New Year New You...reopened for late comers (Page 19)

Good progress Rob, a good catch and pull will naturally increase rotation sounds like its going well. Keep progressing, technique is certainly a factor, and swim fitness is different to run and bike fitness, that will develop too through increasing distance and efficiency.

That's great and good luck. One of these days, I'll see about going clipless. Just not going to happen any time soon though :-
BTW: you brought up an excellent point. practice getting in-n-out of your clips before hitting the open road. either using a doorway, a wall, or a trainer, knowing how to remove your foot efficiently, quickly, and 2nd nature will help you from potentially tilting onto your hip.

That's right, Rob. I totally forgot... GOOD LUCK!!! with your race (8 mile). Hope everything goes as planned for you. =)

FYI: placing a big poster or picture of outdoor scenery in front of you (on the unfinished wall) will help trick your mind a little bit. If you add some scented plants and/or even spray pine scent or other outdoor scent, that can also help. It might help you out for the long-long winters.

I know it all too well, fitness is different from swim to run. I can swim pretty much forever. Just a couple nights ago, I did 1700 yards in under 45 minutes. Having me run a mile or two, that is a whole different story (shaking head)...

As my oldest son tells me, "I'm land based and you are water based."

Information taken from Triathlete magazine February 2014 issue Pg 64-65

The Overall Flow:
Weeks 1 - 4 Build frequency
Weeks 5 - 6 Build endurance
Weeks 7 - 8 Build speed
Week 9 Race

Aim to do the listed sessions on the scheduled days to maximize effectiveness of the plan and minimize risk of injury. Start the program conservatively to avoid muscle soreness, and then patiently work your way through.

How to gauge your effort
This plan uses rate of perceived exertion (RPE) to determine the intensity of your workouts

Zone 1 - Gentle rhythmic breathing. Pace is easy and relaxed. The intensity is a jog or very easy run or very easy bike spin
Zone 2 - Pace increases a little but is still comfortable. Slightly deeper breathing, and conversation is possible
Zone 3 - Pace is moderate, breathing is harder, and it's slightly more difficult to hold conversation. A stronger cycling or running rhythm, this is "feel good" fast
Zone 4 - Pace is fast and challenging to maintain, you're starting to breathe hard and are beginning to get uncomfortable. Approaching all-out 30-minute bike or run pace
Zone 5 - Pace is equivalent to all-out for one to five minutes. Breathing is deep and forceful, conversation is undesirable and mental focus is required.

Week 5: Focus on being tough. Think of training as "good" discomfort, and this mental fortitude will pay off on race day. Your Sunday transition run is also a perfect place to practice race-day skills. Designate a place to drop your bike and work on efficiently transitioning from cycling to running gear.
Monday - off
Tuesday - Swim - 10 x 100 taking a 10-second rest between each 100. Pace these evenly.
Wednesday - Run - 40 minutes rolling terrain as 15 minutes @ Zone 1, 25 minutes @ Zone 2
Thursday - Bike - 70 minute flat terrain as 20 minutes @ Zone 1, 50 minutes @ Zone 2 at 90-95 RPM
Friday - off
Saturday - Swim - 12 x 75 taking a 15-second rest between each 75. Pace these evenly.
Sunday - Bike - 45 minute flat terrain @ Zone 1. Make a quick transition (less than 3 minutes), 30 minutes off the bike, flat terrain @ Zone 2

Week 6: Never coast! When riding, pay attention to the pressure on your pedals, which is energy pushing the bike forward. When riding flat and downhill, be aware of pushing evenly on your pedals through both legs. You can apply the "never coast" analogy to the mental side as well: Focus on always putting forth your best effort.
Monday - off
Tuesday - Swim - 10 x 100 taking a 20-second rest between each 100. Swim #3, #6, #9 faster.
Wednesday - Run - 45 minutes rolling terrain as 15 minutes @ Zone 1, 30 minutes @ Zone 2
Thursday - Bike - 80 minute rolling to hilly terrain as 20 minutes @ Zone 1, 25 minutes @ Zone 2, 15 minutes @ Zone 3, 20 minutes @ Zone 2 at 90-95 RPM
Friday - off
Saturday - Swim - 500 nonstop, followed by 5x100 as 50 fast/ 50 easy, taking a 25-second rest between each 100. Pace these evenly
Sunday - 60 minutes flat terrain @ Zone 1. Quick transition (less than 3 minutes). 30 minute off the bike, flat terrain Zone 2

WOW!!! Some of these are not going to be easy for me :-\

Everyone was right: I love riding clipped in. It makes a huge difference. I'm glad I practiced though, I had to get on and off several times to make it over lingering snowbanks left behind by plows. All in all, it was a great ride! Unfortunately, it's back down below freezing today and nothing in the forecast says we're going to get back above in the near future. But at least I had one beautiful day to keep me motivated!

