bschulte mentor Group - Closed (Page 2)

All,

Noticed in Matt's log that he worked on "looking up" or what is called "sighting" during his swim the other day.  This is really important as you will need to do this during your races.  There is nothing more frustrating to be swimming along only to find out you have been swimming off 100M course and have to turn and swim back.  Also, you will be using completely different muscles to sight, which will need to be developed during training.  There are 3 basic ways you can sight
1. stop tread water for a second and look for next buoy.  Obviously this is the slowest method and if you are swimming in a pack will get you run over by the folks behind you.
2.  Opposite arm from breathing side-  this is where you thrust the arm opposite your breathing side down to pick your head out of the water.  Your head will only be out of the water for a fraction of a second looking forward so you may have to do this for 2 -4 strokes to get your bearings.  You don't stop swimming. and breath normally when your head pops back down.  Example, breathing on right side...thrust left arm down, quick peek out of water straight ahead, head turned to the breathing side, take a breath. 
3.  Breathing side arm - this is where you thrust your breathing side arm down and pick your head out of the water to look forward and take a breath at the same time.  This one is the most advanced and fastest but requires the most strength.  Also, if you are swimming into waves you could look up and open your mouth only to find a wave in your face.  

I suggest playing around with this a bit in the pool during your swims.  Once you get comfortable with a method practice it to develop the arm strength to do it during your races.

Brent 
3.

Good questions

1.  It is mainly personal preference.  If you are training whit a specific gel or electrolyte drink that isn't on the race course, I would say to use a fuelbelt or similar product and bring your own.  I try to train with what is on the course in case I need it (bottle pops out, I drop it, etc) but do tend to bring my own as I have had a bad experience where aid stations were not stocked and I had to go without.

2.  Mixing it up is fine, it's part of making your training work with the rest of your life.  Be mindful of rest though, don't do big days of the same disciple back to back as it could yield injury.  Your body needs time to recover.  This applies mostly to running, then swimming, and finally biking.  The impact of running is what is hard on the muscles and joints.  I'm not saying you should run back to back (I usually run 2 a day's a Friday's), but just don't do big day's of running back to back.

3.  If you have a good base built up 8 weeks should be fine to ramp up the volume for a HIM, 12 would be better, but I only do 12 for an Full IM.  As far as training hours per week, it depends on your goal obviously.  I think you can do pretty good on 10 hrs / wk.  We can talk about the importance of the bike in HIM and IM distances as a later topic if folks want, but this is the area which drive a huge chunk of the training time when prepping for the longer races.

Brent

Forgot the most important question: may I join your group Brent?  

Hi Brent,
Do you have room for one more person?
I just finished my first sprint triathlon in Tradition, Florida, a month ago and have my second sprint tri in Boca Raton this Sunday (yay! Bring it on!). I'm planning six more sprint triathlons by October... and if all goes well I'm planning my first Olympic Tri for next February. I'm totally hooked, but humble (something to do with having the swim pace of a manatee, the bike speed of a two-year old on a Barbie Big Wheel,  and the running pace of a tectonic plate...).  I've lost a lot of weight (75 pounds) in the last 18 months, but have been stuck on a plateau for several months. I think its time to shake up my work out routines and just take everything to the next level: speed, endurance, distance. I'm glad to be a part of BT! I'm pretty diligent about logging everything-- it has definitely helped to do that!

Johnathon,

Welcome dude!  As Johnathon pointed out he did Kona last year and I was lucky enough to know him and follow his blog as the events unfolded.  An amazing day for sure and certainly fueled my intensity to get there!

Brent

Edited by bschulte 2009-04-17 2:05 PM

Hi Bridgette,

Welcome and congratulation on your recent transformation.  You should be very proud of that accomplishment.  Sounds like you are going to be racing a lot, which is awesome.

Brent

Hi folks,

That makes 10 folks in our group.  To ensure I have enough time to properly answer all your questions I'm going to close the group to new folks.

Thanks and I look forward to some great conversations over the new few months.

Brent

Brent,
      I just did a quick lunch time run. About 3.5 miles and I did it in 25:44.  A new PR for me.  My question is when I am doing my run's or my bike workouts I find myself more concerned on the amount of time its taking me to do the particular distance.  Should I be concentrating on the distance rather than the time it takes me to get there?  I want to be able to do longer distances so I can do well at my events but how what should I concentrate on?  Do you have a time goal for each distance to be competative at the tri's?

I would also like some help with my nutrition.....  I try to stick to a plan but lack the knowledge to make simple filling snacks and meals to 1. continue my weight loss and two, give me enough energy to continue my workouts.  Any ideas?

I didn't realize it was private, but I also haven't used the logs much. I started entering things in, but it takes forever. I have a spreadsheet I use instead that I like much better.

It's on Google Docs so I can share it but it seems there is no way to just say "anyone can see this" so I need an email address. Or maybe I should finally figure out how to import to the logs.

