Fred D and Jason's (Tri808) Half Ironman Mentor Group CLOSED! (Page 17)

I agree that the straw is a good reminder to drink...but there are other alternatives.  I know lots of people that set their sport watches (you can do this with your garmin as well by creating auto laps) to beep every X minutes as a reminder to drink.

When I was using the original PD aero drink, I think I got it for less than $20.  The Speedfil A2 also runs about $60.  I'm not sure what makes these new systems so expensive these days.  But I suppose the price is also determined by what the market will bear.   

32-35 minutes is a lot to shave off a HIM, but possible.  I took a general look at your training totals from 2011-present and I do see a very nice build in training volume.  4k+ biking and almost 900 miles running last year and carrying that over into 2013 shows some good long term consistency...which is where fitness gains come from.

Not sure if it will result in 5:10, but certainly I think you should see some noticeable improvements. 

Fred D - 2013-05-09 4:16 PM

TTom - 2013-05-09 4:27 PMPoop.  To slow to make it in.  That'll teach me to take a vacation!

. Ok you are the last one to make it in. Post a bio.

Name: Ttom/Tom Hutches

Location: Fremont, CA

Story: Couch potato until 4 years ago at age 50.  I was spending a lot of time with my mother-in-law as she went through the last stages of her life and I got to see many, many of her contemporaries in the facility in which she was living.  This made a huge impact on me as I saw how many were infirm not to illness but rather due to reduced activity as they aged.  I decided that was not going to be me, signed up at the gym and hired a personal trainer.  This led to running and by age 53 had completed 3 marathons and 10’s of HMs.  The good news was my joints were in pristine condition as they had not had any real exercise for decades.  The bad news was soft tissue injuries due to excess enthusiasm, inability to learn when to dial it down and an older body increased over time.  So I decided to crosstrain to maintain fitness, swimming and biking.  The competitive part of me rationalized that if I was swimming, biking and running, I should be doing Tri’s!  That decision came last year about this time and I did 2 Sprints and 1 Oly(Pacific Grove) where I hit my goal of going under 3 hours (2:54).  As soon as I got back to my computer I started looking at local HIMs and am now signed up for the Vineman 70.3 in July.

Family Status: Married, 3 grown kids, one amazing granddaughter and two dogs currently serving my wife as surrogate children.  When I die, I want to come back as one of my dogs – they got it good!

2013 Goals:
I’m going to re-race one of the sprints I did last year and perhaps do Pacific Grove again as I want to see how I’ve progressed.  My goal race is the Vineman 70.3 where my goal is sub-6 hours.  One final goal is to finish the season having completed my training having managed the inevitable trials and tribulations that will present themselves. 

Weight Loss: I’ve dropped almost 40 lbs since I started this thing and am pretty much where I want to be.  Current weight is 145 and I splurged on a hydrostatic body composition session and my body fat is down to about 7.4% at this point.   I now find myself having to increase daily calorie intake and am loving it!

Current Training: I'm following a HIM plan from Dave LaTourette that was offered by the race organizers.  It was billed as a 12 week plan so I started base building back in January following the first few weeks of a beginner HIM plan I found on TriNewbies(primarily because the schedule meshed well with my needs).  Turns out the 12 week Vineman 70.3 plan comes with a 4 week prelude training so is a total of 16 weeks.  So far have been able to get all the training days checked off except for 1 swimming day when the pool was closed and one ride when traveling on vacation.  In swimming I'm not following the workouts yet as I'm still concerned about endurance so am doing my 3 workout days as 100 yard intervals or continuous swims that thus far have gotten me up to 3000 yards (55 min).  My concern is that if I do drills, and do them wrong, I'll be reinforcing bad behavior.  That said, I've signed up for my first coached lesson next week, so we'll see where that leads me.

Welcome Tom!  We're not that far apart, relatively speaking.  I'm over in Fresno.  I'm doing Folsom Long Course with USA Productions in August, my first 70.3

Easy fabrication takes care of both the safety and aero concerns.  Just a touch of velcro on the straw and the bottle (or cage) and you can easily pop the straw up for drinking and then back down when riding.....

The easiest way is to use a bottle cage and attach it to your bars with zip ties.  That requires a little playing around, but you can definitely get it super tight and safe.  Otherwise you can also buy an adjustable plate that gets attached between the bars and then your bottle cage gets attached to that. 

Matt, you're killing me.  It's raining right now and about 42 here in Wisconsin with open water swims being nothing more than a fantasy.

The Speefil A2 is indeed expensive and it's funny bc it is really nothing more than a water bottle with a cool hole cut in the side with a ball valve that screws onto that hole.  Probably $2 worth of parts that retails for $60.  I probably could have made one myself in "the shop", but that would have taken too long so I shelled out the $60 instead.  So far I like it a lot and find it much more aero than the old PD that hangs down below the bars.  I'm still testing the Speedfill and hope it will serve me well, but I'll have a better read on that after some longer rides later this year.

