Experior and Slornow's Spring/Summer Mentor Group-CLOSED (Page 16)

Okay Dewayne, 52 (or 54, or 67!) isn't old.  Though it was kind of fun to snarl at the 20+ year olds as they went flying past on the run on Sunday... "see you in 30 years"... and then realizing they hadn't even lived that long yet.  I think they got the last laugh on me :-)  Congrats on your du performance - fun thing to du with the one you love!  The long cycle event sounds great.  I'm hoping to do one with my BIL this summer - either part of a big group ride or just on our own (Blue Ridge Parkway).  I need a destination bike journey to get my miles in (or something).  My technique is improving, but I still don't really have the endurance necessary for an OLY, let alone HIM, race.

Ah well, tomorrow's marathon is driving to Florida and I'm avoiding packing like the plague.  Night all!

Stu, I've felt for quite a while that somehow you and I should be able to meet up on the BRP for a ride, and every time I have that thought I realize that the entire state of NC lies between us....  Have a safe journey tomorrow (or whenever you get done packing...).

Hi Rene -- yeah this racing thing can get pretty spendy, eh?  I race almost entirely local races for that reason.  They are also less stressful.

Week is surprisingly good so far.  I'm slowly learning to become a heartless administrator who doesn't think that YOUR emergency is my biggest problem, and that's helping.  (Kidding.  Sort of.)  Hard ride for me today and then I begin a 10-day taper, which will drive me nuts.

Ok, I'd like to know how everyone sets up their training schedule. I read the post in the Triathlon Talk forum asking how often everyone works out, and it seems the consensus was 6-7 days. That's how much I find myself wanting to train, and my training plan isn't quite keeping up, so I've pretty much scrapped it at this point. I've found that most of my workouts go longer than the time on my plan, and I prefer the flexibility of making my own days based on my schedule. For instance, I usually do a long run on Saturdays with a group, and I'd like to plan my week around that. Does anyone have a general daily regimen they follow? I'm looking at this right now:

Monday-choice (SBR or rest)

Tuesday-bike

Wednesday-run/swim

Thursday-swim/bike

Friday-swim/run

Saturday-Long run or bike

Sunday-swim/bike

I'm trying to emphasize the swim, since I feel it's my weakest area at this point. What does everyone think?

P.S.-my wife thinks I'm completely insane at this point. 

Hey Gang-been on the road with work all day.  Had a good run tonight...weather was great.  I feel really good about my run right now.  Hopefully, that will translate to a good run during my race Sunday.

Typical training week

Monday- Lunch Swim 2500-3000  Evening Easy 60 minute ride

Tuesday- 45-60 minute run with intervals/speed work

Wed.-2500 Lunch swim   Evening 1-1.5 hour ride with intervals

Thursday 45-60 minute run

Friday    2500 swim  Evening easy hour ride

Sat.  2 hour ride with intervals/20 minute run off bike

Sunday 1 hour easy run 

This usually works out to 8-12 hours a week depending on adjustments in length of run and bike workouts. I don't take many full rest days but will often have a day where I do an easy swim or bike as "active recovery". Once or twice a week I will get up early to get in a workout at 5am......ususally when I am on the road for work and not able to work out at lunch.  Breakdown is usually 3 swims/3-4 runs/3-4 bike.

Randy    

Rene -- Do I have to choose?  They both make me want to train and make me feel stupid for missing my swim session yesterday.

Jamie -- My schedule is very unpredictable from day to day, so I don't try to plan things out in terms of days and times.  Instead, I have a general idea about how much and what kinds of S/B/R I want to accomplish in a given week, and then try to make that happen in a way that allows me to hit my target workouts in some reasonable fashion.  How to do so is a very complicated topic but the simple version (which is 90% of the useful take-home message) can be expressed in just two guidelines:  (1) Be prepared (no, I was never a Boy Scout).  (2) Keep the key workouts as far apart as possible.  The first point refers both to preparing (at the beginning of each day I think about my schedule and what workouts I can fit in that day) and to having the necessary gear at hand (shoes, swim suit, bike ready to roll, etc.) to tak advantage of unanticipated opportunities to work out.

Jamie-keep us updated on how the new schedule does for you. Be careful not to overdo it.

Rene-enjoyed the videos. Good stuff.

Swim at lunch for me.  Nothing special. Some laps felt good, some not so good. 200 for time at the end.....first time under 3 minutes coming in at 2:56-57. Fairly hard hour bike on schedule for this evening.

Randy

Rene -- love the No Excuses video. If I listened to half the (lame!) excuses that go through my head, I'd never workout. 

Tomorrow is Wellness Day at my work. Lots of exercise programs are being offered along with health information, etc. I signed up for a group run. I've NEVER run with a group! (Unless you count doing laps around the field with my softball team in high school). I don't have really high expectations, but I have been really wanting to organize a running group for Fridays after work. Maybe I'll find someone to join me. 