Had a great swim lesson this morning again! We've realized that my right side is particularly lazy: I have a tendency to not rotate as much on that side, and I also drop my elbow as I reach out. So we were working on some progressive drills (zipper, finger tip, and head tap) to fix that. Has anyone else done these drills and is there a way to not feel ridiculous while you do them? I feel like I must look crazy, tapping myself on the head while I swim! But even though I know I look ridiculous, my coach said my elbows got much better as the lesson went on, so it must be working.

Btw, Rob - great work on decreasing your strokes! I've been working on that as well. It's been a real challenge getting that number to keep coming down. Also, good luck on that race today! I hope it goes/went well! (=

Thanks, I will check their website

Good luck! Please do tell us how your race went

Hi Guys,
so here's my post race report;

the event was an 8 miler (12.86km). First outdoor race of the season in our region. Temp was -5c plus windchill and 98 people competed in the 8 mile event (more competed in the 8k, 5k and 3k events at the same time). Course was fairly flat with only one short hill that was fairly steep.

My time was 1:06:45 and I came in 54th position overall and 7th in my age group (45-49). I have mixed emotions about the race. I haven't run outdoors since before Christmas due to the weather and that really affected me. Treadmill is not the same! I had planned to use the race as purely a training run and target 6min kilometers......so much for that because when you start running its hard not to race! I ended up running at 5.15 kms and have a sore hip and calf as a consequence. But the positives were that I competed in my first race for 25 years, I managed my pre race diet and hydration very well and I felt great throughout the race. I had a strong last mile and passed a number of runners ahead of me. The negatives? Well ok I'll admit it I thought I might make top 3 in my age group and I didn't. I am very competitive so its disappointing......but only briefly because it fuels my fire to do better next year and I absolutely loved the experience.

Take aways:
1. Treadmill running does not prepare you well enough for outdoor running events
2. Its hard to drink water on the run and not choke on it - I need to practice this
3. I don't like gels and need to find a natural way to fuel during a race
4. A little coffee 45 mins before the race worked well for me

All in all a real adrenaline rush and a great way to keep motivated through the long winter season.

Great job Rob!!!
Learning from the experience will definitely help you with other races. Also knowing where/how to train/prepare is always a plus. Keep up the great work. I know I would of been in the back of the pack...

[high five]

Well done Rob, great work Sir! The positives massively outweigh the negative and hey there's your target for next year now, think about it you now have a benchmark to compare yourself to next year. I agree regarding treadmills, I only ever use them if I absolutely have to, and use an incline of 1% to try and get a little close to running outside. I struggled with gels until I found a product called High 5 which I am fine with, not sure if you get them over there. Here's an article on alternatives http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-for-runners/alternatives-to-e...
With water my simple rule is little and often, I tend to use an energy drink which I will take with me on a long run and then grab a water from a feed station. Rest and stretch for a couple of days the pain will soon go.

Simple answer...no there's no disguise the fact they look ridiculous!! Definitely the correct drills to use however. I quite often get my decent swimmers to incorporate these into a longer swim session ie every 2 lengths carry out a drill, helps to cement it into stroke, may want to try it. Well done!

Makes such a difference doesn't it, really helps develop a smooth pedal stroke and you don't lose power on the up section.

Injury update! - My back is easing which is good news, however the treatment has identified problems with my right hip flexor which is causing my right quad (thigh) to be very sore and causing me to limp! I have a new stretching routine to work on this and back with the physio on Thursday. Two positives to report though. Firstly I seem to be ok doing some very gentle spin bike work and I tried the pool tonight and swam 1500m, felt ok. As I say to the guys I coach here, remember the 3 Ps...Practice, Patience, Persistence, I need to do the same...especially PATIENCE!

good to hear there is improvement Neil......remember Ironman UK 2016.....lots of time to get yourself right for that so don't rush it and rebuild so you are right for the long term.