I forgot to mention in my introduction that a year ago I was morbidly obese. I've lost about 93 lb. since then. In Sept. I had a vertical "sleeve" gastrectomy which gave me normal hunger for the first time in my life. It's awesome! I've lost and gained many times in my life, but with normal hunger, I think this time I can keep it off.

But it does complicate my fueling because I can't eat or drink a lot at any one time. Plus I don't do well on pure carbs, especially stuff that's high in sugar like Gatorade. So far what's worked the best for me is Recoverite. I know it's supposed to be for *after* you exercise, but that extra bit of protein really helps me. If I do straight Gatorade, I get draggy and have a crappy workout. Unfortunately, the taste of Recoverite leaves something to be desired.

Because I'm very slow, I have to actually worry about fuel during my Sprint Tri. I've got a plan and I've been working on parts of it during workouts. I guess I'll find out Sunday if it works. My plan goes like this:

1) Protein shake in the AM (my typical breakfast)
2) Possible 1/2 banana .5 - 1 hour before race (depending on how I feel)
3) Sports beans during both transitions (if I eat them *while* racing, my stomach rebells), emergency protein bar if I feel like the sports beans are going to be too sugary or not enough
4) 1 bottle recoverite on bike
5) Fuel belt with my current "special mixture" protein & carb sports drink on one side and water on the other for the run. I may not bother with that for the Sprint, but I'll definitely need it for the Oly. 
6) Rest of the banana and the rest of the protein bar after the race

I'm not sure about the bike and run part of the plan. I keep fiddling with that part and my special mixture. It still has too much sugar for my tastes. If only Recoverite tasted better - I'd just use it the whole time!

93 pounds is amazing!  It sounds like you have a good plan.  Your plan will probably never be perfect as you will constantly be learning about yourself, which by the way is one of the big drivers about this sport. 

As far as the logs, do what you can to pu them in.  I too didn't care much for inputing the training and especially not the nutrition, but the more I did it the quicker I can get it done.  Now it doesn't take me more than 30 seconds to put a workout in my log.....unless I get long winded in my comments section.

Brent

Edited by bschulte 2009-04-17 3:01 PM

Roy, great question and as you would know it, complex answer   Official answer is, it depends

This is a huge topic which we could spend a week on, which I'm sure we will cover a bunch over the coming weeks.  Do you use a heart rate monitor when you train?  Workouts at different intensities accomplish different physiological changes.  We as triathlete's need some of all of these changes.  The distance you plan on racing as your "A" (this is your most important race of the season) should be used to determine your distance for the year, which will in turn determine how much of each of the different physiological changes you'll need.

Answer the HR monitor question for me before I move on more with this one. 

 

As athlete's we are burning a lot of calories, but we also need calories / fuel to be able to have a good next workout.  The biggest part of weight loss in athlete's, in my opinion (I'm not an expert here) is timing of meals.  I am pretty lean, but I purposely put 8-10 pounds on in the off season / Winter to train from and to keep me warn on the bike when it's 40 degrees.  This time of year I have to take it off to get to race weight, and it is tough for me, so you are not alone.  Basically, eating 90 mins before or after a workout is nearly free game (within limits as you can't eat a gallon of ice cream).  This food is being either burned during your workout or being used to build your glycogen stores back up.  I also follow this general rule.  Talking about food content here, fat is fat.  Anyway you slice it, when it goes in, it is already fat.  I try to avoid as much fatty foods as I can.  Also, excess carbs will become fat if they are not used within a reasonable period of time.  Your body uses carbs to build it's glycogen stores (primary fuel for muscles).  Once your glycogen stores are full (you can only store a limited amount of this stuff), the extra carbs will hang out for a little while and if not used, your very efficient body will save them, but they are converted to fat to be saved.  Protein is primarily used for muscle growth and repair, but excess will be converted to, you guessed it, fat.  Late night eating is a no-no, and the hardest for me to abide by. 

Having said the above the ticket is small meals and small snacks.  I have found that high protein snacks satisfy my appetite more.  Like fat free cottage cheese or fat free yogurt.  Pretty good amount of protein and low calories.

Experiment a little and see what works for you.

Edited by bschulte 2009-04-17 7:58 PM

I figured out how to import my spreadsheet so now I have training logs. I think I have my settings right so you can see them too. 

I am one of those guys with a million questions trying to hold back a little. I have my Olympic tri coming up and I want to do a tune up before the race. 

1. What do you think about doing a staged sprint to work on ta and to get a base on how I will feel for the race? It is suppose to be my recovery week but thought this would be a good way to get in a feel for how it will feel to come out of the pool and off the bike.

2. Leave shoes on bike or off?

3. Gels or bars on bike dont want to overdue the calorie intake 30 min interval?

Trying to be prepared dont want to look like a whack the day of the race. But I will probably make the big mistake again and go out  to fast I get all jacked up. Thanks

Wow Marie, the logs look great.  Glad you figured out how to import the data.  It looks like you now have data for the whole year. 

