rides will be in Z2 or an easy RPE. This is basically what Kevin has me doing right now. As we get closer to the beginning of the season you'll start to see me with some much faster tempo runs and mixing up some different paces and getting out of my "comfort zone".

It is hard to get faster if you are always training at a slow or comfortable pace. The tempo runs are important and if nothing else they keep the training interesting.

My wife said I was nuts for running this morning too, go figure!

There is a good discussion about this on another thread! 

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=144350&start=1

OK folks--need some swimming advice.

I started with a masters group at the beginning of the year.  It is a relatively small group--maybe 10 people.  Thing is, everyone (except me) is more or less at the same level (except one guy who swims like he has flippers on all the time--fast!).  There is no "slow lane" for me to work in.  When I swim with them, I wind up having to shorten the sets so that I get a similar amount of rest as them (if we do 100 sets, I go 75) and in most cases I am pushing it pretty hard to keep at that pace but probably with exceptionaly bad form. 

So my question is, is this helping me or would I be better served just swimming on my own, mixing some drills with the sets.  I do realize that I need to make some time to do some drills and work on technique.  My challenge to myself in February is to get in the pool at least 3 days per week--currently only doing 2.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I vote to stay with masters. I swim on my own at a gym while traveling, and at masters group when I am at home. What I enjoy at masters is I can just jump in and start swimming without having to focus on pace,workout content, counting laps. What I can focus on is form, speed,and watching and discussing with others that are far better than I am. Stay consistant and be patient.

Good to see I'm not the only one with questions regarding intensity! 

Is there a coach on deck to let you know about your form?  If there is a coach on deck I would stay with the Masters team. 

No-he is in the pool swimming with the rest of us.

X2 - You can only benefit from swimming with people faster than you and I am sure they have no problem having you in the water. I would however ask them to adjust their distances sometimes. Ex: If they have a set of 100's on the 1:40 and you do 75's on the 1:40, the next time see if you can do the 100's on 2:00 and they do 125's on 2:00.  It's important for you to get some longer swims in for variety and pace work.

I usually increase my yardage to adjust to others speed and it works out well. It's always nice to have someone else in the pool when you swim.

You are right, they have no problem having me in the pool so that is not an issue.  And we do do some longer sets too so that is not an issue.  So far, it has been a different workout each day.  I will stick with the group and work in an extra day to do some drills to which I am lacking right now.  between that and chasing these fast folks, hopefully I will see my pace pick up soon!

Thanks everyone for your inputs.