Great to hear that all is progressing well (minus a hiccup here/there). You are facing the problems straight on and you'll conquer them :-)

Keep moving forward :-)

I haven't been logging my workouts and keeping up with blog for century ride. But, here is a summary of what's been going on for me the last couple weeks.

Finding out that the swim meet is on March 6th. I ended up doing an intense one week all out body shock. All I have to say is that I'm able to walk again (explain later).

last week:
Sunday: swam about 1500 yds
Monday: some upper body and lower body weights (pyramid; low weight start @ 15 reps; increase weight until I could only do 3 reps)
Tuesday: swam about 1500 yds
Wednesday: some upper body and lower body weights (pyramid again but different muscles/machines)
** LEARNED LESSON **
Do not max out on calf muscles. They are very strong muscles and can take a load of weight, but the next day it was so difficult to walk and get up. (shaking head) It also affected my back muscles. I realized how much my calf muscles affect my balance and posture and other things. Wasn't able to walk too well until today.
Thursday: swam 1700 yds within 45 minutes (trying to put in yardage and get some stamina going; felt great to get off of feet)
Friday - Saturday: off

Sunday (this week; yesterday): swam with youngest son (2200 yds in 45 minutes; we were moving today)
* 400 IM reverse order for warmup
* 5 x 200 free with 30 second rest in between (was swimming faster than son; woo hoo)
* 50 free easy
* 5 x 100 free with 20 second rest in between (he kicked my butt; shaking head; stamina building needed)
* 50 free easy
* 200 free warm down
Monday (today): back to weights =)
Tuesday: hopefully get in 3000 yds
Wednesday: weights
Thursday: hopefully get in 4000 yds
Friday: rest
Saturday: hopefully get in 5000 yds

Sunday: rest
Monday: tapper with sprint workouts
Tuesday: low yardage
Wednesday: tapper with sprint workouts
Thursday: SWIM MEET!!!

wow.....I'm sore just reading about it!

I remember years ago a very heavy leg/calf workout the day before a train ride from the UK to Germany.......I know exactly what you mean, I wasn't actually able to stand up straight and walked through the train station with a sort of elderly stoop......

good luck on March 6th!

So far so good...
I did my 3000 yards of swimming last night. I was so tired, but the plus side is that I slept very well. I did the distance in 70 minutes with varying strokes; not too bad.

I'm nervous about the 4000 yards for tomorrow, and even more nervous about the 5000 yards on Saturday. Gotta keep on pushing. Next week is short distances and sprints. I'm almost finished with the body shock part... LOL

Weights tonight =)
Doing as many reps as possible for 1 minute with medium weight for 3 sets and 30 seconds rest between sets. This helps condition the muscles for the strength endurance for the short period of time for the sprints. The only problem is that the 200 yard events are more than 2 minutes in length; hope my energy level is up for event day... =)

Thank you Rob... (fingers crossed) hopefully all this hard and sudden work will pay off. The kids on the swim team have age and daily workouts in their favor. As long as I finish each of the events and don't come in last, it will be marked as successful. If I place in top 3 for any of the events, I will be doing cartwheels =)

I have been MIA for a few weeks. Hoping to jump back on the wagon tomorrow morning with an easy swim. My goal triathlon isn't until August, but there is a new triathlon in May starting up that I am considering using as a practice run through. I'm thinking that having to race sooner will help keep me focused, but its also a little daunting! I don't know if I would be ready in time.

What are the distances of the triathlon in May?
If it's a sprint, you should have enough time. 9 weeks from couch to sprint is doable (been posting potential workout layouts)

Even though I am not completely happy with the time, I did finish my 4000 yd swim in 1 hour 40 minutes. I was hoping to be under 1 hour 30 minutes. Guess I could of pushed myself a little harder, but that's ok. I got a really good workout to the point where I couldn't feel my arms when pulling my arms through the water...

Tomorrow is rest, rest, rest. Then I have my 5000 yd swim on Saturday.

400 yd IM reverse order
5 x 200 yd free with 30 seconds rest in between
50 yd free cruise
5 x 200 yd free with 30 seconds rest in between
50 yd free cruise
10 x 100 yd (alternate 100 free and 100 breast stroke) 20 seconds rest in between
50 yd free cruise
8 x 50 yd free (fast pace) 10 seconds rest in between
50 yd free sprint
50 yd free major slow

Really good article with many swim tips =)

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=...