It's hard to resist that urge and I often find myself holding back that urge.  Glad to hear your encounter worked out favorably....that had to be nerve racking seeing him stop.

I had the PD aero drink on my bike until a couple weeks ago.  I constantly had issues with the bottle shifting to the side when hitting bumps (and not slightly shifting....leaning a lot). 

I liked the straw being in my face because it made it convenient to drink....but I didn't like it because I also felt it was kind of dangerous (and hated it when on the trainer, where I want to drop my head in agony as I'm pushing through intervals!).

I decided to try the zip-tied cage between the bars and I like it alright, but will need to play with it some more.  I use Camelbak Podium bottles with the self sealing JetValve, so you just squeeze the bottle to drink from it, and don't need to open the cap or anything.  But when I hit bumps, a little bit of liquid tends to shoot out....and it becomes a sticky mess.  I'll also have to get more confident about swapping bottles from the rear to the front, instead of doing it at stoplights or whatever. 

Last thing I don't love about it is that my old computer mount is no longer useable, so I'll have to find a good place to mount it because keeping it on my wrist makes checking it difficult.

Question about aero-ness: how much more aero is a bottle mounted on the frame than a bottle mounted behind the saddle?  I have the x-lab wing with two bottles mounted there.....not sure if I want to give up having three bottles to save a little bit of drag, but worth knowing the answer, I suppose.

If you are willing to believe Cervelo, a single bottle behind the rider can actually reduce drag while a bottle on the frame always increases drag.  They don't mention a 2 bottle setup but my *guess* would be that the wider you go with bottles, the more it will drag.

I updated the group list. I also added a link to the title that takes one to the most recent post on the thread. This can be copied and pasted into one's BT blog in your training log. Please let me know if your name is missing on the list, or if there are any problems with the links. Thanks.

Happy Friday!!!

To pull it off I would expect the swim to be a wash to a minute faster. Really I don't expect to gain much in speed however I feel I should come out of the water with a lower heart rate from form gains I've made. I've done a ton of kick drills and closed fist drills that have worked on my main weakness which is an imbalance because of tight\weak hips. Anything in the 36-37 range is fine by me.

I've really worked on my speed on the trainer all winter. I'm pulling down according to my Kurt Kinetic power meter about 25-30 more watts on average for the same heart rate as last year. I'll need to be 1.5-2 MPH faster which is a stretch. However I didn't race with an areo helmet last year which should help even if its a minute or two and I'm much strong on hills through a lot of core work I did this winter.

My average run right now is about a 45 seconds faster in training for the same heart rate as a year ago. That's exactly how much faster I feel I'll need to be. The biggest difference has been the core work and the balance running drills. Running last year as the season went on just left me beat up and I was struggling to meet the volume and after a while I was getting slower just trying to maintain. I was slower in my second HIM last year than my first.

When I first started doing the core work to now it would look like this.

1X40+40+40 on roller side raises, extensions, stretch was 1X10+10+10
1X35 hyperextensions was 15 reps
1X60 leg lifts was 15 reps
1X1 min warrior on core board each side was 10 seconds
1X2 min plank on core board alt leg up was 30 seconds
1X1 min side plank each side 25 lbs was no weight and 20 seconds
1X60 running balance on core board each side
1X1 min bridge 45 lb was no weight and 30 seconds
1X1 min crab could always do this
1X45 mini band walk each side was 20

1X30 band side raises was 10

I never realized how much my core was holding me back and I've become a big believer that it's as important as any of my other workouts. That's the biggest reason I think I could pull it off. If I had to guess on my June HIM given no rain or out of control temps I'd say I come in about 5:15-20 but come August who know.

I won't be disappointed if I come up short as long as I run a good race and I won't let the goal dictate how I run it. If it's hot or say I get kicked on the swim and have a bad time of it I know better, now, than to try and make up the time. I'll stick to my HR numbers and see what happens.

Scott, this is awesome! Question for the group, how often do you do core/strength training?

Thanks. I do core every day. Other than lunges and calf raises which I consider an extension of core work I don't do weights for most of the year. I did do it frequently from Sept-Dec to cross train but in general I find that it affects my runs and bikes to much or I'm doing it at a level where it's not effective any way.

I personally do zero - unless Yoga counts but I'm more interested in flexibility and I probably won't continue once the current session I signed up for is done.

Question for the group:  Do you drink on a schedule or by thirst? 

I've heard it argued (and tried it) both ways.  Schedule is better because you forget to drink or don't listen to your body (and if you're thirsty it's too late).  Going by thirst is better because you don't overhydrate and our bodies have managed by "biological imperative" since we came down from the trees and do just fine (and it's never too late to drink if you just start when you notice thirst)... And on it goes.

I go mostly by thirst, but admit that I think about it every time my watch beeps a mile split on a run and try to drink one bottle per hour (min) on the bike - but don't always follow that if I'm more or less thirsty.

As for core, haven't done much at all (the limited non-workout time I devote to tri is spent on stretching, rolling, back-knobbering, etc.).

Matt