Matt,

Keep the questions coming, don't worry about it.

1.  So is this a race you are considering or just a workout you will do as if it were a race (swim then bike then run)?  As it pertains to recovery week, it depends on how quickly you recover from racing or hard workouts.  I tend to recover pretty quickly so the only thing I consider in those situations is if the race will screw up a key workout for me.  I do my long bike - run workouts on Sunday's, so if the race on a Saturday is the day before a key Sunday workout for me I'll double think the race.  But in general, most triathlete's train like they are swimmers, cyclists, and runners.  The races don't go that way so we shouldn't always train that way.  Try to train like a triathlete as much as your training will allow.  What I'm talking about is swim then bike, bike then run, bike -run-bike-run, swim-bike-swim-bike.  Logistically it is more challenging but your body has to learn how to transition it's muscle movements to the next sport.  The biggest one is bike to run (called a brick workout).  If you haven't done a brick workout, you need to.  After a longer bike, get your running shoes on right away and go for a short run.  The first time you do it you will probably feel like you forgot how to run, but it will become second nature after a while.  This isn't something you want to experience for the first time at a race!  I do 2 brick workouts a week at this phase of my training.  Later in the year my plan has me to 4 bricks a week.  Pretty much everytime I bike, I run, but that's just me for some perspective for you.

2.  Leave shoes on bike.  What Matt is talking about here is to leave your shoes clipped into your pedals.  You get on your bike barefoot and start to pedal on top of your shoes.  Once you are out of the bike mounting area, maybe even 1/4 from transition, away from where everyone else is getting into there shoes, you coast and put your feet into the shoes.  Same thing on the way back, coast, feet out of shoes, pedal on top of shoes, jump off bike and run with bike to your rack.  It saves a bunch of time, but you MUST practice this a lot to get comfortable with it.  To be honest I just started doing this last year in races as I was worried about crashing my bike coming into transition.  

3.  For an Oly or sprint I would say stick to gels, unless you have being working a specific nutrition plan in training which works.  For all distances though, nothing but liquids 15 mins prior to bike dismount.  This will give the solids some time to get out of the stomach and will make the run a little easier on you.  

Thanks answered most of questions. I will change the format and start doing swim bike or bike run work outs. The schedule I currently have me swimming and running the same day. It did not make sense so I turned them around and ran first. That way atleast  I would be somewhat tired when hitting the pool. Making me work a little harder in the pool. I figured the food thing was more a preference and didnt think I would need to worry to hard about the sprint oly distances. But wanted to get use to eating on the bike.  The race for me is May 9 which is the oly distance. I have two A races my first in May and the other in Nov Miami man half. I was talking mainly of doing some sprint distances for workouts. To get use to doing the ta and training my body to work in a set order. Thanks for the info.

Matt, 

If you can work some Sprint distance races in as workouts, yes that will help you.  Racing is great training and will make you faster.

Brent

Thanks Brent -

I was told that in your first IM year it's best to keep the races to a minimum. (Hence the mostly running races on my schedule this year) I was toying with doing 1 more HIM before November, but it would fall 2 weeks before my OLY. This will be my 3rd year doing the Oly and last year it felt pretty comfortable for me. The HIM was tough! Any thoughts about spacing out races during the season?

Michelle,

It is really an individual thing dependent on how quickly you recover from racing.  You don't want to wipe out 2 weeks of IM training recovering from a race.  For me, I recover quickly, so I can race without if effecting my training too much.  I am racing a HIM 3 weeks before IMCDA and a HIM 4 weeks before IMFL.  I have done this before so I don't expect any issues.  If the HIM is in the first half of Sept. I would say you will probably be ok, maybe even the 3rd week.  That would give you a week to recover / light training and a good solid week of training before taper.  The one caveat would be no taper for the HIM, you would wreck your IMFL taper.  You would have to train right up to it (a couple light days before).  

Just some thoughts.

Brent 

That makes sense - My HIM would be July 12th and the Oly July 26th, so it seems it might be far enough away not to impact IMFL that much. I have a history of recovering fairly quickly, I usually force myself to rest after races because it's what is recommended  not always because I feel I need to. I also only race against my past times and keep my goals times reasonable, no elite-wanna-be here   just love the sport-Thanks!

Brent,

A question for you....what's your take on swim accessories (i.e. hand paddles, buoys, and stubby fins) for training purposes?  I see quite a few people using them when I am at the pool, but honestly figure that since I won't be able to use them during an event, that it is better for me to just concentrate on form and build endurance and speed through that focus.  Should I try them?

Also, for everyone out there that is doing decent distances in the pool, I have found a sanity saver.  It is a waterproof ipod shuffle holder by H2O audio that clips to your goggles.  I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and did 2 miles in the pool yesterday that seemed to go by pretty fast with the tunes in my ears.

FYI.....