SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 173)

Jason, what are you using as a power goal?  How much leeway to go over it do you give yourself for hills, headwind etc?

Raced a 10K this past weekend.  I was hoping to go under 38:30 and a long shot to go around 38:00 flat but did not turn out great.  I ran 38:58.  I am starting to re-evalutate my run training a little bit.  The effort was there but the result was not. 

I am thinking of going back to more of a Barry P approach again as I had great results with that.  I think my mileage has not been high enough.  Need to be around 30-35mpw consistently and I have been in the 20-25 mpw although high quality.   I think I can keep two quality runs in there but just get out more often for the easy ones.

You'll be glad to know that Stage 3 felt a lot more manageable than Stage 2!

I got up to do the ride this morning and realized that the "50 hour day" technically starts at 5am my time, but I was ready to ride at 4:15am....contemplated for about four seconds before I decided that I'm doing this for myself and not for prizes or whatever.  So I got on the trainer, knocked out the ride, and then saw that I was the first person to complete the ride!  I was pleasantly surprised that they gave me credit for it.

The guys at TrainerRoad have done a great job creating these rides.  I'll definitely need revenge on Stage 2 at some point, but need to worry about Stages 4-8 for now.

I am no fish but I would agree with Arend on your underwater pull.  You need to get your hand moving backward quicker at the start of the pull and propelling you forward.  You are pushing down on the water quite a bit.

Good stroke though!

Interesting, what do you feel was missing?  Just the extra endurance in your legs/lungs to keep the speed up for the whole 10k or you couldn't hit the target pace from the start?  Still a darn good time in my books.  

Last year I was 38:41 and I had a phenomenal race.  This time I was planning to run the first 4 miles around 6:05 min/mi before the hills come in miles 5 & 6 and I was on point through the first 3 but I started fading a bit through mile 4 and fell off the pace.  The pace hurt like hell so I know the effort was there just not the result.  I feel like I have not done enough longer duration intervals near race pace and need more mileage and strength (hills) in my legs.

Maybe I am overreacting a bit.  Its just one race but usually I am pretty accurate at predicting what I can do at these running races.

Seriously Ryan, you are venturing awfully close to back-door brag territory here...

I am interested too in hearing where you feel you fell short? From the little bit of information in your log it looks as if you did not warm up nearly enough (for me anyway), but everyone is different in that regard. Also that is a reasonably large race (4000+) - how did you seed yourself? You finished with a high placement; If you had to spend any time at all negotiating traffic at the beginning that can take a good bit out of you. I am guessing by the name of the race and the fact that it was in Michigan that it was a fairly flat race? How did you pace it out? Without a legit warmup I am guessing you aimed to negative split it (and probably did) but in my experience I am always fastest in an open 5k or 10k when I run a slight fade (it is extremely unpleasant though). There is a fair amount of data that shows that for fit age groupers the math just does not work to run a negative split in races under 10k - we just cannot run fast enough to make up the time we lose at the beginning even though conceptually it makes more sense. Lastly, you say it was windy, but I would bet with your time you found yourself Out in no-man's land by yourself. Around these parts anyway you have a lot of guys that can run sub-36, and then a lot of folks that run >42. There is always a LOT of empty space between those two groups. If you were out on your own in that Michigan wind for the duration, well there is your time right there.

I know it is no consolation, but I would be doing backflips if I could still run under 40.... Very nice job this weekend!

Sorry Ryan, we are cross posting, but I also just checked your last year's result and you moved up in both the AG rank and Overall, which in smaller races that may not mean much, but when you have a sample size that large you can logically infer that the course was a little tougher this year. You can't discount that on an open course, especially with this crazy weather we have been having. What were the conditions like compared to last year? I know it was snowing yesterday in northern Michigan, but this time last year they were having a little heat wave.

Good thoughts Rusty.  I usually do not warm up real long...I would say that was par for the course but maybe I need to lengthen it a bit.  You are correct in that it was definitely windier this year and I was all alone after 2 miles.  The temp was 47 deg which was actually perfect.

I actually lined up at the front with a Female pro triathlete who just took 5th OA at Nautica South Beach tri this year and she beat me by 10 seconds this year.  I beat her by 1 second last year .  I do think it may have been a touch slower course this year.

I guess I should stop whining !

Hey Felicia - you are a lot more brave than me to post a swimming video!

