Dream Chaser's 'Set a Goal and Capture it!' Mentor Group - CLOSED (Page 16)

YES!!!  Looking forward to relaxing and watching a movie with the wife tonight.  This weekend, my plan calls for a 3:30 bike ride...ouch!  I hope it is warm enough to do outside.  Have a great weekend everyone and train away!!!

Thanks Bobby!!

Great to see you are putting time on the wheels!!...and nice job signing up for Pocono!!  Looks like great race!

I've had a great week of training! This week I felt substantial gains with my training. CrossFit workouts have been tough but I have pushed thru them stronger & with less desire for them to end than ever before. It is a great feeling to have the necessary stamina to complete a workout leaving nothing on the table & not feeling like I am going to die afterwards.

 Before there was always that little voice in my head saying "Oh this hurts - its OK if you need to stop - go ahead - you aren't 20yrs old anymore "

This week was different "Oh - this is GOOD hurt! - Hell Yea! 10 more reps/mins/sets!! YOU GOT THIS!!!!"

I still have a long way to go but this week was a noticeable improvement for me and it felt FANTASTIC! I want to remember that feeling!

Not all CrossFit - I also got a nice ride in today with a little run afterwards.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

WOW! Your excitement is contagious!  It's amazing you've found something that inspires you to really push.  Good stuff!  Reading your note inspires me to make a bigger effort.  Thanks for sharing.

I've officially fired my training plan. 

Well, it's not quite that bad.  I've changed from one RPE-based, 26-week plan to two back-to-back HR-based plans from here on BT.  I've also decided to really focus on my limiter, which is swimming by a long shot.  So I'm doing:

Winter Maintenance - SWIM focus    now through 4/20 or so

Easter break...probably just do some fitness assessments (T-pace, race a 10K, or something)

Intermediate Olympic HR-Based (10-week)   5/1 through first A-race (7/9)

VACATION!!!

Repeat last 4 weeks of last plan     7/15 through second A-race (8/14)

I feel a lot better about the schedule and the hours.  I was looking at six solid months of 10+ hours a week with plan I had, which I had no freakin' shot of maintaining.  These new plans have a little more flexibility in the hours trained and each have a weekend day off, which is important as I coach kids lacrosse and like to have a non-triathlon day with the family.

I also realized that I have to adapt to a new riding position and riding on a narrow saddle, which I haven't done in years.  I think it would be pretty naive to expect 3+ hour bike rides two weeks after getting a new bike (getting it next week...woo hoo!!).

I spent the weekend reviewing my plans too!  My goal is to ride a century in June but I had no clue how to build volume and at what rate so I had downloaded the bike portion of a beginner ironman plan.  The thing is - it seems to be just easy riding.  No drills or anything so I've decided to use Jorge's cycling plan (jumping in at week 2) and it has me cycling 4x per week.  I have another plan, in a book written for women specifically, that I'll use as a guideline to ensure I get the right amount of volume in over the next 14 weeks.  Could you imagine doing 6+ hours on the trainer?  I know my limitations and it was NEVER going to happen!

I've really mixed up my plans for this year.  I'm following a beginner HIM plan for the run prep for my August oly and a 20 week oly plan for the swim portion.  Then after my century I plan to follow a hill training specific bike plan which should take me in to some longer fall rides.  I'm pretty poky at everything but I think cycling is my limiter so this year is all about my bike.  It's amazing how fast your bum forgets the feel of your saddle!!!

After months of not working out and being sick it feels great to have a plan and be motivated to reach those goals.  Sweet that I am down a pound too since returning to Canada.  The portion sizes in Europe were insane.  I'd order a dish that both my child and I would eat off and there would be leftovers.  I've forgotten what's normal so basically eating lots of fruits, veggies and really focussing on measuring out the portions.  So far so good!  Only 9 more to go!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Great job!!!

I haven't done Jorge's plan, not sure if it includes a long ride.  If it doesn't, I think doing that 2-3 times a week then riding a long ride on the weekend would be a good idea.  By long ride, I am referring to riding at least 2 hours starting then move up to 6 hours max.  The 6 hours you would only do once or twice.  Good luck!

Thanks for the feedback Rene!  His plan has three interval training type workouts over the week with an optional long ride on the Sunday.  I'll make sure the 'optional' long ride is mandatory and drop one of the others if I have to.  I'm hoping by the time I reach that 6 hour ride it will be spring and I'll be outside!  I do have a 6-ride pass to a gym that offers computertrainer group rides so once I build my volume up I think I'll take advantage of that for my longer indoor rides.

this weather is not doing me any favors.  Along with having a newborn,  I've been under the weather.  Very frustrating.  My wife was telling me last nite, "it's ok to rest, the reason you don't get better is you go go go all the time."  wise words from my wife.

