Experior's Group, Take Two -- CLOSED (Page 16)

Experior - 2010-05-19 9:12 AM Hey everyone.  I got on the bike (trainer) this morning.  It felt great to be on a bike again, although I was a bit skittish and didn't push hard.

Pool running sucks no matter how you slice it, but I'll keep doing it.

Here's hoping everyone has a great day!

slow turtle - 2010-05-20 7:19 AM I did 30 minutes on the treadmill last night! Took a few 1 minute walk breaks, mostly to check myself and be sure the foot felt okay.
Since I'm feeling pretty good, my plan is to register for an August race, after I see the Dr tomorrow.

StlPhil - 2010-05-20 7:27 AM Stinkin RAIN! Feels like London here. Does the sun really exist? Sorry, I feel better now.  Got a hour on a spin bike at the Y. I need the sun.

Heidi, glad you're feeling better. I know first hand, feet problems can really suck. Thirty minutes on the treadmill, sounds like your on your way.

Phil

slornow - 2010-05-20 7:17 PM

Yeah-have to be a hater when it comes to the pool running.  But, it certainly builds a mental toughness.

Have been able to continue getting back to running.  Nice and easy 30 minutes every other day.  So far so good.  A little tightness when I start but getting there.  Build back slowly.

Sad swim story early this morning.  I have been swimming alot since my leg injury-35-50k yards a month.  My speed has improved but I just never get that relaxed feeling that I get on a long run.  Most of my swim workouts are interval based so there is more intensity but even when doing a long continuous swim it just never feels that I could go forever. Instead I'm counting the laps until I'm finished.   This morning I felt like #%! from the beginning.  Even the basic balance drills I always do early in a workout I was sucking in water.  Main part of swim was 15 x 100 at varying paces.  Struggled through the first five and bailed!  Should have toughed it out but felt like I would be draggiing the bottom of the pool if I kept going.  I know we all have those days when things just dont "feel" right but it really sucks in the pool-there is no escape.  Ok, now I have vented, complained, whined etc..  I'll be back at it tomorrow though-maybe a drill focused day to get me back into proper swim form-as sad as that may be.

Take care everyone-its almost the weekend!

Randy   

 

slow turtle - 2010-05-21 3:55 PM I didnt get great news from the Doc. After minimal prodding and poking to my foot, it was on fire (and still is, 2 hours after the appointment). He's concerned about the continued swelling, and nerve pain. Sending me for an MRI and a Lyme disease titer.
I'm pretty sure I don't have lyme's, but I'll play nice and get the test.

He suggested not running for 2 more weeks- just to be safe. He didn't say that I cant bike or swim, and I didn't ask. My frustration level is pretty high right now. I'm sure it''l reduce once the immediate pain stops.

But, it's a beautiful day out, and I dont even want to go for a ride right now.  that sucks.

sstucker - 2010-05-21 9:22 PM Beautifull here today, left work early enough that I could sneak in a 30 min bike hill workout then headed to the pool for a 40 min swim. These days I'm just finding timeslots to get workouts in and not worry too much about following the plan. I'm using the plan as a guide. Before I was always worried about how one workout would affect the next one that I would skip it, next thing you know I was skipping a whole week. Now, I just fill in my days. Now, if I had a hard workout the day before I will do an easy one with the other sport the next day. I'm learning to adjust and my workout log is filling up. Sylvain

slow turtle - 2010-05-21 12:55 PM I didnt get great news from the Doc. After minimal prodding and poking to my foot, it was on fire (and still is, 2 hours after the appointment). He's concerned about the continued swelling, and nerve pain. Sending me for an MRI and a Lyme disease titer.
I'm pretty sure I don't have lyme's, but I'll play nice and get the test.

He suggested not running for 2 more weeks- just to be safe. He didn't say that I cant bike or swim, and I didn't ask. My frustration level is pretty high right now. I'm sure it''l reduce once the immediate pain stops.

But, it's a beautiful day out, and I dont even want to go for a ride right now.  that sucks.