I cannot argue with the advice you have been given, but just wanted to chime in with some thoughts that helped me with similar issues. With kids whose neuromuscular pathways are still being formed you can drill them into good form, but for this set-in-my-ways old dog I have found that being able to connect with a visual image helps a lot more. It is probably important to point out that the description of what something feels like and what you are actually doing are two different things. The biggest visualization that helped with my pull was to think about anchoring my hand in place and then screwing my body forward to my hand, not pulling my hand backwards through the water. So it is like you are trying to hold your hand in place in the water and not allowing it to move - everything else moves forward and past your hand all the way to your hip. While it can promote other bad habits, my swim coach had me spend some time watching my hands relative to their position at the lane rope. It was crazy the difference this one little thing made for me. Another significant contributor to getting my catch and pull better was to spend some time learning a proper backstroke.

You can also try "raising the floor" of your pull. Because your hand is currently entering the water at your full extension, I don't think you have much choice other than to push it down further to begin your pull. If you shorten your entry point to where it is back closer to your head I have found it much easier to a)get a fuller arm extension and b) start my pull higher in the water (raising the floor). Also, where in your swim was the video taken? At the beginning, middle or end? What effort were you swimming? Easy, steady, fast? It looks like your arms are a little tight and not getting as full extension as you could - were you not warmed up fully or were you maybe getting tired? Without a frontal shot it is hard to tell, but it also looks like you might be crossing over your center line (especially with your left hand) both above and below water. This can also impede a good reach. If you are crossing over that will be a significant contributor to needing the 6 beat kick to maintain your balance as well. This is one of my issues also and I constantly have to remind myself to "swim wide" especially as i get a little fatigued. I swear it feels like my arms are pointed out at 45 degrees to my centerline when they enter the water correctly, but when I see video it looks normal - that is what is great about doing what you are doing with the video. What it feels like and what it looks like are often vastly different.

finally, While i do think you can get in trouble chasing only stroke count, yours is fairly high at 24~25 per 25. Incorporating a little distance per stroke work or even better yet swim golf (time plus stroke count is your score - lower score is better) here and there into your training can help a lot. At least it has for me.

so I cannot believe that I am giving swim advice, and this could all be very, very bad. About the best advice I can really give you is to keep swimming, and if anyone contradicts the rest of the advice I have shared, they are most likely right!

Isn't that what I said?

That's some good stuff Rusty.  Describing things like that is where I struggle when trying to help people with their swim.  I can look at it and say "that's wrong" but no clue how to explain what to do about it.  

I'm not much of a runner...so I will not give any advice.

Just wanted to say congrats! I think that is a smoking fast time

Day 2 done. The last 20 mins were not fun, and yes there were words.   

Wooooo!!!  Three of us crazies in here

hum, our bears will probably be out soon as well.  Thanks for the reminder.  So far though they should have plenty of food and I should be out of here before things really dry up

I'm a dozen miles from Boston and on my last 2 rides was attacked by a kamikaze chipmunk, a female turkey the size of a labrador (right out into the road - good thing I was going uphill, and slowly enough not to make turkey/carbon burgers) and a HUGE brown rock.

OK, the rock was actually a very large female deer on the left side of the road.  I was coming down a moderate hill in the middle of a Z4 rep and cooking, when this huge brown rock startles and - thank goodness - jumps into the woods and not the street. 

If you think my eyes went wide, you should have seen the cyclist going the other direction!  No bears, yet, though, and we haven't had a moose on the loose for a couple years (they are truly enormous beasts!).

Sounds funny, but spring wildlife is no joke on the bike.  Even that little chipmunk could mess you up in the wrong time/place...

Matt

Awesome power profile - just rock steady.

Question, if you don't mind the prying:  what is your FTP (opportunity for a brag, right there!)?  Just curious how that compares to a TT effort of this length (I'm assuming you were targeting almost exactly 275, as it was so steady).

It would be helpful in figuring my power ratios for some interval work I'm doing, so it'd be much appreciated, as the received wisdom from Strava might not be spot on. 

Matt

I wouldn't necessarily change anything based off only one race. Likely conditions of the day and sometimes people are just off. Keep going unless you haven't been happy with the progression over time. Well, you could try more if you like, but wouldn't do it just because of one day.

My last test (indoors on a trainer) put my FTP right around 270.  Target for the race was 270-275 for the steady sections and a bit higher for the hills.