There's this part of me that's so itching to run and ride (believe it or not swimming has been most consistent since I can do it during lunch).  I feel like those two areas are lagging and that I feel like I'm going to fall short of my goals.

It's hard because you can't predict life events and how that affects you.  I think what I'm learning is I'm going to have to make some adjustments.

Good to read about others.  that's inspiring.  Keep it up!

For what it's worth - my advice is "Go with the flow!"  After my child was born (in Dec... in Canada) - like within two months - I went to a gym with a daycare to see if I could join and while giving it a test run - ON THE TREADMILL - I was paged about 4 times.  I quickly realized that it wasn't going to happen.  Through diet I managed to lose some weight and I bought a good jogging stroller but I'd say it was a good six months before I wasn't so bloody tired that I *could* actually do something... consistently.  Another couple of months to be able to go out for any significant period of time (breast fed til 10 mths).  Of course it's completely different for the hubby but I'm thinking your wife is going to need you around and with the demands of having a newborn, a job, and a life - you'll probably have to be less rigid in your plans.   Don't forget too - they are only this age once so enjoy it while you can!!  It's a really special time and triathlon will always be around.  Rest up and do what you can but try not to beat yourself up too much. 

I agree with Rene, 2-3 rides per week with a long ride on the weekend.  In addition to building the duration of the long ride on the weekend, I would recommend increasing the intensity/speed of the shorter weekly rides.  These will help to prepare you for your century.  Part of the challenge of a century is the mental ability to stay on the bike for 5-6 hours at a time. 

WOO HOO! Hump day and.... I've now surpassed my February totals for the bike and run woo hoo! Are you jealous?

HA HA Given I did zilch in Feb it wasn't too hard! 

I have this cartoon on my home office wall.  Enjoy!

Actually I also have a question that I'll throw out here.  A friend returned from our local LBS with some cycling pamphlets and told me that the guy told her an hour on the trainer equated to two on the road.  I agree that on the road there's coasting but there's also wind resistance etc and double seems a little high... thoughts?

Also curious about your outdoor rides - describe them for me!  Challenges?  Scenery?

Personally - it's a challenge for me.  I live in the HEART of Toronto - right downtown.  I have a road bike and we have streetcars and crazy traffic.  It can be a knuckle whitening experience.  I do however have some really beautiful trails nearby (along Lake Ontario and the Don River) but it's hard to go fast on a roadbike (bumpy, curvy etc).  If I want a good long ride I pack my bike in my car and jump on the highway and drive north for about 20 minutes - then I'm in country.  I've tried riding north to get there but you basically spend all your time riding in rough traffic conditions with no scenery only to turn around and come back.  Frustrating but that's the situation.  So... I'm always amazed when I see pics of other people's rides - surrounded by mountains, desert etc.

I think there's a lot of debate around this.  The theory is that on a trainer you are constantly pushing to make your wheel turn, with very little opportunity to rest/coast (depends on your trainer, of course), while out on the open road your get lots of coasting opportunities without a significant loss of speed (angular momentum or some physics term).  I've heard anywhere from 50-100% difference, though I don't think it exactly works that way because of the variables.

As for my riding, I live 5 miles from downtown Baltimore but 1 mile from a great little State Park that has about 4 miles of road and another 3 miles of good trail to ride on.  If I don't want to stray far from home I just stay in the park and do loops.  I also have an airport loop bike path (10 miles) about a 20 minute ride from the house, which then connects to a "rails-to-trails" path all the way to Annapolis, MD (55 miles round trip).  I can also jump in the car and drive to my open water training spot which has some flat roads (30 minutes away).  Finally, if I want to get really crazy I can drive a hour west to Frederick, MD and do some mountain climbing, or drive an hour east to the Eastern Shore of MD where I could literally ride all day on flat, country roads with not too much traffic (the Eagleman 70.3 and ChesapeakeMan iron distance events are over there).

All this talk of biking is making me antsy...it's 37 degrees and about to rain for two straight days here.

I've heard these numbers as well and they seem a bit high but I have no evidence to offer either way. That said, an hour on my mag trainer seems MUCH harder than an hour on the road. I don't know how much to attribute to mental/physical but definitely harder.

I live about 1.5 mile from the Long Island Sound on the north shore of Long Island in a suburban area. If I ride near the water, there's lot's of nice rollers and the occasional view of the Sound, all residential for the most part. If I head east, it's real flat and gets increasingly rural with lots of different types of farms and decreasing traffic. About 50-70 miles east is the North and South forks of Long Island. This is really beautiful with some awesome scenery of the Atlantic, Long Island Sound and the Peconic Bay. I'm really lucky, there are some really  great places to ride here.