TriGuyBri - 2010-05-22 7:53 AM Darn Rain....I am going to have to do the first half of my Brick Workout in the gym on a Spinning Bike and then rush home to do my run portion.  Don't look forward to a 1.5 hr. bike ride in the gym.  Oh well.  Here we go.
Did go for a OWS last night; very rainy and a tad bit cold but doable.  It was nice to get out into the open water and test things our before June 6th Oly.

Great day everyone.
Brian

TriGuyBri - 2010-05-24 10:30 PM Who's got races coming up? My first Oly is two weeks from this past Sunday.  I need to have a great week of training going into next weeks taper.  I am going to try to stay within my training limits and not over due it like I usually do.   I generally push it harder than I need to.  Run in the morning at the track....28 min tempo run with a 10 min. warmup and cool down/ and a swim in the evening.

Take Care everyone.

TriGuyBri - 2010-05-25 11:27 PM Thanks Stu.  I want to enjoy the day and not have to high of expectations for my first Oly.  Shooting for 2:40, but I believe I can do better just not sure about reaching my splits all at once.

Swim :28-:30 min
T1 3:00 min or less
Bike 1:10 - 1:15
T2 2:00 min or less
Run :55 min

2:38 - 2:45 projection.

Experior - 2010-05-26 7:00 PM Hey everyone.  Sorry I've been a bit quiet -- work was insane the past few days.

I'm pretty excited about things right now -- I'm more or less back on the bike, and today I actually ran on the road for 20 minutes.  The vast majority of my running will still be in the pool for a while, but it felt great to run on teh road!

Brian, your training looks good.  You will do well in the race.  I have an Oly coming up too -- the weekend after yours.  I have my doubts that I'll finish -- I'll probably do the swim and bike then DNF.  (I've already paid for it so I'd like to get SOMETHING out of that entrance fee!) 

So let's talk about racing an Oly.  Sometimes people like to say "well, it's more or less like a sprint, just not quite as hard", and that's sort of right, but at the same time, there are some pretty important differences, in my opinion.  The two most obvious differences are that the swim is a higher percentage of the race, and that nutrition starts to matter.

So we can't just 'take a pass' on the swim.  I admit, I've done races where I more or less just 'made it through' the swim, knowing that I would make up a lot of ground on the bike and run.  That strategy won't work as well in an Oly.  For those of us who are weaker swimmers, finding a good draft becomes super important.  This could mean being willing (and able!) to go out pretty hard for the first 100-200 meters before you find a suitable pair of feet.  That is tough if you haven't practiced it.  Try it in the pool a few times.  Do some sets like 4x400, with each 400 as 200 HARD, 200 moderate.

In a sprint, nutrition is a non-issue.  You basically cannot 'bonk' in the time it takes to complete one.  In an Oly, you can definitely get to the point where calories are an issue.  It isn't a huge deal, but you ought to try to take in something because in the 2-3 hours that it will take to finish, you will probably exhaust yoru glycogen stores (the 'carbs' that are stored in your muscles, liver, and blood).  And an Oly is tricky, here, because you are still going pretty hard, which means that you are burning are relatively high percentage of carbs (versus fat).  In other words, it is pretty important to keep carbs in your system, or things can get ugly very quickly.  My advice is to try to take in 200-300 calories on the bike, then sports drink on the run as you can take it.  But this is very individual and you should practice it.

Finally, let's talk about pacing.  This is a bit tricky.  In a sprint, you can just go pretty much all out the whole way.  It can hurt the whole time and that's just fine.  (Fun even!)  An Oly is a bit tricker.  Consider this:  your pace at LT is approximately what you can hold for an hour.  So your swim pace in an Oly can be well faster than LT pace.  But the bike must be somewhat carefully paced a bit below LT pace (unless you ride at 26 mph!).  The run depends -- for some of us, 10K is more or less LT pace, for others, below LT pace.

I find the Oly distance to be the most interesting in some ways.  It isn't my strong suit, because I can't swim, but it is definitely interesting!