Good morning,

Peak training weeks leading up to IM are pretty busy!  I love the challenge associated with this.  The weight loss, the improvements, the pre-race excitement.  I've heard many say that IM's are often more about the journey getting to the start line than the race itself.  I'm definitely feeling more prepared for IM Texas than I was last year. 

I need to maintain focus to get though these weeks!  So far, so good.  Taper rapidly approaching  and am curious what others do during tapers to get through them?  I don't like tapering.  I know it's necessary, and that I don't lose fitness, but still I have a hard time with this mentally.  Appreciate any thoughts, strategies others have used that have worked? Jim

Training schedule: When husband is home, I do majority of it when he gets home from work, whatever it may be. I was able to focus a lot of my time on swim training for tris with his help.

Now that husband isn't home and I'm committed to a couple running relays, the 1.5 hours I have before I pick up the kids from school has been dedicated to running. Taking it a day at a time though really. I do my home workouts while the kids are off doing their own things around the house. 1 to 1 hr 15 min.

I haven't been able to do any races since the Xterra though. Babysitting issues and such. I do get to do my planned relay race this weekend. Luckily I set this up well in advance with the parents. I'm thinking of looking around for a good, used baby jogger to push my daughter in while the boy and I run the Saturday 5k's together, but I won't be competing, that's for sure.

Looking forward to the 48 mile relay race on Saturday. I have a 3.7 mile leg, then we just follow our team around and have pizza after. Good fun.

Jason - nice job with the early morning workouts! My swim routine is about to change (the pool I currently swim in closes after Memorial Day for the summer) and my best training option is to join a Master's group from 5-6 a.m. So I'm right there with you getting into a new early routine.

I survived my first group run. The weather couldn't have been better -- sunny and about 58 degrees - and I got to explore a lot of new trails and conservation land. The group is planning to run at lunch twice a week, so I think I've got some new training partners. They'll definitely keep me honest and nudge me up a few more hills than I'd seek out on my own. I'm so glad I followed through with it and didn't psych myself out thinking that I wasn't a strong enough runner to run with a group.

I got in for the Nike 1/2 Marathon in San Francisco in October.  Looking forward to crossing the finish line and being handed a tiffany necklace from a firefighter. This will be my 3rd 1/2 marathon.  

This week turned out to be bad for me on getting workouts in.  I'm putting together a slideshow to present for a year's worth of photos on activities an organization I belong to has done.  It's a lot more time consuming than I thought and a lot harder to choose photos for a 10 min video.  

I'm trying to do Mondays: Swim  / Tuesdays: Active Rest / Wednesdays: Run / Thursdays: Bike & Swim / Fridays: Active Rest / Saturdays: Run / Sundays: Bike  And some mornings conditioning/strength stuff.  I figured this would be a good base to build on for tri workouts. 

Having never done a full IM my tapers are typically a good bit shorter.  This week leading into my olympic race on Sunday my training has been pretty much the same.  Only difference is a little less volume.  Still try to include some intensity to so I know how it feels to push the pace a bit. Tomorrow is a rest day and Saturday will likely be a short ride with a few pick-ups, 20 min easy run and maybe a swim.

I imagine I would struggle with a long taper.....just feel like I was slacking off.  Probably irritable, lethargic and tired.....Hmm..I must taper alot.

Randy

Jason:  Exactly what I was thinking regarding the swim.  I plan to increase swim volume the week before as this is the easiest exercise for me to recover quickly, and is the least likely to cause any injury.  Also, a great way to maintain fitness IMO.

Randy:  I too know the feeling of lethargy, sometimes moodiness during a taper.  Fortunately, come race morning this magically disappears as my excitement takes over.

Moral of the story:  I've done the training, now trust it!

Nice!

Wish I could help you there, Jim.  I rarely taper for races because I hate doing it do much.  But...I'm tapering (run and bike, not swim, yet) and yeah, it drives me crazy.  I just try to stay busy with other things, which, frankly, isn't that hard for me this time of year.  The taper that's gonna kill me is next Sept.

Enjoy the race!  I can't remember exactly how old your kids are -- I know they're young.  The past few summers my wife has been gone most of the summer, and I did my runs by running around my block.  The kids are old enough to be trusted indoors by themselves, and I told them that if they ever have a problem, they watch for me in the window and wave when I go by.  Once we established that "he isn't playing the game that I want to play" doesn't qualify as a 'problem', it all worked out very well.  I always made sure to spend time playing a game with them, or doing something else with them, after the run so they didn't get the idea that daddy's runs are all that matter.  I've done some 18 mile runs around my block, which tells you just how much I love running!

Fantastic!  Often groups can get us to do things that we weren't sure we could do alone.

Congrats on getting in to the 1/2M.  Looks like a good race.  Work sometimes gets in the way of training.  It happens.  Do you best to figure it out and move on.  

That's an important moral to remember during the heat of training as well, because you want to be able to say that to yourself when the time comes!  And you HAVE done the training, so let yourself taper!